"The Sound of Freedom"

When Texas Gov. Rick Perry officially marked the opening of the Katy Freeway expansion in 2008, he declared that the roar of traffic in the background was "the sound of freedom."

Freedom:

 
10 mph, thousands of unnecessary of tons of carbon emissions and particulate pollution, thousands of wasted hours sitting in traffic. Freedom, indeed. Didn't George Orwell write a few things about this?

Sure, technically that's is the Southwest Freeway I snapped walking home a few days ago, but I guarantee that I-10 looked the same or worse. And yes, that bumper-to-bumper center lane is the HOV toll lane. At least the toll-authority was collecting $4.75 for every non-HOV vehicle to recoup some of the costs for ramming this monstrosity through a residential neighborhood. (The rich white neighborhoods got expensive trenching and soundproofing -- African American communities didn't make out so well in highway construction.)

Thank God I can walk home -- it's faster.

And thank God that (some parts of)] this region has finally started to get serious about transportation planning over the last decade -- because if 13- and 18-lane freeways can't handle the volume, I doubt that it's cost effective or desirable to build any road that can.

The University Light Rail Line can't get here fast enough.