Now that Californians have voted to spend money improving the infrastructure, particularly roads, let's make sure we are doing it right. Here are 10 steps promoted in Ted Balakar and Sam Staley's book The Road More Traveled,
which nearly every city and state can take to reduce traffic significantly:
1. Add Lanes to Congested Roads and Highways
Many say we can’t build our way out of congestion, but we haven’t even tried. Over the last 30 years, vehicle lane miles traveled have increased by over 143 percent, but we’ve added just 5 percent in new capacity. If we removed all of the pork and light rail projects from existing transportation plans and instead built roads and added lanes where they are most needed, we could eliminate severe congestion for less than we are currently planning to spend on transportation over the next few decades.

2. Public-Private Partnerships and Toll Lanes
Cash-strapped governments lack the political resolve to cut spending in nonessential programs that would free up money for much-needed infrastructure projects. Enter the private sector. Private companies have recently committed over $25 billion to construct or upgrade toll road projects in six states and stand ready to build roads the government can’t afford to.

3. Traffic Signal Optimization
Surprisingly, many cities have yet to do this, despite huge potential benefits. Traffic signal optimization can reduce stop-and-go traffic by 40 percent, cut gas consumption by 10 percent, emissions by 22 percent, and travel times by 25 percent. A study of 26 such projects in Texas found benefits outweighed costs 38 to 1.

4. Creative Construction
Today’s technology offers countless options that weren’t available when our Interstate system was born 50 years ago. For example, Paris is building a double-decker tunnel deep beneath historic Versailles to preserve the area and reduce congestion. And the world’s highest bridge, the Millau Viaduct, a 1 1/2-mile long, 800-foot high, $536 million project was built using private funding last year.

5. Freeway Ramp Metering
By controlling the flow of traffic entering highways, California has been able to increase freeway speeds by 22 to 89 percent in some cases.

6. One-Way Streets
One-way streets are able to carry 50 percent more traffic and reduce traffic accidents by 10 to 50 percent. Yet, many transportation planners haven’t taken advantage of this often-simple option.

7. Incident Management
For each minute that traffic is blocked by an accident, five minutes of congestion are added to a commute. In most urban areas, much more can be done to rapidly and effectively manage accidents.

8. Telecommuting
Telecommuters outnumber transit commuters in 27 of the nation’s 50 largest cities. With communication technology constantly improving, companies and governments should encourage more workers to skip the commute and work from home.

9. Parking Reform
Eliminating free parking and parking subsidies has reduced driving by up to 24 percent in some cities.

10. Improve Key Intersections and Access Roads
Overcrowded streets near highways create a negative domino effect that ripples through our entire road system.