Benbrook: Say No to 377 Widening

June 18, 2009 at 9:40 am | Transit & Infrastructure | Tags: , ,

Neil, one of our readers, brings to our attention a topic that’s slightly outside of the usual range of our normal coverage, but one that’s still near to our mission. We’re reaching out to one of our neighboring towns. On Tuesday, July 14th, from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, TxDOT will be having a public meeting at the First Baptist Church (1015 McKinley Street) in Benbrook to discuss plans to widen Highway 377 from I-20 to Winscott Road in that city.

Road widenings are almost always done in the name of “reducing congestion,” but in fact they have the opposite effect: widening roads increases traffic. The old saying goes “widening roads to control traffic is like loosening your belt to control your weight,” and it’s pretty accurate.

Traffic will swell to fill capacity. It’s a phenomenon called “induced demand.” Build more lanes, and you alert drivers that there is now more capacity on the road. They will use that capacity. Because the road now “flows better,” people will take advantage of that capacity. This, in turn, creates more congestion, bringing us back to the starting point. How many years after 377 is widened from four to six lanes will it be that TxDOT comes up with a plan to widen it from six to eight? There will never be enough lanes for the highway crowd. Benbrook must make a choice – would it rather have four lanes of congestion, or six lanes of congestion? There will be congestion, sooner or later, in either design – the six lane configuration will just have that many more cars in gridlock. In addition, the wider road will increase congestion on surrounding local streets feeding into it.

So widening roads does nothing to solve traffic problems – it, in fact, makes them worse. As part of the increase in traffic, it will also create more pollution, and in a time when the FW/D region is constantly battling with air quality concerns (due in large part to our car usage), does encouraging even more traffic really make sense?

Beyond making traffic and pollution worse, road widenings also tend to lower the quality of life for other residents. With a wider road, drivers will feel comfortable driving at higher speeds (when the road’s not choked with more cars). It makes the roads less safe for all users. Drivers already speed on 377 – does Benbrook really want to make it worse?

The writing is on the wall all across the country that the old post-WWII model of growth embraced by cities like Benbrook – ever-wider roads, increasingly-segregated uses, ever-increasing car dependency – is at a dead end. It eventually chokes on traffic congestion and car dependency. Rather than continue on the same path that will keep Benbrook tied to huge oil consumption, speeding traffic, and complete reliance on the car, the city ought to be thinking about how to reorganize itself into a more livable form. It’s not a process that can happen overnight, but it has to begin somewhere – and stopping the widening of 377 could be that first step. TxDOT road widenings tend to destroy far more than they improve – just look at the horribleness that is Rosedale in the Near Southside here in Fort Worth. We hope that Benbrook citizens and concerned parties will show up at the public meeting and voice their opposition to the plan – and will continue to let TxDOT know that they can’t just build traffic sewers wherever they please without regard for the negative effects on local communities.

For more on induced demand, here are some links to get you started:

Why building new roads doesn’t decrease congestion – excerpt from “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream” References to published research on the phenomenon Maryland’s Lesson: Widen the Roads, Drivers Will Come – Washington Post Induced Traffic Confirmed Does Widening Roads Cause Congestion?