#NoNewRoads is our campaign to stop unnecessary and unaffordable spending on highways and roads.

Featured
Dying to Widen Highways
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, #SlowtheCars traffic, congestion, car crash Joe Cortright Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, #SlowtheCars traffic, congestion, car crash Joe Cortright Comment
Dying to Widen Highways
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, #SlowtheCars traffic, congestion, car crash Joe Cortright Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, #SlowtheCars traffic, congestion, car crash Joe Cortright Comment

Oregon’s DOT seems to be more concerned with making cars go faster than saving lives.

#NoNewRoads, Member Post, #SlowtheCars traffic, congestion, car crash Joe Cortright Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, #SlowtheCars traffic, congestion, car crash Joe Cortright Comment
Road Funding as a Prisoner's Dilemma
#NoNewRoads, Member Post highway spending Andrew Martin Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post highway spending Andrew Martin Comment
Road Funding as a Prisoner's Dilemma
#NoNewRoads, Member Post highway spending Andrew Martin Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post highway spending Andrew Martin Comment

Under our current system, non-drivers subsidize drivers. Only a fundamentally different model of road and highway funding can break us out of this prisoner’s dilemma.

#NoNewRoads, Member Post highway spending Andrew Martin Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post highway spending Andrew Martin Comment
What are you doing, Maine?
Top Story, Transportation, TNAC, Roads and Streets, Marohn, Engineering Profession, #NoNewRoads, Finance Maine, highway spending, local government, engineers, traffic engineering Charles Marohn Comment
Top Story, Transportation, TNAC, Roads and Streets, Marohn, Engineering Profession, #NoNewRoads, Finance Maine, highway spending, local government, engineers, traffic engineering Charles Marohn Comment
What are you doing, Maine?
Top Story, Transportation, TNAC, Roads and Streets, Marohn, Engineering Profession, #NoNewRoads, Finance Maine, highway spending, local government, engineers, traffic engineering Charles Marohn Comment
Top Story, Transportation, TNAC, Roads and Streets, Marohn, Engineering Profession, #NoNewRoads, Finance Maine, highway spending, local government, engineers, traffic engineering Charles Marohn Comment

Maine's response to a serious road maintenance funding emergency is to cling to AASHTO’s archaic code book while projecting a value system of improve, Improve, IMPROVE, even going so far as to assume massive traffic increases where there is little traffic today.

Top Story, Transportation, TNAC, Roads and Streets, Marohn, Engineering Profession, #NoNewRoads, Finance Maine, highway spending, local government, engineers, traffic engineering Charles Marohn Comment
Top Story, Transportation, TNAC, Roads and Streets, Marohn, Engineering Profession, #NoNewRoads, Finance Maine, highway spending, local government, engineers, traffic engineering Charles Marohn Comment
Deck Chairs on the Titanic
Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Finance, Transportation, Engineering Profession local government, federal government, Safety, roads, STROADS, traffic engineering, congestion Charles Marohn Comment
Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Finance, Transportation, Engineering Profession local government, federal government, Safety, roads, STROADS, traffic engineering, congestion Charles Marohn Comment
Deck Chairs on the Titanic
Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Finance, Transportation, Engineering Profession local government, federal government, Safety, roads, STROADS, traffic engineering, congestion Charles Marohn Comment
Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Finance, Transportation, Engineering Profession local government, federal government, Safety, roads, STROADS, traffic engineering, congestion Charles Marohn Comment

Proposed changes to federal rules on congestion mitigation reaffirm that real responses to the complex problems we face will only come from our cities, towns and neighborhoods.

Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Finance, Transportation, Engineering Profession local government, federal government, Safety, roads, STROADS, traffic engineering, congestion Charles Marohn Comment
Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Finance, Transportation, Engineering Profession local government, federal government, Safety, roads, STROADS, traffic engineering, congestion Charles Marohn Comment
Thoughts on #NoNewRoads
#NoNewRoads, Marohn, Engineering Profession Minnesota Charles Marohn Comment
#NoNewRoads, Marohn, Engineering Profession Minnesota Charles Marohn Comment
Thoughts on #NoNewRoads
#NoNewRoads, Marohn, Engineering Profession Minnesota Charles Marohn Comment
#NoNewRoads, Marohn, Engineering Profession Minnesota Charles Marohn Comment

Concluding remarks and steps forward after a week of #NoNewRoads.

