But when busy routes are expanded, peak time is reduced and traffic is relieved on alternate routes, he says. Highway construction isn't completely fruitless. Environmentalists concerned about air pollution, fuel consumption, and disappearing green space are lobbying hard against building new roads. In Atlanta, for example, a recently settled lawsuit from environmentalists blocked funding for more than 40 major road projects. We need to get beyond that kind of thinking, trying to shut down your road system.
Environmentalists favor building mass transit such as subways, light rail, and expanded bus routes.
But transit is expensive and time-consuming to build, and can be inconvenient in some areas. And it isn't as popular. In Kansas City, one of the nation's most spread out urban areas, voters recently defeated a sales tax proposal that would have helped finance a light rail system. But they'll have to wait at least seven years to use the system. And in Austin, Texas, officials have chosen a 14.5- mile route for the first section of a rail system that could link city and suburbs and eventually stretch 54 miles.