Several highway-widening projects on the East Coast were approved under the pretense of expected growth in traffic totals. Now planners are scrambling to figure out the new normal.

“Highway planners misjudged the future because the Great Recession reduced both commercial and passenger travel, and because of an unexpected drop in driving by young adults,” writes Paul Nussbaum.
The article includes a lengthy list of highway projects that moved forward based on projections that now look anything but clairvoyant.
- For the $2.5 billion project to widen the New Jersey Turnpike, the planners estimated that northbound traffic volume would increase by nearly 68 percent above 2005 levels and southbound traffic would increase by 92 percent by 2032. Quite the opposite trend has taken place: “Now, one-third of the way through that 27-year forecast, turnpike traffic is actually about 10 percent lower than it was in 2005.”
- “In 2007, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission assumed that traffic would grow 3 percent to 5 percent every year to help pay for debt as it took on a new obligation to contribute up to $900 million a year to fix other roads around the state.” Instead, “traffic has been essentially flat.”
- “And when the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission decided in 2003 to replace the 50-year-old, four-lane Scudder Falls Bridge on I-95 with a $328 million, nine-lane, 180-foot-wide toll bridge, it assumed that traffic would increase 35 percent by 2030.” Rather, “bridge traffic has declined slightly and is now below the levels of 2002.”
- The Schuylkill Expressway and Interstates 95 and 476 have also experienced reductions in traffic over the last six years.
FULL STORY: Drop in traffic on area highways forces review of plans

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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