ROAD WORK AHEAD: IS CONSTRUCTION WORTH THE WAIT?
The United States is experiencing a boom in road construction as an infusion of new federal dollars reaches the states. In many cases these road projects are designed to ease traffic congestion by widening or otherwise expanding the capacity of existing roads. But ironically, the construction projects themselves can create significant congestion and delay. Transportation officials rarely consider the impact of these delays when they promote the congestion-relieving benefits of a new road. To see if these delays ultimately result in better commutes for those who regularly use the roads the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) conducted case studies of road expansion projects now underway around the nation. Results from these case studies indicate that road expansion projects often deliver scant time savings to people who use the road every day, while allowing and even stimulating significantly more traffic once the construction project is completed. In many cases driver delays due to construction are so long, and the time savings predicted from the finished project so minor, that it can take years for commuters to break even and begin to make up the time they lost during construction. The results of this study demonstrate how traditional transportation planning fails to focus on what is most important to citizens - their own commute.
- Record URL:
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Corporate Authors:
Surface Transportation Policy Project
1400 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20036 -
Authors:
- McCann, B
- DeLille, B
- Dittmar, H
- Garland, M
- Publication Date: 1999
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: Photos; Tables;
- Pagination: 20 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Commuters; Commuting; Construction sites; Highway capacity; Highways; Road construction; Traffic congestion; Traffic delays; Transportation planning; Travel time
- Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00782259
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: NTL, TRIS
- Created Date: Jan 17 2000 12:00AM