The Strong Towns Podcast Why America Can't Stop Building Highways We Don't Need
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Oct 27, 2025 Erick Guerra, a regional planning professor and author of "Overbuilt," dives deep into America's obsession with highway construction. He discusses how we've expanded urban highway lanes by 75% since the 1990s despite the Interstate Highway System being 'complete.' Erick highlights the significant influence of engineers on highway routing and funding incentives that drive unnecessary expansions. He also explores the negative impacts on urban safety and land value, advocating for a rethink of our highway-centric approach to city planning.
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Engineers Drove Urban Highway Expansion
- Early federal highway planning shifted from rural access to solving urban congestion starting in the 1930s.
- Highway engineers, not politicians, largely decided routes, creating a gap between stated intent and practice.
Policy Continued The Building Momentum
- After the Interstate was largely complete, policy and funding stayed the same, encouraging continual expansion rather than stopping.
- Forecast-driven evaluations (e.g., constant traffic growth assumptions) locked the system into building more lanes.
Land Value Turns Benefits Into Losses
- When you include land value and externalities, new highway costs far outweigh estimated benefits.
- Cheaper construction would increase overbuilding, so higher costs have acted as a partial brake on excess highway building.
