The U.S. is choking on its traffic and it’s going to get worse

[noelbotevera]

I honestly think that developers need to pay for road widenings when their developments add to the already congested roadways.  Just now we have our beloved Governor Dick Scott of Florida allow a break to a company to open a mall in Pasco County which will add a lot more autos to the already over congested FL 56.  There should be no breaks for anyone.

Instead of wasting money on that, they should spend it on extending FL 56 to US 301, like they wanted to do in the first place. Giving money to companies that want to build shopping malls won't lead to the completion of FL 56.

Solution: Demolish FL 56, tell the malls to cough up the money, turn FL 56 to freeway/4 lane divided highway, extend to US 301.

[Pete from Boston]

Non-car modes deserve proportional representation across the board, but it need to be flexible depending on the situation. Urban areas obviously should lean heavily towards mass transit, cycling and walking; rural areas should lean heavily on roads with some skeletal transit in/between large enough towns; and suburban needs are a mix of both, though leaning more towards the urban side. You can't reduce traffic simply by building more roads (especially in urban areas) without considering other forms, which may be more cost-efficient and may carry more commuters.

The anti-(non-roads) attitude I find here and in newspaper comments (they're so bad it's hilarious) is really off-putting.

I feel really unwelcome in these kinds of threads, you know...

You're in a roads forum; the viewpoint tends to skew pro-road.  The disagreements are still pretty civil.

That said, I'm sure you'll appreciate this cartoon from The Onion this week: