Highway Boondoggles
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California Must Stop Expanding Highways
While transit, bike, and safety projects struggle for funding, the state keeps writing blank checks for freeway widening boondoggles. It's time to tell our lawmakers: enough!
Zack Deutsch-Gross and Laura McCamy
March 18, 2026
What the ‘Abundance’ Agenda Could Mean For Equitable Transportation
Could Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's buzzword usher in an era of bountiful transportation options, or just more highways?
January 19, 2026
Find Out Exactly How Much Downtown Highways Cost Your City
"How much does it actually cost to be car dependent?" This Dallas-based analyst set out to answer that question for cities across the U.S.
December 14, 2025
Displacement and Dollars Down the Drain: The Data Behind California’s Highway Expansion Crisis
The following post first appeared at the Greenlining Institute’s blog. Yesenia Perez is the Institute’s Sr. Program Manager for Climate Equity. For nearly 70 years, highway agencies across the United States have operated mainly behind closed doors — widening roads, displacing communities, and spending billions in public funds with almost no transparency or accountability. Highway…
The post Displacement and Dollars Down the Drain: The Data Behind California’s Highway Expansion Crisis appeared first on Streetsblog California.
Yesenia Perez
December 3, 2025
Report: Biden Infrastructure Bill Spurred Increase in State and Local Highway Spending
The Urban Institute found an overall increase in capital investment in ground transportation — mostly on highways — and flat investment in public transit.
November 16, 2025
Book Excerpt Special: The Incomplete Freeway Revolt
A new book looks at the destructive 20th-century urban development style — freeways, downtown office towers, suburban housing developments — that keeps Americans so dependent on their cars. Here's an excerpt.
Benjamin Schneider
November 5, 2025
Legislature and Governor Greenlight Freeway Expansion in Protected Wetlands
As the saying goes: if you need to change the law to build it, maybe it’s the wrong project.
The post Legislature and Governor Greenlight Freeway Expansion in Protected Wetlands appeared first on Streetsblog California.
October 9, 2025
America Has a Golden Opportunity to End the ‘Highway Boondoggle’ Crisis
America's wasteful highway spending has gotten out of control — and if President Trump really wants to promote efficient government, he'll urge Congress to stop it.
October 9, 2025
State DOT’s Highway Habit Ignores Emissions Mandate: Report
The state's highway-centric transportation agency is still flouting the 2020 state climate law, and is doing little to change course, according to a lawyers' group.
Leo Miranda
October 8, 2025
The Business of Buying Bills and Building Roads
Welcome to Lobbying 101.
Andy Boenau
September 24, 2025
