City Hall's car brain moves one way
You can't reduce congestion. You can reduce traffic deaths.
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In Austin, like virtually every other American city, billions have been wasted on the false promise of congestion relief. The idea that congestion is a big problem that can be fixed is used to justify all kinds of transportation investments, both good and bad.
There are precisely two ways to meaningfully reduce congestion, but neither of them would prove popular among voters.
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The first is to charge a high enough price for using the road, as is the case in many major cities around the world (Manhattan, London, Singapore). The second is economic collapse, which has probably been very effective at reducing congestion in Gary, Ind. and Flint, Mich.
But as long as Austin is an economically vibrant major city and the streets are free, the roadway will be congested at least some of the time. It doesn't matter how many lanes you add or if you build an effective and popular public transit system. The principle of induced demand always triumphs.
All of this has been widely documented by those who study the issue, but it remains taboo among city officials to concede that the fight against congestion is futile. This may be because they can't tell themselves the truth or because they imagine the voters can't handle the truth.
