California Induced Travel Calculator featured in the Washington Post

The California Induced Travel Calculator, created by BlinkTag, was featured in the Washington Post. In the article Infrastructure plan calls for fixing the nation’s existing roads. Some states are still focused on expansion, the Washington Post analyzes the state of infrastructure maintenance in the United States.

“For decades, researchers have found that when roads get wider, people tend to drive more, ultimately canceling out any gains in speed. Susan Handy, a professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California at Davis, said traditional tools for forecasting traffic demand to assess the benefits of new construction don’t effectively take that into account.”

“Researchers noted that traffic eventually increases by about the same percentage a road is widened, so boosting the size of a road by 10 percent will lead to about 10 percent more travel. Handy was part of a team that developed a calculator to forecast that effect in California, and its use was recommended by the state transportation agency last year.”