Gov. Murphy supports a $4.75 billion plan to add more lanes to an 8-mile section of the New Jersey Turnpike. However, Dr. Kelcie Ralph argues that congestion relief does not last because people quickly change their behavior to take advantage of the newly free-flowing roadway. Using the SHIFT calculator, a tool produced by Transportation for America and its partners, to simulate the traffic patterns, predicts 100,000 miles of extra driving in the region each day. That is bad news for area residents, who will suffer from more congested streets, and bad news for frustrated drivers, who will still be stuck in traffic, now with hundreds more cars on the road.
“Gov. Murphy can be forgiven for thinking that expanding highways will eliminate frustrating congestion. Most Americans think the same thing (64% of them). But just because this belief is widespread doesn’t mean it is correct.”