Wisconsin ruling sheds light on transportation ‘boondoggles’

Posted on 06/05/2015 by Andy Balaskovitz at Midwest Energy News. In states across the Midwest, advocates are challenging transportation administrators and elected officials over what they see as an ongoing, unnecessary build-out of highway infrastructure rooted in 20th-century planning.

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Lawmakers need to curb state highway projects

Originally posted in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Opinion page, by Steve Hiniker. Taxpayers scored a huge victory recently when U.S. District judge Lynn Adelman ruled that the expansion of a 17-mile stretch of state Highway 23 near Fond du Lac was no longer eligible for federal highway funds.

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StongTowns Podcast – 1000 Friends v. United States DOT

By Charles Marohn. www.StrongTowns.org. This podcast features an interview with Steve Hiniker, Executive Director of 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, the plaintiff that prevailed in a recent lawsuit against the USDOT, WisDOT and others.

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Federal Court: Wisconsin Uses Bogus Traffic Data to Justify Highways

This article was originally featured on streetsblog.net. By Angie Schmitt. State departments of transportation all over the country use specious traffic projections to justify hugely expensive road widening projects. That’s how you end up with the graph on the right — showing how DOTs continued to forecast traffic growth year after year, even as driving stagnated.

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Press Release: 1000 Friends Calls For Road Audit and Moratorium

Seeks Halt of All Highway Expansions Until Audit on Traffic Projections is Complete. 1000 Friends of Wisconsin today called for an immediate halt to all new highway widening projects until the state conducts an audit of the traffic projections used to justify those projects. The moratorium and audit request comes on the heels of a federal court decision last week that halted the widening of Highway 23 near Fond du Lac because of unjustified and likely erroneous traffic counts predicted for the highway.

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MAJOR LAWSUIT VICTORY FOR 1000 FRIENDS

Federal Court Derails Highway 23 Project. Flawed Traffic Forecasts Ends Federal Funding in Huge Victory for Taxpayers. On Friday, the U.S. Eastern District Court upheld claims in a lawsuit filed by 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and cut off federal funding for the beleaguered Highway 23 road expansion project between Fond du Lac and Plymouth. The Court agreed with the land use organization that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation used unsupported, inflated traffic forecasts to justify the project.

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