[Regarding “Transportation Staff Update CIBO on Future Road Improvements,” Jan. 9, Xpress:]
If anyone, including the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT), can show us any road-widening project that actually reduced traffic anywhere in the USA, we’re all ears. Because they and we won’t find one.
The reason is because of what traffic engineers call “induced demand.” Simply put, increasing roadway capacity is followed by more drivers using that capacity and filling up the roadway. This is often followed by another road-widening project and another and maybe another. Southern California is the most absurd example, where Interstate 405 is eight lanes each side in places…