New highway lanes won’t ease Massachusetts traffic. They’ll make it worse.
Despite claims to the contrary, new highway lanes are likely to place Massachusetts on the wrong side of a traffic congestion "tipping point."
Read the press release.Despite claims to the contrary, new highway lanes are likely to place Massachusetts on the wrong side of a traffic congestion “tipping point.”
On Aug. 8, Gov. Charlie Baker released a report on the state’s increasingly long commutes and limited mobility. The report details a congestion crisis that worsened between 2013 to 2018 and is now reaching a tipping point.
Though pleased with most of the report’s proposed solutions, our national network’s 21st Century Transportation Campaign Director Matt Casale observes that “adding new highway lanes is a really expensive way to make the transportation crisis in Massachusetts worse.”
Gov. Baker’s report proposes adding bus lanes, increasing transit capacity and constructing more affordable housing near transit: all good ideas. The report also suggests expanding highways, which—based on experience over the past few decades—would likely worsen congestion, as well as emissions, by drawing more drivers to the road.
The governor’s report has some good ideas. Expanding highways isn’t one of them.
Photo Caption: For decades, we have known that adding highway lanes doesn’t fix congestion. Credit: Josh Graciano via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
