ICYMI: Don Cayo in The Sun — Congestion may signify better productivity, not worse @LitmanVTPI

More roads or cheaper-to-use roads — ones without tolls, for example — lead to less productivity, not more, a recent study concludes. If you think this sounds paradoxical, so does the study’s author, Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Institute. But he also offers several reasons why it’s so.

For one thing, decisions to build roads or subsidize them by not charging users tends to come at the expense of other access options, things such as densification so people need not travel so far, or transit that provides more bang for the buck. These kinds of decisions are often based on politics, thus defying efficient market principles and undermining productivity. Read more: Don Cayo: Congestion may signify better productivity, not worse