Contrived Survey is Latest Effort to Promote Costly and Ineffective Outer Beltways
Coalition for Smarter Growth
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2011
Contact:
Stewart Schwartz, 703-599-6437 (cell)
Contrived Survey is Latest Effort to Promote Costly and Ineffective Outer Beltways
"The 2030 Group's "Priorities Report" is clearly designed to promote the same tired and ineffective Outer Beltway proposals, along with an unending series of highway widenings," said Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Many people have heard the quip that "Trying to widen highways to solve congestion is like loosening your belt to solve a weight problem." It turns out it's true:
The conservative Wall Street Journal reported on the latest in a series of studies that shows that "Building roads in urban areas doesn't alleviate traffic,... because every mile built leads to a corresponding increase in vehicle-miles driven...All else being equal, the study found, a 10% rise in interstate mile-lanes built in 2000, in a given city, led to a 10% increase in annual vehicle-miles, by the end of the decade. New commercial traffic and additional trips by current residents made up the bulk of that increase, followed by driving by new residents attracted by the development."
"The 2030 Group's proposal would add more traffic not less. The Outer Beltway is designed not to fix existing traffic problems but to open up more land to development in places far from jobs, where too many houses already sit in foreclosure and where they will offer no option but to drive," said Schwartz.
Cheryl Cort, Policy Director for the Coalition stated, "We need to use our resources more wisely, and that's why our local governments are focused first on fixing existing roads and bottlenecks, on investing in transit in an era of high gas prices, and in better linking jobs and housing." A series of official studies by the Council of Governments have demonstrated that land use changes including locating more housing closer to jobs, addressing regional job imbalances and a network of transit accessible communities would be the most effective regional solution.
Maryland’s Intercounty Connector offers a real-world example of the cost of the 2030 Group's approach. Demand to use the ICC is far less than they predicted and traffic on connecting roads isn't any better and in some cases worse. The state has admitted that it will not relieve traffic on I-95, I-270 and the Beltway. Meanwhile, Maryland is deep in the hole for the cost of the ICC, forced to double Bay Bridge tolls and increasing tolls statewide largely driven by ICC costs, and looking at a gas tax hike.
"The ICC and the other segments of the Outer Beltway cost too much and do too little," said Cort.
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