The calculator can help transportation advocates and agencies project how many additional miles and emissions a highway widening project would create.
A new tool from nonprofit RMI and a consortium of partners including Transportation for America and the National Resources Defense Council "draws on formulas sourced from decades of proven scientific literature to deliver detailed, community-specific induced demand forecasts with the click of a button." The State Highway Induced Frequency of Travel (SHIFT) Calculator "gives advocates the tools they need to instantly show the real impacts of proposed highway expansions in their communities," writes Kea Wilson, providing a valuable resource for showing the real-world impact of the well-documented but poorly understood phenomenon of induced demand.
"Sustainable transportation advocates and forward-thinking professionals alike have known since at least 1932 that expanding highways to cure congestion almost always has the opposite effect," writes Wilson, but "many of them haven’t been able to quickly quantify exactly how much additional driving a specific project would encourage, or exactly how much all those new vehicle miles traveled will exacerbate the climate crisis — until now."
The tool comes at a crucial time, with billions of dollars for road funding promised in the federal infrastructure bill. The calculator's creators hope it will help state DOTs develop more accurate projections that show the true costs and impacts of road widening.
FULL STORY: New ‘Induced Demand’ Calculator Shows Exactly How Much Driving Your City’s Highway Expansion Will Encourage
If You Build It, Cars Will Come: the Common-Sense Logic of 'Induced Demand'
Highway expansion has been shown, time and again, to increase traffic and congestion. Cities are finally getting the message.
Austin Leaders Denounce 20-Lane Freeway Project
TxDOT is pushing ahead with plans for a massive freeway expansion project through downtown Austin despite opposition from virtually all local leaders.
Why Don't State DOTs Believe in Induced Demand?
Despite evidence that widening roadways is only a temporary solution to congestion, a decades-long inertia leads states to continue pushing expansion projects against local opposition.
The Top Urban Planning Books of 2021
Planetizen's annual list of the top urban planning books of the year is here—maintaining a tradition that dates back to 2002.
The Roadway Expansion Paradox
Motorists want expensive roadway expansions provided that somebody else foots the bill, but when required to pay directly through tolls, the need for more capacity often disappears. What should planners do?
Urban Exodus: Data Don't Support the Popular Pandemic Narrative
Americans fled cities in waves during the pandemic, right? Not to so fast.
Opinion: Northwest Arkansas Could Be the 'Next Austin'
The home of Walmart and the University of Arkansas could be poised to see growth as cities like Austin and Boise become less affordable.
Contentious Houston Freeway Widening Project Inches Forward
Federal officials have given TxDOT the go-ahead to resume work on a small portion of a controversial interstate widening project in downtown Houston.
Biden's 'Path Out of the Pandemic' Imperiled by Multiple Court Decisions
The vaccine mandate that applies to federal contractors included in President Biden's COVID plan announced in September to slow the Delta surge was halted by a federal judge in Kentucky. That's the third requirement to be paused, leaving only one.
Town of Palm Beach
Perkins&Will
City of Oxford
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of San Carlos
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Royal Oak, Michigan
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.
