Traffic congestion
Basics
Opinion: It’s Time to Rethink Our Congestion Obsession
Policymakers constantly suggest that we need to spend billions of dollars and bulldoze countless acres of land to fix traffic jams. But do we?
May 13, 2026
Is it Time to Try Congestion Pricing in San Francisco?
Congestion pricing has been an unqualified success in New York (and lots of other places). Why wouldn't it work elsewhere?
January 14, 2026
Traffic Congestion Is a Housing and Transit Problem, Not a Highway Problem
To truly solve tangled traffic in California (and across the U.S.), we need to take the problem out of the hands of the road builders and address the root causes of congestion: building more affordable housing near jobs and improving public transportation options.
October 23, 2025
Congestion Pricing Works in Small Metros, Too
The default pundit view is that New York City is the only place in the US where pricing makes sense because of the bountiful availability of buses and subways. A pricing experiment in Indiana and Kentucky, though, busts that myth entirely.
April 23, 2025
IT’S WORKING: Initial Data Show Congestion Pricing Has Stemmed The Tide of Years of Increasing Traffic
Travel times are down an average of 34 percent across the eight bridges and tunnels into the Central Business District, which saw a 7.5-percent drop in overall traffic, according to MTA figures.
January 13, 2025
Congestion Pricing Has Begun in NYC! Here’s What it Means for The Big Apple and America
The age of congestion pricing began at 12:00:01 a.m. on Sunday. Here are the answers to all your questions.
January 5, 2025
In Praise of Traffic Congestion
On a recent visit to North America, a bad traffic jam forced international pop start Niall Horan to do the unthinkable: walk 300 meters on a public sidewalk.
July 10, 2024
FDNY Chief Blames Slower Emergency Response Times on More Cars
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said during Friday's City Hall’s public safety briefing that congestion is the main reason ambulances and fire trucks are slow to respond.
February 5, 2024
How One City Used Transit to Cut Traffic During a Taylor Swift Mega-Concert
Building highway lanes will never, ever, ever get America's traffic problems under control — but a new study suggests that investing in other modes will, even when a massive pop star is in town.
August 16, 2023
Why Traffic Studies Are ‘Junk Science’ — And Why We Rely On Them Anyway
Community leaders and the courts are putting too much faith into dubious traffic studies that always seem to predict more and more driving, a new study argues — but that could all change.
April 4, 2023