#NoNewRoads, Marohn, Engineering Profession Minnesota Charles Marohn Comment
#NoNewRoads, Marohn, Engineering Profession Minnesota Charles Marohn Comment
An Interview with @StuckBertha
#NoNewRoads, Top Story Stuck Bertha, Seattle Strong Towns Comment
#NoNewRoads, Top Story Stuck Bertha, Seattle Strong Towns Comment
An Interview with @StuckBertha
#NoNewRoads, Top Story Stuck Bertha, Seattle Strong Towns Comment
#NoNewRoads, Top Story Stuck Bertha, Seattle Strong Towns Comment

Strong Towns shares an exclusive interview with @StuckBertha, the tunnel boring machine that is stuck beneath Seattle.

#NoNewRoads, Top Story Stuck Bertha, Seattle Strong Towns Comment
#NoNewRoads, Top Story Stuck Bertha, Seattle Strong Towns Comment
Keeping the Dream of the 60s Alive
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
Keeping the Dream of the 60s Alive
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment

Washington state, known for having one of the “greenest” administrations, just passed the largest transportation spending bill in the state’s history. Here are 5 ways that WSDOT and other DOTs are keeping us stuck squarely in the 1960s.

#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
Second Life Cycle Blues
#NoNewRoads, Marohn suburban experiment, Baxter MN, second life cycle, Brainerd MN, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
#NoNewRoads, Marohn suburban experiment, Baxter MN, second life cycle, Brainerd MN, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
Second Life Cycle Blues
#NoNewRoads, Marohn suburban experiment, Baxter MN, second life cycle, Brainerd MN, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
#NoNewRoads, Marohn suburban experiment, Baxter MN, second life cycle, Brainerd MN, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment

The Suburban Experiment creates an illusion of wealth early on, which makes it very seductive. As a city like Baxter, MN enters the second life cycle and all of the dispersed systems that came with the growth now need costly maintenance, the seductive illusion is slowly destroyed.

#NoNewRoads, Marohn suburban experiment, Baxter MN, second life cycle, Brainerd MN, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
#NoNewRoads, Marohn suburban experiment, Baxter MN, second life cycle, Brainerd MN, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
A Better I-35
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story Texas, Austin, Federal Reserve, page highlight Heyden Walker Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story Texas, Austin, Federal Reserve, page highlight Heyden Walker Comment
A Better I-35
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story Texas, Austin, Federal Reserve, page highlight Heyden Walker Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story Texas, Austin, Federal Reserve, page highlight Heyden Walker Comment

Austin needs to demand a better I-35, where the health and well-being of our neighborhoods and communities are prioritized just as much as long distance vehicle trips.

#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story Texas, Austin, Federal Reserve, page highlight Heyden Walker Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story Texas, Austin, Federal Reserve, page highlight Heyden Walker Comment
Why Texas is Spending too Much on Roads and How to Stop
#NoNewRoads, Roads and Streets, Transportation, Member Post, Top Story fix it first, Texas, highway spending Patrick Kennedy Comment
#NoNewRoads, Roads and Streets, Transportation, Member Post, Top Story fix it first, Texas, highway spending Patrick Kennedy Comment
Why Texas is Spending too Much on Roads and How to Stop
#NoNewRoads, Roads and Streets, Transportation, Member Post, Top Story fix it first, Texas, highway spending Patrick Kennedy Comment
#NoNewRoads, Roads and Streets, Transportation, Member Post, Top Story fix it first, Texas, highway spending Patrick Kennedy Comment

Patrick Kennedy is a Strong Towns member actively working to end Texas' overspending on roads. Today, he shares what got Texas to this point and how it might be able to change course. 

