Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Highway Expansion

Does Detroit Need Another $1.8 Billion of Freeway? MDOT Thinks So

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 17, 2013 | 18 Comments

If there’s a city that could serve as a cautionary tale for overbuilding highways, that city is Detroit. So it’s fascinating — and encouraging — to see this city going through an internal tussle over the wisdom of building a highway. Hot off a major victory in reforming its balkanized system of suburban and […]

The Next Generation DOT

By Charles Marohn | Jan 4, 2013 | 10 Comments

Cross-posted from the Strong Towns blog. Charles Marohn is a planner and engineer in Minnesota and the executive director of Strong Towns. We’ve been looking at the instincts of today’s transportation agencies. While on an individual level it is clear that these organizations are filled with people who are professional, competent and want to do the […]

Will Transportation Investments Keep Up With the Way Americans Travel?

By Phineas Baxandall | Oct 22, 2012 | 15 Comments

Phineas Baxandall is a senior analyst at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. It’s now common knowledge that annual changes in the volume of driving no longer follow the old patterns. For 60 years, the amount of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) rose steadily. Predicting more driving miles next year was like predicting that the sun would […]

The Coming Infrastructure Crisis in Texas

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 4, 2012 | 6 Comments

The way Texas throws around money for highways — $5.2 billion for a third outer-belt for Houston, $2 billion for Dallas’ eighth downtown highway — you would think TxDOT was running over with cheddar. This is a state, need we remind you, that “found” $350 million for a stalled highway project local leaders freely admit was designed […]

Scandalous Video: Obama Talks Sense About Road Building

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 3, 2012 | 5 Comments

You all excited to watch the presidential debate tonight? Here’s a glimpse back to 2007, when the old Barack Obama was getting us all hyped up on a sugar rush of hope and change. Check out this video, care of the conservative Daily Caller, which is making a lot of hay about some racially-charged remarks Obama […]

Louisville Doubles Down on Disruptive Downtown Highway

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 27, 2012 | 6 Comments

Louisville, Kentucky, is, by all accounts, a city with a lot of potential. An old river city, it has a wealth of beautiful, historic architecture. It’s mid-sized, but large enough to have some good urban amenities. It’s affordable, with a downtown waterfront and some unique cultural charms. As the New York Times said in its […]

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