The LA metro 710 Freeway and freight transportation – a battle with national implications

Source: California Air Resources Board
One of my favorite web sites, “Streetsblog LA”, ran a very interesting blog post on Tuesday, with a quote from mark! Lopez,  MFN participant and director of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.

While I don’t agree with all of author Roger Rudick’s points, his post is a well researched introduction to the futility of dealing with freight congestion by adding more highway capacity.  It has been known since at least 1969 that new highway capacity almost always induces more demand, and over the long haul, does little or nothing to reduce congestion.
He points readers to a very good Wired Magazine article that describes a technique for reducing highway congestion that does work, congestion pricing.  
Mr. Rudick does a great service by calling out major LA freight transportation planning failures – including not considering induced demand and not electrifying freight rail.
And I very much appreciate him questioning why we would want to subsidize freight transportation.  He focuses on roadways, but his point is equally applicable to the billions of tax dollars the US has spent on upgrading ports to handle imports from Asia. Why exactly does our government want to make it cheaper for our competitors to displace US manufacturers and American jobs?
Check out the blog post and Wired Magazine article:

More Lanes on the 710 Means More Trucks: More Trucks Means More Pollution, Get it Caltrans?, Streetsblog LA

What’s Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse, Wired Magazine

Opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, and do not represent positions of the Moving Forward Network or its members. All errors are the responsibility of the author.