Texas built its way out of a traffic crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Around 1960, the Federal Highway Administration designed the Interstate 10 so that around 80,000 vehicles a day could pass. But that highway that connected Houston’s center with Katy, 40 years later had 3 times more traffic and people spent up to 11 hours daily in traffic jams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read More: Houston built a 26-lane freeway to beat traffic, but the cars came back and exposed the trap behind wider roads<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nDefinitely, Texas did not have many choices and had to take action. And it was between 2003 and 2008 that they spent $2.79 billion to add six new lanes on each side, and others in the middle for tolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if numbers are correct, this means that it ended up having 26 lanes, though if you follow PolitiFact<\/a> information, it is the world\u2019s widest highway only if the feeder roads were counted.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe early traffic relief quickly faded<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning, once the design was completed, it really looked like a miracle. People arrived extremely fast to their homes, the times were reduced, and Houston authorities even celebrated publicly that they beat the historical traffic problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the miracle was quite short\u2026 A group called Houston Tomorrow came up with the truth and said that one trip<\/a> from the center that in 2011 was done in 46 minutes, by 2014 it was done in around 70 minutes (this is 51 percent more, according to Streetsblog USA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRead More: California is painting highway stripes orange and white in construction zones, and the strange color change is already making drivers slow down almost without realizing it<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAnother research from City Observatory showed that drivers were losing 25 minutes extra in the morning and 23 minutes more in the afternoon in comparison to when they had just opened the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why more lanes can produce more driving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The reason why more lanes can take us to this traffic point is what is known as induced demand. Driving takes time, and if all of a sudden you open a new gigantic highway and the trip is faster, people automatically will change their habits. The ones that maybe ended up using other ways of transport<\/a> then preferred to travel back with their cars or even move farther away thinking that \u201cthe road is more fluid\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAlso, developers took advantage of the opportunity, building around the corridor and adding more and more homes and businesses. So in a very short time, the lanes ended up carrying more vehicles, and the same old story appeared\u2026 only that now with more drivers breathing exhaust<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRead More: China is building a massive floating airport in the middle of the ocean, and the idea of a runway on water shows how far engineering goes when land runs out<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThere is even a study done in 2011 by economists Gilles Duranton and Matthew Turner that shows actually the \u201cfundamental law of road congestion,\u201d that is the confirmation of reality: the more miles of lanes you add to the city, the more the traffic increases exactly in the same proportion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The effect now shapes transportation policy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInduced demand\u201d is no longer just a theory. Nowadays, it is used by transport agencies as an official rule. For example, in the California University in Davis, an induced travel calculator was created and it basically showed that if you increase the capacity of a highway by 10 percent, the traffic will increase by that same 10 percent in a period of 3 to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even Caltrans, California’s Transport Department, has been integrating this tool in their official analysis since 2020. Then an RMI analysis<\/a> estimated that a proposal of widening only 1.7 miles of the Interstate 5 in Portland, would generate between 35 and 53 millions additional vehicle miles driven each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Interstate](\"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/interstate-10-houston-downtown-skyline.jpg\")
Interstate 10 runs toward downtown Houston, the kind of high-capacity corridor transportation agencies now model for induced demand before approving new lanes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThat does not mean that now the solution is to stop building or repairing new roads. A wider road, in the end, allows more people to move<\/a> and the lanes of the Katy Freeway\u2019s road offer the possibility to go faster if people are willing to pay. Still, this is completely different from permanently eliminating traffic congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHouston\u2019s case still has important limits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
But as with everything in life, there is always a context. During all those years, Houston’s population expanded a lot, gasoline prices changed, and the economy was really moving, so every single minute of delay cannot be blamed only to the addition of these lanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is also evidence about how the traffic responds when you take space away from cars<\/a>. A great example is what happened in Seoul, South Korea, where after removing an elevated highway (where 170.000 of cars passed in a day) to recover a river and build a park, people started to use 15.1 percent more buses and 3.3 percent more subway between 2003 and 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The early traffic relief quickly faded<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At the beginning, once the design was completed, it really looked like a miracle. People arrived extremely fast to their homes, the times were reduced, and Houston authorities even celebrated publicly that they beat the historical traffic problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the miracle was quite short\u2026 A group called Houston Tomorrow came up with the truth and said that one trip<\/a> from the center that in 2011 was done in 46 minutes, by 2014 it was done in around 70 minutes (this is 51 percent more, according to Streetsblog USA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another research from City Observatory showed that drivers were losing 25 minutes extra in the morning and 23 minutes more in the afternoon in comparison to when they had just opened the highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason why more lanes can take us to this traffic point is what is known as induced demand. Driving takes time, and if all of a sudden you open a new gigantic highway and the trip is faster, people automatically will change their habits. The ones that maybe ended up using other ways of transport<\/a> then preferred to travel back with their cars or even move farther away thinking that \u201cthe road is more fluid\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, developers took advantage of the opportunity, building around the corridor and adding more and more homes and businesses. So in a very short time, the lanes ended up carrying more vehicles, and the same old story appeared\u2026 only that now with more drivers breathing exhaust<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is even a study done in 2011 by economists Gilles Duranton and Matthew Turner that shows actually the \u201cfundamental law of road congestion,\u201d that is the confirmation of reality: the more miles of lanes you add to the city, the more the traffic increases exactly in the same proportion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInduced demand\u201d is no longer just a theory. Nowadays, it is used by transport agencies as an official rule. For example, in the California University in Davis, an induced travel calculator was created and it basically showed that if you increase the capacity of a highway by 10 percent, the traffic will increase by that same 10 percent in a period of 3 to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even Caltrans, California’s Transport Department, has been integrating this tool in their official analysis since 2020. Then an RMI analysis<\/a> estimated that a proposal of widening only 1.7 miles of the Interstate 5 in Portland, would generate between 35 and 53 millions additional vehicle miles driven each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That does not mean that now the solution is to stop building or repairing new roads. A wider road, in the end, allows more people to move<\/a> and the lanes of the Katy Freeway\u2019s road offer the possibility to go faster if people are willing to pay. Still, this is completely different from permanently eliminating traffic congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as with everything in life, there is always a context. During all those years, Houston’s population expanded a lot, gasoline prices changed, and the economy was really moving, so every single minute of delay cannot be blamed only to the addition of these lanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also evidence about how the traffic responds when you take space away from cars<\/a>. A great example is what happened in Seoul, South Korea, where after removing an elevated highway (where 170.000 of cars passed in a day) to recover a river and build a park, people started to use 15.1 percent more buses and 3.3 percent more subway between 2003 and 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead More: California is painting highway stripes orange and white in construction zones, and the strange color change is already making drivers slow down almost without realizing it<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Why more lanes can produce more driving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Read More: China is building a massive floating airport in the middle of the ocean, and the idea of a runway on water shows how far engineering goes when land runs out<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The effect now shapes transportation policy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Houston\u2019s case still has important limits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n