Building roads has no effect on traffic

So says this insightful article in Wired, summing up research by Turner & Duranton. If a city builds more roads, people travel more, and you quickly end up in the same situation that you started with. How do you make things better? Even amateur economists might remember a theme on this blog: PRICES! If the roads are free and gas is cheap, people will take advantage of that. If you pay to drive at peak times or pay to park at peak hours, people might think twice about adding themselves to traffic. A few policy recommendations are in the article too... take a look!