WHY?

Spending millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars to slightly improve the efficiency of these roads is not only wasteful, it has also been proven to be ineffective. Induced demand is a phenomenon by which, as capacity is added to a system, it attracts more users thus negating the original purpose of the expansion. For example, the Texas Department of Transportation spent $2.8bn expanding the Katy Fwy in Houston to as many as 26 lanes. Although in the beginning traffic decreased, it soon rebounded, and today commutes have lengthened by 15-20 minutes. This is largely due to new development along the highway with the perception that the upgrades could support more commuters. Similar effects have been noticed in major cities such as London (encouraging commuters to drive instead of taking public transportation) and Los Angeles (attracting more drivers to the Interstates instead of surface roads). Knoxville has witnessed a similar situation to that of Houston, although less severe. As traffic worsens, road network capacity will inevitably struggle to keep up, which is where public transportation comes in. Promoting alternative transport methods diversifies the options available to commuters, creates redundancy in case of road closures, and reduces traffic in corridors by removing cars from the road at peak hours.

Furthermore, taking commuter trains has a major time saving benefit. Most notably, the time taken to make a journey by train stays fairly constant whereas car trips fluctuate in duration depending on traffic conditions. Furthermore, even in cases where congestion is low and driving may be the fastest or most convenient option, taking the train frees up productive time that could be used for a variety of activities. For example, you could read the newspaper in the morning and reply to your emails in the evening.