A very significant opinion piece by three women leaders suggests that the upcoming San Mateo sales tax needs to acknowledge that the era of highway widening is over:
Please urge our county’s Board of Supervisors and the leaders of our transportation agencies to end the cycle of highway widening, and instead, fund projects with this ballot measure that improve mobility without adding polluting car trips.
TRANSDEF applauds these leaders for helping the public grasp the seemingly counterintuitive notion that widening highways doesn’t solve congestion. The piece is well-worth reading.
Highway widening is controversial up in Portland, where strong dissenting opinions exist. Paul Rippey wrote a song (perhaps the first in the world!) about that counterintuitive notion, which transportation professionals call induced demand. He sang it to the Portland City Council.