#NoNewRoads, Roads and Streets, Transportation, Member Post, Top Story fix it first, Texas, highway spending Patrick Kennedy Comment
#NoNewRoads, Roads and Streets, Transportation, Member Post, Top Story fix it first, Texas, highway spending Patrick Kennedy Comment

Why No New Roads?

Strong Towns advocates for financial solvency and productive land use in American cities. The national obsession with an ever-expanding road system based on inaccurate projections has led many communities into serious debt, all for the sake of a road system with little financial return. We have built more auto infrastructure than we are willing to pay to maintain, and yet we insist on building more. At Strong Towns, we believe that a transportation system should be a means of creating prosperity in a community, not an end unto itself.

We can do so much better with a different approach. Before America spends more on transportation, we must modernize our transportation finance system to get better returns on our investments. 

Top Stories

Featured
Everyone Knows We Have a Traffic Problem
#NoNewRoads, Herriges, Transportation traffic, congestion, STROADS, page highlight Daniel Herriges Comment
#NoNewRoads, Herriges, Transportation traffic, congestion, STROADS, page highlight Daniel Herriges Comment
Everyone Knows We Have a Traffic Problem
#NoNewRoads, Herriges, Transportation traffic, congestion, STROADS, page highlight Daniel Herriges Comment
#NoNewRoads, Herriges, Transportation traffic, congestion, STROADS, page highlight Daniel Herriges Comment

Most cities' "traffic problems" are actually problems with the qualitative experience of traffic, not with simple travel time or delay. Perhaps we need a "Traffic Frustration Index" instead of a Traffic Congestion Index.

#NoNewRoads, Herriges, Transportation traffic, congestion, STROADS, page highlight Daniel Herriges Comment
#NoNewRoads, Herriges, Transportation traffic, congestion, STROADS, page highlight Daniel Herriges Comment
Highway Spending is Eating the Budget
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story highway spending, debt, page highlight Tony Dutzik Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story highway spending, debt, page highlight Tony Dutzik Comment
Highway Spending is Eating the Budget
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story highway spending, debt, page highlight Tony Dutzik Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story highway spending, debt, page highlight Tony Dutzik Comment

Despite growing repair needs and the ever-more-apparent futility of addressing congestion through road expansion, the U.S. still spends vast sums of money to build new highways and widen existing ones. 

#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story highway spending, debt, page highlight Tony Dutzik Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post, Top Story highway spending, debt, page highlight Tony Dutzik Comment
A Utah Republican Might have the Best Urban Transportation Plan
#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, Transportation TIGER, highway spending, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, Transportation TIGER, highway spending, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
A Utah Republican Might have the Best Urban Transportation Plan
#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, Transportation TIGER, highway spending, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, Transportation TIGER, highway spending, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment

Devolution isn't so scary when the alternative is this crazy.

#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, Transportation TIGER, highway spending, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
#InfrastructureCrisis, Marohn, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, Transportation TIGER, highway spending, page highlight Charles Marohn Comment
Pay Your Fair Share
#SlowtheCars, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, #DotheMath page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
#SlowtheCars, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, #DotheMath page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Pay Your Fair Share
#SlowtheCars, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, #DotheMath page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
#SlowtheCars, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, #DotheMath page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment

What would our transportation system look like if all users—cyclists, car drivers, pedestrians—paid their fair share?

#SlowtheCars, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, #DotheMath page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
#SlowtheCars, #NoNewRoads, Top Story, #DotheMath page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
$939 Million Short... But No Plan to Raise Revenue or Change Tactics
Top Story, Transportation, #NoNewRoads, #DotheMath highway spending, Wisconsin, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Top Story, Transportation, #NoNewRoads, #DotheMath highway spending, Wisconsin, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
$939 Million Short... But No Plan to Raise Revenue or Change Tactics
Top Story, Transportation, #NoNewRoads, #DotheMath highway spending, Wisconsin, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Top Story, Transportation, #NoNewRoads, #DotheMath highway spending, Wisconsin, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment

In spite of a major budget shortfall, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker offers no plan to raise revenue or adjust his transportation funding goals.

