Californians Report 101 Freeway in California Slower Than Ever Following Widening
101 Freeway in California Slower Than Ever After Widening, Locals Say
Summary :
A $600 million project to add capacity to Highway 101 in San Francisco has failed to reduce congestion, according to an article in Streetsblog San Francisco. The two-phase project added Express Lanes along a 15-mile stretch of freeway, but locals report no improvement in traffic levels. The phenomenon, known as induced demand, has overwhelmed previous freeway widening projects in California. No data is provided to confirm whether congestion is actually worse on Highway 101.
Description :
Induced demand strikes again.
A project aimed at increasing capacity on Highway 101, where it crosses the San Francisco Peninsula, has spent $600 million on a two-phase endeavour that appears to have made no headway in easing congestion, according to an article by Roger Ruddick in Streetsblog San Francisco.
The first phase of the project was opened in February 2022, with the second phase opening in March 2023. However, locals allege that there has been no improvement in congestion on the section of highway stretching from San Bruno to Palo Alto.
Mike Swire, a Peninsula advocate and member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee of the San Mateo County Transit Authority, describes the Highway 101 congestion as only worsening, according to Rudick who quotes Swire in the article: “At what point do we stop doing something we know isn’t working?”
The project’s goal was to add Express Lanes along the 15-mile stretch, which constitutes one of two direct freeway connections between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. However, the project’s expansion was characterized as little to no help, repeating a common pattern in California, according to the article.
Rudick writes, “This is a continually repeating pattern with freeway widening projects: think of the Oakland Alameda Access Project, a project to massively increase the size of a ramp complex in South San Francisco, or the widening of Los Angeles’s 405 freeway, or many other freeway widening and road capacity projects,” referring to the ability of induced demand to overwhelm all automobile infrastructure capacity in the Bay Area.
It should be noted that there is no data to support the figures related to Highway 101 congestion.
sources:
1- melk360.com ,101 Freeway in California Slower Than Ever After Widening, Locals Say ,2023-04-19 18:00:00
2- https://www.planetizen.com/news/2023/04/122684-101-freeway-california-slower-ever-after-widening-locals-say?rand=493
