New roads encourage people to drive more, so little is gained by providing more asphalt. Last Wednesday, while the 2000 session of the Virginia General Assembly was opening in Richmond, national experts on transportation were attending a conference in Northern Virginia sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. Policy analyst Lewis M. Fulton delivered a report that merits the attention of every state and local official who thinks expensive new roads or more lanes will relieve traffic congestion. Fulton, who works at the International Energy Agency in Paris, examined 26 years of traffic data in every locality in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina, The Washington Post reported. In Virginia, every 10 percent increase in the road system during those years resulted in a 5.1 percent increase in motorists.
New roads encourage more driving.
Fast-growing regions like Northern Virginia and the Fredericksburg area need some new roads, but others just induce sprawling development and provide new strips of asphalt on which people can get stuck in traffic. Spending billions of dollars to replicate existing problems is wrongheaded. Before moving too far too fast, legislators on the Senate and House transportation panels should invite Fulton and other specialists to discuss the findings of their research. Mass transit, bike paths and other transportation alternatives merit more attention. While that probably is a sound approach to reducing congestion without building roads, such a policy might have unintended consequences.