Top Story, Transportation, #NoNewRoads, #DotheMath highway spending, Wisconsin, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Top Story, Transportation, #NoNewRoads, #DotheMath highway spending, Wisconsin, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
The Un-paving of American Roads
#NoNewRoads, Top Story roads, Privatization, page highlight Strong Towns Comment
#NoNewRoads, Top Story roads, Privatization, page highlight Strong Towns Comment
The Un-paving of American Roads
#NoNewRoads, Top Story roads, Privatization, page highlight Strong Towns Comment
#NoNewRoads, Top Story roads, Privatization, page highlight Strong Towns Comment

Several states are choosing to un-pave their roads and replace them with gravel rather than spend money they don't have to fix them.

#NoNewRoads, Top Story roads, Privatization, page highlight Strong Towns Comment
#NoNewRoads, Top Story roads, Privatization, page highlight Strong Towns Comment
Court Blocks Wisconsin Highway 23 Expansion
Transportation, Top Story, Success Story, #NoNewRoads, #StrongCitizens 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Steve Hiniker, highway spending, page highlight Steve Hiniker Comment
Transportation, Top Story, Success Story, #NoNewRoads, #StrongCitizens 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Steve Hiniker, highway spending, page highlight Steve Hiniker Comment
Court Blocks Wisconsin Highway 23 Expansion
Transportation, Top Story, Success Story, #NoNewRoads, #StrongCitizens 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Steve Hiniker, highway spending, page highlight Steve Hiniker Comment
Transportation, Top Story, Success Story, #NoNewRoads, #StrongCitizens 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Steve Hiniker, highway spending, page highlight Steve Hiniker Comment

1,000 Friends of Wisconsin is doing impressive work to stop wasteful road spending in Wisconsin. We're pleased to share this recent victory from our friends at this organization.

Transportation, Top Story, Success Story, #NoNewRoads, #StrongCitizens 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Steve Hiniker, highway spending, page highlight Steve Hiniker Comment
Transportation, Top Story, Success Story, #NoNewRoads, #StrongCitizens 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Steve Hiniker, highway spending, page highlight Steve Hiniker Comment
6 Mapping Tools to Help Understand Your City
Top Story, Urban Design, Transportation, #NoNewRoads mapping, maps, tools, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Top Story, Urban Design, Transportation, #NoNewRoads mapping, maps, tools, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
6 Mapping Tools to Help Understand Your City
Top Story, Urban Design, Transportation, #NoNewRoads mapping, maps, tools, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Top Story, Urban Design, Transportation, #NoNewRoads mapping, maps, tools, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment

Want to you calculate your state's transportation spending? How about identify distressed communities in your area? These mapping tools will help you do the job.

Top Story, Urban Design, Transportation, #NoNewRoads mapping, maps, tools, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Top Story, Urban Design, Transportation, #NoNewRoads mapping, maps, tools, page highlight Rachel Quednau Comment
Keeping the Dream of the 60s Alive
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
Keeping the Dream of the 60s Alive
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment

Washington state, known for having one of the “greenest” administrations, just passed the largest transportation spending bill in the state’s history. Here are 5 ways that WSDOT and other DOTs are keeping us stuck squarely in the 1960s.

#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment
#NoNewRoads, Member Post Washington, DOT, Megaprojects, page highlight Paula Reeves Comment

Read all #NoNewRoads articles >

If you appreciate this content, please support it by becoming a member of Strong Towns.

Strong Towns President Charles Marohn speaking on transportation policy at Boston University, June 2015.

Chuck Marohn's book on transportation policy, A World Class Transportation System, is available for Kindle. 

If you are a member of Strong Towns, contact us for a free copy.