#1497: LaBoule Toll Road Proposal: Hover comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Hoover, Julie H. <Hoover@pbworld.com>

> Experience in the U.S. and worldwide clearly shows that
> expanding/improving highway capacity in heavily polluted urban areas is an
> ineffective solution to mobility problems.  The new capacity quickly
> attracts more development and soon the road becomes more congested than
> before.  (This is called "induced demand" in technical jargon.).  If such
> a toll road does allow for more cars in the short term, what happens when
> this increased traffic reaches clogged Petionville and Port-au-Prince?
> It is far better to look to alternative solutions such as public transit,
> land use, etc. in such situations.
> 
> Further, it is usually politically impossible to apply tolls on existing
> roadways because of their unacceptable equity and other social
> consequences.  And I shudder to think of the adverse community and
> environmental impacts of widening this road.
>