Why Texas Built America's Widest Freeway 

When the Katy Freeway was originally built Katy was a small town of barely 3,000 residents. Today the area referred to as Greater Katy has a population over 400,000 residents

One major factor not mentioned is the explosive growth of the suburban area west of Houston called Cinco Ranch.

You're missing a major factor in why the Freeway is so large. There was also a major problem where Hwy 290 hits the 610 loop. HWY 290 links Houston to Austin and there's been massive growth in that direction. It also sits at the proposed Texas High Speed Rail Terminal. I-10 and 290 hit the 610 loop at almost the same point creating a choke point that backed up traffic on all 3. HWY 290 ended at the 610 loop, so new lanes made it possible to get to 10 without using 610. Houston is the 4th and soon to be the 3rd largest city in the U.S, The Port of Houston is one of the busiest in the country and leads all others in exports by tonnage. i-10 is the busiest east-west route in the country. The I-10 expansion was needed just to keep up with that growth.

I think that frontage roads and multiple occupancy vehicle lanes should NOT be considered a bad thing since they are used to reduce traffic congestion. If you subtract the HOV lanes, exit lanes and frontage roads, then it is not bad at all.

Idk why people buy into this 20 something lane thing? Your photos even show that isn’t the case, there’s 10-12. Also wasn’t mentioned that many of those “lanes” are METRO lanes for the buses that directly connect to the Northwest Transit Center where the future high speed rail line to Dallas will be as well. We literally expanded our bus and train network and people use this for their “one more lane bro” narrative when most of it isn’t even for cars.

I noticed the pics you used like at 4:07 and many others contradict the actual script of this video and you consistently say X number of lanes were “added in some places” but wouldn’t specify where or that many are not for us in cars at all. It’s for the Park & Ride commuter buses dude. The diagram at 4:07 is what was built plus 2 HOV each way. And was it adding a couple ACTUAL lanes that “induced” traffic or the 3 million, as you mentioned above yourself, that made the difference? No other metro could add 3 million people and have rush hour traffic increase by a couple minutes for cars, decrease for commuter buses, and provide us a proper evacuation route for hurricanes. This was worth every penny and benefited everyone.

Houston has experienced an incredible amount of growth over the past 50 years or so. Why are people criticizing the highways when they are expanded. Get over it.

Misleading video. The Houston metro area had 3 million LESS people back then firstly and traffic wasn’t just an issue for us but the truckers which national commerce depend on. It wasn’t “induced demand” it was Houston being proactive in the population growth on the most congested road there was. Austin didn’t… look at them now lol. Using the same infrastructure for 3x the population. This also didn’t mention the BRT, light rail, or bike paths that came along with this project either. To pretend things got worse than when we had 3 million less people because rush hour times went up a couple minutes is crazy

2:01 That leads to Addicks Park and Ride. Park your car there and take the bus to Downtown.

I love it. Even when there's traffic it still moves fairly well. It's true that when these new freeways are built builders start building new neighborhoods further out adding many new commuters. One of the west Houston zip codes near the Katy frwy is building more new houses than any zip code in the USA. We're seeing license plates from all over the country.

When hurricane Harvey flooded much of West Houston in 2017, I-10 remained open because it is so elevated. Every other throughgoing East-West road through the flooded area was under water at some point. There were no North-South roads across Buffalo Bayou open between Grand Parkway in the West and 610 in the East.

I love when people talk about "induced demand" like population growth couldn't possibly ever be a factor.

