- Widening roads to fix congestion (More lanes just bring more traffic.)
- The Outer Beltway and its many segments (ICC, Western Bypass, Techway, etc.)
- I-81 8-lane expansion
- 11th Street 12-lane bridge expansion
While we prefer to promote smart planning, we must also fight bad planning. Above, we covered the "Good" ways to manage transportation to reduce traffic - now for the Bad and the Ugly: transportation projects that makes things worse.
One such type of project, outer beltways, shifts development farther away from the city and inner suburbs. These roads rapidly open up land for development, making it nearly impossible to build enough infrastructure - schools, hospitals, fire stations - to keep up with the new houses. These highways also exponentially increase the acres of fields and forests that get consumed by often badly-planned development. Too often, transportation decisions are made in isolation from a thoughtful land use plan. Below are examples of the "Bad and the Ugly" in local transportation projects.
