highway expansion

Sometimes, the news comes to you from several directions at once, and you have to pull the pieces together to see the bigger picture. Such a thing happened yesterday, when three seemingly unrelated story created the perfect tapestry of cause, symptom and effect.

Hmm. If I knew that my census form was going to help determine how much sprawl-inducing highway expansion funding my community was going to get, I would have told them there were -4,000,000 in my house.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the trade group representing state DOTs in Washington, yesterday unveiled a website and report billed as a one-year "progress report" on the White House's $34.3 billion in formula-based transportation stimulus spending.

The Transportation Enhancements program, which requires states to set aside 10 percent of their federal transport money for new bicycle and pedestrian facilities, among other projects, turns 19 years old this year. But you'd almost never know it after reading Saturday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in which the paper tallies -- with no shortage of alarm -- the federal money not being spent on new roads.

I was somewhat heartened last week when coverage of the massive I-405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project actually mentioned the amazing amount of highway vehicle congestion that will be created by the project over its estimated three year construction phase.  However, I waited to write about the press coverage because I was hopeful that some writer would actually make the connection that the this project could actually create more congestion over the course of the construction than will be "relieved"before induced demand helps fill those new travel lanes back up.  Unfortunately, there is no such luck.  The news coverage ranges from, "traffic is going to be awful but at least everything is going to be so much better when it's done" to "traffic is going to be worse than they're saying because the government is always wrong about these sort of thing."  Unfortunately, nobody is taking on the government's claim that the project is going to permanently reduce congestion in the corridor.

News website The Daily Beast crunches the numbers from the most congested areas in America and finds, to nobody's surprise, that the worst driving commute in America is right here in Los Angeles.    The Hollywood Freeway ranks as the worst place to commute in the entire country based on rush hour congestion, the worst bottleneck, and the average amount of congestion per week at the worst bottleneck.

Ten years ago, when the Route 2 Terminus Project was first conceived, it had some progressive goals.  Among them was the goal of slowing down traffic on the Route 2 flyover that dumps traffic on Glendale Boulevard so that pedestrians on Glendale Boulevard would be better able to use the street in a safe manner.  Until earlier this summer Metro, the lead agency on the project, and the Echo Park Community were working together on the project.  However, once Metro's partner agencies got involved, the partnership turned sour and the Echo Park Community Action Committee is now saying that it might be better to return the funds for the project rather than go forward. 

The myth that U.S. roads "pay for themselves" thanks to user fees is a subject that's likely familiar to many Streetsblog Capitol Hill readers -- but just how much of the nation's highway funding is provided by charging drivers?