- Addicks-Setsuma Road isn't referenced by that designation. It is Texas State Highway 6 (or, as the locals call it, Highway 6). - That exit in the middle of I-10 (which is actually the Katy Managed Lanes / Katy Tollway portion) is to service the Addicks Park and Ride that looks like the big parking lot to the north. - Sam Houston Tollway exit has always looked like that. It's just bigger now due to the Katy Freeway project. - Sam Houston Tollway interchange and Grand Parkway interchange were not built at the same time. The Sam Houston Tollway interchange was built in its entirety as it was a replacement for an existing stack interchange. The Grand Parkway interchange was built in two phases, with the first phase servicing Grand Parkway Segment D (the free portion to the south). The northern part of the interchange was built when the Grand Parkway Segment E was built, which was after the completion of the Katy Freeway project. - The Katy Freeway project ends at I-610. Katy Freeway itself continues until it reaches downtown Houston. There is discussion of a Katy Freeway Project Phase II which will cover the Katy Freeway from I-610 to I-45. - The reason for the increase was, between 2011 and 2014 was that alternative routing - Katy Freeway has HOV lanes (single lane in each direction) from SH-6 to Mason Road in Katy. From SH-6 to near I-610, those are the Katy Managed Lanes (also known as the Katy Tollway). They are HOV/SOT system (HOV drivers do not pay a toll during HOV times, but single drivers can use it for a toll). This is the only road in Houston that is not referenced as express lanes. What I think people fail to realize that, even though you still have traffic jams on it, it was worse before the project. The previous facility was three lanes in each direction and two to three frontage road lanes. To get from midtown Houston to Katy during the middle of the day, it would take 2 hours one way.

I drive this daily. Katy Freeway is always used as a talking point in urban planning/highway videos but never accurately. The 26 (or 29, you said) number of lanes is not a thing. There is a 1/4 mile where that is the case at the 610 interchange half of which aren’t part of the freeway, they’re turning lanes as well as 4 bus lanes to the METRO transit center there where many bus lines meet. The reality is there’s 6 free travel lanes in each direction until the beltway 8, then 5. By the time you hit just west of Katy, it’s 3 lanes each way. We somehow won the title of “widest highway” for a tiny segment where most of the lanes aren’t even part of the highway. It’s over glorified for no reason lol.

As someone who used the Katy Freeway to get to school every morning throughout all of high school, yes, it helps! Rush hour still sucks though. You have to drive super aggressively to get anywhere!

So many inaccuracies in this video. But as a native Houstonian, the one that stood out the most is the fact that Interstate 10 is called the Katy Freeway from Katy to Downtown Houston. I-10 doesn’t adopt a new name suddenly at the I-610 interchange as this video implies.

How come you didn’t mention how commuter buses on METRO cut times in half having their HOV lanes and connectors to the bus station the high speed rail eventually will connect to? 🤔 This move was great for public transit, drivers, not to mention our truckers? At 1:35 you mentioned “20 lanes” with a photo that clearly shows half of that while still ignoring the middle 4 are for buses or the few who pay the high toll. Come on man at 3:24 we see the actual roadway 😂 That’s 5 lanes!

As mentioned by others, greater Houston area is very spread out. Most people in the area don't live close to where they work, so long commutes are a thing for them. If the bus or rail doesn't go between work and home, and the Metro Park and Ride doesn't work for you, then the alternative is to drive a car.

Houston sucks for traffic but that's because its a huge city and they all do. Compared to Austin, cities that invested in enough highways at least still function. Induced demand isn't proven, it's a theory that has nothing to do with Texas cities.

I live way out in Katy. I had to drive the full length of the freeway on Monday. It wasn't too bad as I left my house around 6:15. My wife drives it all the time. Certain days are much better than others as far as traffic because so many people work remote now at least a few days a week; like my wife. I usually drive it on weekends to go downtown like to a sports events, restaurants, etc. Given my wife is with me, we can use the portion that is only HOV. On weekends there is no HOV option so we usually just pay the dollar each way to avoid having to deal with traffic. It's a breeze that way. (we're already paying a lot of money for a sporting event so $2 more isn't a big deal) People are crazy anymore; either on their GD cell phones driving too slow and weaving or driving like their wife is in labor so it is much better to be in a protected lane.

