Highway Expansion
Streetsblog Basics
Earth Day Resolution: Stop Building Projects Like the Zoo Interchange
Leading up to Earth Day, the New York Times ran an editorial, "Time Is Running Out," lamenting the lack of urgency in the United States to prevent a very urgent problem: catastrophic climate change. Today, Brad Plumer at Vox explained why it may be too late to keep average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels -- the threshold that climate scientists have been warning about.
April 22, 2014
The Fuzzy Math in the Road Lobby’s Memo to Congress
Don’t know what to make of the news that U.S. driving rates have dropped for the ninth year in a row? Looking for guidance about whether your state or city should be wantonly expanding roads or investing in transit, biking, and walking? The road lobby thinks you should turn to them for independent, unbiased analysis of these trends. Never fear, the road lobby says: Americans are driving more than ever. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. More lanes for everybody!
March 25, 2014
State DOTs Let Roads Fall Apart While Splurging on Highway Expansion
Even though 33 percent of its roads are in "poor" condition, West Virginia spends about 73 percent of its road budget building new roads and adding lanes. Mississippi spends 97 percent of its road money on expansion. Texas, 82 percent.
March 12, 2014
Driving Declines Spell Big Trouble for Turnpikes
What the New Jersey Turnpike Authority did in 2005 was no different than what almost every other state and regional transportation agency was doing at the time. It predicted that traffic volumes would rise at a healthy clip every year for about 30 years into the future. Then it estimated its revenues based on those figures and issued bonds for a $2.5 billion road widening project.
March 12, 2014
Desperate to Keep Highway Money Flowing, Texas Foists Costs Onto Cities
Faced with an impending budget crisis, the Texas Department of Transportation has decided not to rethink its $5.2 billion plan for a third outerbelt through undeveloped grasslands around Houston. Instead, the agency has developed a proposal to basically shift a big part of its costs to the state's major cities.
August 21, 2013
Credit Rating Agencies Uneasy About Toll Roads as Americans Drive Less
Toll roads aren’t the cash cows they used to be. The assumption that the roads will “pay for themselves” is no longer a reliable one, and credit rating agencies are taking notice.
August 5, 2013
Vitter Seeks to Cut Environmental Reviews for Massive Road Projects
Bridges are getting a lot of attention as senators add their two cents to the upper chamber’s transportation budget proposal for next year. The Senate transportation appropriations bill includes $500 million for "bridges in critical corridors" (BRICC), designed as a response to the recent bridge collapse along I-5 in Washington state -- home of Senator Patty Murray, the chair of the Transportation and HUD Appropriations Committee. And in the amendment process, Republican senators have been lining up to mold the BRICC program to their liking.
July 30, 2013
Joe Cortright: Death of CRC Signals the End of “Highway Dinosaur Era”
Last month the Portland mega-highway bridge project known as the Columbia River Crossing died unceremoniously on the floor of the Washington statehouse. But there was some question among project opponents about whether to consider it a victory for smart transportation policy. After all, suburban Republicans opposed to the inclusion of light rail were ultimately the straw that broke the camel's back.
July 10, 2013
How Reason’s Highway Report Works Against Urban Areas
Just what does good state highway performance look like, according to the climate change skeptics at the Reason Foundation? This "libertarian think tank" -- funded by Exxon Mobil and the Koch Family Foundations, among others -- has a funny way of judging these things. But media outlets all over the United States are reporting its findings as if they're gospel.
July 9, 2013
Highway Revolts Break Out Across the Midwest
The evolution of state and regional transportation agencies is painfully slow in places like Missouri and Ohio, where officials are plowing ahead with pricey highway projects conceived of decades ago. But plenty of Midwesterners have different ideas for the future of their communities, and they aren't shy about speaking up.
June 28, 2013