Quote:
Originally Posted by austlar1
M1EK- I suspect you and I are the only ones interested in this little debate, but this is what I uncovered in my online search. In 1990 Austin had 430 freeway lane miles; Phoenix had 580. In 2000 Austin had 575 freeway lane miles; Phoenix had 1030. In 2005 Austin had 585 freeway lane miles; Phoenix had 1405. Phoenix is still building FREEWAYS because they passed a special tax back in the late 80's or early 90's to fund the construction. The tax is set to expire soon and will likely be renewed.
http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congestion_data/tables/phoenix.pdf[/url]
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I'd need to see the definitions of the metropolitan areas to understand this - it flies in the face of the scatterplot in the other report - if Phoenix had really built that many freeway miles in a statically sized metro area, then you'd have expected their congestion to have decreased far below Austin's, would you not? It's also possible that they weren't including Phoenix in the "cities Austin's size" list back then, for either reason (too small or too big).
I wish I could remember the exact language of the claim - it would make it much simpler to settle this. Sorry; it's been way too long since then.