DOT Highway planning based on overly high traffic estimates: How Wisconsin Highway Opponents Cried 'Peak Car' (and Won) - 1000 Friends of Wisconsin
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MoBikeFed comment: Overly high traffic estimates are a nationwide problem--and one we have seen in Missouri as well. This court decision may be a watershed moment in turning this issue around nationwide.After years of consistently going up, driving mileage in the United States began to plateau around 2005, and it remains shy of historical per-capita highs—a new normal casually called “peak car.” Still many official traffic forecasts remain tainted by the old belief that car use is always on the rise. The result is that highway expansion projects seem necessary to meet driving demands, and taxpayer money goes to building new lanes instead of maintaining existing ones.
Flawed traffic models aren’t going away anytime soon, but their influence suffered an overdue blow in federal court last weekend, in a case involving the$146 million expansion of State Highway 23 in Wisconsin. Judge Lynn Adelman of the Eastern District Court ruled that officials failed to justify their future driving estimates in the face of peak car trends. As a result, the Wisconsin DOT might not have properly considered alternatives that didn’t involve doubling the lanes from two to four.
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Transportation officials at all levels of government, from local to national, need to put far more emphasis on maintaining the current system and adding true accommodation for underserved transportation modes--like walking, bicycling, and public transit--and dramatically shrink funds dedicated to highway expansion.
We're building not just one highway to nowhere, but thousands--all across America.
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