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Expanding highways and roads increases congestion by creating more demand—and building more public transportation doesn’t help the problem.

A quick drive on one of Los Angeles’s many freeways illustrates the fact that having more roads doesn’t necessarily prevent traffic. Now a study from the University of Toronto confirms it: Expanding highways and roads increases congestion by creating more demand. And building out public transportation systems doesn’t help either; there will always be more drivers to fill up any new road we build.

The disheartening study used data from hundreds of metro areas in the U.S. to reach the conclusion that there is a “fundamental law of highway congestion,” which essentially says that people drive more when there are more roads to drive on–no matter how much traffic there is. As a result, increased building of “interstate highways and major urban roads is unlikely to relieve congestion of these roads.”

Not even building more trains, buses, and light rail can help with the traffic problem.

Read the entire article at: Co.Exist

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