Traffic can delay or doom a community plan, but a report by the American Highway Users Alliance, "Unclogging America's Arteries: Effective Relief for Highway Bottlenecks (1999-2004)," gives a handy heads-up to developers scouting for residential locations.
Seven bottlenecks ranked among the nation’s 18 worst in the original report in 1999 no longer are ranked thanks to reconstruction projects completed or under way. For example, a major project in Houston cut annual delays at what had been the nation’s second-worst bottleneck from 22.1 million hours in ’99 to 2.9 million in 2002.
The updated report cites suburban growth as a key problem and suggests that cities use zoning controls, urban growth boundaries and tax incentives for high-density development. How-ever, it warns, “Many of these strategies ... often are contrary to market trends, burdening consumers with extra costs and dampening economic efficiency, at least in the short run.”
For more information, visit www.highways.org.
Advertisement
Related Stories
Land Planning
Helena Habitat for Humanity Aims to Build 1,000 Affordable Homes
A new Habitat for Humanity project in Helena, Mont., aims to deliver 1,000 affordable housing units and outdoor community amenities
Government + Policy
How Eminent Domain May Be Used to Respond to Climate Crises
Eminent domain, which grants the government power to take private property for public use, has displaced thousands of Americans for the sake of infrastructure in the past, but it may be used for a better purpose in a global climate crisis
Q+A
Soil Connect Is Moving Dirt and Building Relationships
Cliff Fetner created Soil Connect so builders and developers could more easily move dirt and other aggregates from jobsite to jobsite, but it has expanded to become something much more
