Highway Widening
Nine Highway Expansions Identified as Worst Boondoggles of 2018
In a new report, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group describe nine costly highway projects amounting to $30 billion in their fourth annual "Highway Boondoggles" report. All share the theme of induced travel demand.
Maryland Highway Plan Would Destroy Affordable Housing, Displace Low-Income Residents
A local writer compares the plan to expand I-270 and the Capital Beltway to an earlier era of transportation planning.
$90 Million in Federal Grants Will Widen Highways in Colorado
The U.S. Department of Transportation is investing in Colorado's highways.
Widening I-80 from Davis to Sacramento: HOT Lane or HOV Lane?
Caltrans is studying a plan to widen 16 miles of Interstate 80 through Solano and Yolo counties, over the Yolo Bypass. Initially, the plan called for a carpool lane, but uncertainty about funding makes a toll lane a possibility.
If Traffic Costs Americans Billions, What About Waiting for Coffee?
The folks over at City Observatory brew up a "Cappuccino Congestion Index" to show that anything can be shown to cost Americans vast sums of money.
Study: Wider Highways Won't Reduce Congestion
Widening highways won't reduce congestion—that's the conclusion of a report paid for by the state agency proposing several highway widening projects in Oregon.
State Plan to Expand a Downtown Indianapolis Intersection Meets Local Resistance
Local urbanists are opposing a plan to greatly expand a freeway intersection in neighborhoods adjacent to Downtown Indianapolis.
Widening, Toll Lane Project Moves Forward in Colorado
A proposed project that would widen and add toll lanes to a section of the I-25 freeway between Colorado Springs and Denver has received a key chunk of funding.
Foxconn Wanted an Autonomous Vehicle Lane to Locate in Wisconsin
News of the details of the negotiation between Taiwan-based Foxconn and the state of Wisconsin have revealed ideas about transportation planning that are either ambitious or delusional, depending on your opinion.
Colorado Voters OK New Toll Lanes on Interstate 25 by Passing Two Measures
Colorado Springs and El Paso County voters agreed to add the highway widening to a list of projects that a regional transportation authority can fund. They passed an additional funding measure enabling county funds to be spent rather than refunded.
Confronting Wisconsin's $1.1 Billion Highway Widening Proposal
A coalition of environmentalists, civil rights activists, and other community interests teamed up to successfully oppose a Milwaukee highway widening proposal. In an interview, one of the leading lawyers discusses his work.
Wisconsin's $1.1 Billion Highway Widening Project on the Ropes
The proposed widening of I-94 in Milwaukee is a $1.1 billion chunk of a $6.4 billion road widening program in the region. The NAACP sued the project as a matter of environmental justice.
Maryland's $9 Billion Project Would Be the Nation's Largest P3 for Highways
Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.) announced last week plans for the largest highway contract awarded to a public-private partnership: adding four express toll lanes to the Capital Beltway and I-270. A third highway widening will be completed internally.
Governor Larry Hogan's $9 Billion Highway Plan Critiqued
Governor Larry Hogan's $9 Billion Highway Plan Critiqued
Op-Ed: What Oregon's DOT Gets Wrong on Roadway Safety
Faced with an uptick in roadway fatalities, Oregon is looking at how to increase safety. But it's concentrating on highways while arterials actually account for the region's most severe crashes.
Is the Era of the 'Free' Freeway Coming to an End?
No one's suggesting that freeways will be converted to tollways, but a pattern is emerging that when freeways are widened, express lanes, financed in part by user fees, are being added rather than mixed-flow lanes. Case in point: the Inland Empire.
I-70 Highway Update May Exacerbate Segregation
A piece in The Nation argues a Denver highway plan will further shrink the black community in that city through the use of eminent domain.
User Fees and Sales Tax Dollars Finance $1.9 Billion Four-Lane Freeway Widening
A 16-mile express lane and general purpose lane will be added in each direction of the San Diego Freeway in Orange County. A $629 million TIFIA loan will be repaid by toll-paying motorists, while all taxpayers pay most of the remainder.
PIRG Releases Third Highway Boondoggles Report
A new report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Frontier Group indicates that highway boondoggles have been getting bigger, more costly, with the benefits more limited. Nine projects are analyzed in "Highway Boondoggles 3."
Benefits Harder to Recognize as Costs to Widen the I-405 Rise
Was the I-405 widening project worth it for Los Angeles? Depends on whom you ask.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
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