The U.S. pays a hefty toll, both socially and economically, for its road construction fetish

from In These Times:



Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need New Roads
The U.S. pays a hefty toll, both socially and economically, for its road construction fetish.

BY David Sirota


Interstate 70 in Colorado, one of the nation’s best-known arteries, is the latest thoroughfare to incite an archetypal fight. Running at capacity as it cuts through Denver, this gateway to the Rocky Mountains is about to be expanded over the objections of residents whose low-income neighborhoods will be sliced apart.

No doubt, the road will probably win–as roads almost always do in these battles. Indeed, the story of I-70 summarizes the 60-year tale of urban development in modern America: Instead of beefing up public transit, cities build neighborhood-destroying highways, cars fill up those highways, cities then build more highways to alleviate traffic, and then yet more cars flood the roads, creating even more traffic. Known as the “fundamental law of highway congestion,” this cycle perfectly embodies the “if you build it, cars will come” axiom confirmed in 2011 by researchers at the University of Toronto.

In the past, of course, road fetishists could claim that such catch-22’s aside, our nation is inherently reliant on cars, and that adding roads–any roads–is intrinsically worthwhile. This, in fact, is the assumption woven into the bipartisan federal stimulus bill and President Obama’s new budget, both of which target transportation dollars to building roads. Those new highways may not reduce congestion, energy consumption or pollution, but they will enrich an array of powerful interests, including automakers, fossil fuel companies, trucking firms and road contractors. And so they are repackaged as cure-alls by politicians in our money-dominated democracy.

But what happens when America suddenly tones down its love affair with the automobile? At that point, could we still justify destroying neighborhoods to make room for bigger roads? Could we still pretend that more roads are truly necessary? Could we still overlook the fact that road construction creates fewer jobs than public transit projects? In short, could we still ignore all the contradictions and problems that accompany our road fetish? .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12993/where_were_going_we_dont_need_new_roads