The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Is all highway expansion bad? Not at the American Legion Bridge.

February 21, 2024 at 4:01 p.m. EST
Rush-hour traffic congests the American Legion Bridge between Maryland and Virginia on July 27, 2021. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Regarding the Feb. 16 Politics & the Nation article on infrastructure, “Climate activists seek to hit brakes on highway expansion”:

Would anyone seriously believe that expanding the American Legion Bridge would worsen traffic congestion on the Beltway? Climate activists’ notion that expanding roads makes congestion worse does not recognize the experience of locales such as Phoenix and Louisville, where highway improvements have kept pace with population growth.

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The ideology that any traffic generated is bad ignores important benefits of highway improvements, including more reliable supply chains, quicker emergency response times for fire and safety, reductions in pollution from needlessly idling cars and trucks, and less suffering for the 76 percent of taxpaying Americans who commute by car and spend 4.8 billion hours stuck in congestion.

Nicholas Klissas, Arlington