Joe Cortright

New Metro on-demand electronic bike lockers cost just 75 cents for the first 12 hours. Download the BikeLink app for easy access

The US Department of Transportation just awarded $450 million to the $1.9-billion Rose Quarter 1-5 project, which opponents have long called one of America’s most notorious highway boondoggles.

In the end, a lot of bad freeway projects die not with a bang, but a whimper. But we still need to celebrate the win.

More capacity generates more travel, more sprawl, more pollution, and ultimately more congestion. It’s time to get off this treadmill.

Every year or so, one or more traffic-counting organizations trots out a report claiming that congestion is costing us tens of billions dollars each year. Despite the “big data” and elaborate estimates, the results are simply bunk, because they’re based on a flawed premise.