Coordinated Efforts Needed To Reduce Congestion

There is enormous public pressure to "do something" about traffic, but many strategies to alleviate the problem fail because of the way that they are implemented. According to Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution, "traffic congestion is a condition embedded in the basic structure of American cultural values, governance institutions, economic organization, political beliefs, and life-style preferences.... Only the coordination of transportation improvements with land use planning on the regional or metropolitan level could result in the most rational policies toward congestion."[Editor's note: this page contains a link to the full report in PDF format (258 KB)]