Building roads can actually attract new traffic to those roads, causing more congestion. For every ten percent increase in a city's highway network, drivers add five percent on to their driving. Newly constructed roads often fill up much faster than anticipated, providing little to no relief. Road construction projects can cause more delays than the eventual benefits are worth. In the case of the Springfield Interchange reconstruction outside of Washington DC, commuters are projected to never make up the time that they will lose during the eight years of construction.
Road construction leads to urban and suburban sprawl.
Increasing road construction decreases public transportation availability. In Albuquerque, New Mexico road expansions have led to a low-density urban area that makes it economically inefficient for public transportation to run as often as it needs to in order to be a viable choice. Washington is at a crossroads in our development, it is time for our elected officials and transportation and land use planners to make smart investments in options that will get us moving again. Incentive programs like offering passes at discounted rates have increased public transportation, ridership by up to seventy percent in participating organizations. Traffic problems are reinforced by bad development choices.