Reply to MD Beltway Widening..

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The "induced demand" that if you widen a highway, it'll just get full is true in the _long run_ but not in the short term. Look at the ICC -- it's been open nearly 10 years and it's not jammed. 
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There are non-toll alternatives to the ICC that people are likely using instead for daily commuting. If you drive the full length of the ICC both ways during rush hour, it’s $8. That’s enough incentive to find alternate routes. Speaking of, tolling is a valid way to reduce Beltway congestion.

As for induced demand, go check out lists of the widest freeways in the US. They’re not the fastest roads. With 26 lanes Texas’s I-10 still suffers significant traffic delays. Yet, the widest part of the freeway is at Katy, TX, a burg outside of Houston with a population of just 18,000. That’s what induced demand looks like. Even still, according to an article in the Houston Chronicle last year, Houston residents had an average overall commute time of 50 minutes. They also experienced one of the highest rates of road crashes and fatalities in the US.[/quote]

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