States Claim Highway Expansions Reduce Emissions

Federal funds aimed at reducing carbon emissions are being used for highway expansion projects, according to an analysis from Transportation for America. As Benton Graham explains in Bloomberg CityLab, the researchers used an AI model to identify projects that expand automotive infrastructure among roughly 60,000 projects nationwide.

The analysis found that a quarter of funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)’s Carbon Reduction Program (CRA) are being used for road projects that, according to the organization, “stand to embed high transportation emissions for decades, incentivizing driving and encouraging ever-more-sprawled-out development and land use patterns.”

State agencies, which decide how funds are allocated, claim highway expansions can reduce emissions and air pollution by improving traffic flow and adding energy efficiency upgrades. “But experts point to decades of evidence showing that adding lanes is no fix for congestion, thanks to the well-documented principle of induced demand.” In Houston, peak hour travel times increased three years after a massive $2.8-billion freeway expansion.

“What does work? Policies that deincentivize driving — think stiffer tolls, congestion pricing and zone-based driving fees like London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, which charges drivers of high-polluting vehicles.”