Most of the fallacies in this video have already been addressed, but just for a little more education you've got to consider the amount of commerce (18 wheelers, etc) that come via east and west through Houston. I-10 goes through Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Cruces, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, New Orleans, Gulfport/Biloxi; Mobile, Pensacola and Jacksonville; With Houston being the 2nd largest port in the country and being the largest refiner of oil's in the country we're talking about an enormous amount of Semi's going east and west to help supply most of these cities. This is another reason for the expanse of I-10. Another smart design of the Katy is the fact of how the exits and entrances work (up to 610). The old freeway had the exits after the entrances causing backups at the exits into the freeway lanes during rush hour... Now the exits are first and the entrances are second. This alleviates the issue of traffic lights backing into freeway lanes. On top of that, this design allows safely hopping on and off the freeway. In other words if your destination is two traffic lights away and your pulling out of a store you simply hop on the freeway to avoid the lights which helps the congestion on the feeders.... And as a poster mentioned, we don't have frontage roads. We have feeder roads.

As an example: where i work is about 6 miles from home. I can go one of two ways on the surface streets and get there in 15-20 minutes by car. Or i can ride three different bus routes to get there, and it'll take at least an hour. On another note, the 610 to 290 to FM 1960 trip on Saturday morning only takes 30 minutes, going to the local toy show once a month. Coming back home in mid afternoon takes a bit longer though, but often I take surface streets for that trip.

I am curious about this concept of "induced demand". From its name, I assume that this refers to drivers who choose to take that highway rather than some other road because of its lessened congestion due to its improvements. Why is that a bad thing? I would think taking traffic off of congested surface streets would be a major goal of any highway improvement project. Isn't this a sign that the goal was met? I would be very interested in an in depth analysis of the overall impact of improvements on the entire area, not just on that highway.

Love you, Beaver, but you said at 1:13 that the Katy Freeway goes WEST from Katy to Houston. That's two examples of east-west confusion in the last two videos. Please proofread your scripts or get someone else to.

I didn't expect quite so many comments praising the Katy Freeway or denouncing induced demand. Highway expansions are often marketed as a standalone tool for reducing traffic congestion and increasing access. They are more often used to open up private land for private development, to the detriment of the general public. This strategy often ignores more efficient transportation modes and development patterns, which are MORE financially productive to the public along with a host of other public benefits.

“Induced demand” is not a thing. It wasn’t the road expansion, it was the economy and affordability that made Houston jump from the 3.5 million to getting near 8 million today. Traffic is usually fine by like 7:30, before it was snails pace until 9pm which started at like 2pm. Now it’s good until 3-3:30ish. Also nobody in Houston knows where all the lanes are at, it’s 6 each way for 5-6 miles lmao. And 2 bus/toll lanes, so 8? Where are my other 21 lanes at y’all keep talking about?! 😂

1:56 that's a metro park & ride lot

@2:02 that exit is to the Addicks Park and Ride for Metro (mass transit). It's a HOV lane exit and not a main lane exit.

1:57 That interesting exit is for the Park and Ride commuter lot.

2:00 this exit is most likely for buses to easily enter/exit the freeway to access the park and ride to the north

Simplest answer to the title question: Because an awful lot of people need to get through Houston.

Imo highways should expand to 6 total lanes (plus auxiliary lanes) for safety when the capacity warrants it. Anything over 6 lanes should be express lanes. The tolls keep traffic on those lanes going smoothly for those who are willing to pay.

Can’t help but think you got a bit lazy on this video and parroted Not Just Bikes as the graphics used only disprove everything you’re saying. Aside from the obvious fact there are no “29 lanes” It’s odd to insinuate a road expansion that was also for buses and truckers caused a “demand” when at its height, 200+ people were moving to Houston per DAY! Thats where that 3 million you mentioned came from. To answer the question was it worth it: every single cent. This video makes it seem like some massive highway with dozens of lanes was built when it has less lanes than the NJ Turnpike smh lol.

When it comes to improving traffic capacity over a network, there are two main ways to go about it: road and rail. They both have their advantages, such as rail being separated from road and not being impacted by traffic, and road allowing people to get from any one point to any other without having to interchange between modes. The other way to deal with traffic is to reduce the need to travel instead of adding additional capacity, and this can be done by allowing shopping, employment and recreation to develop closer to where people live, bringing them within walking or biking distance. This would require extensive urban planning and will often not be applicable in 20th century suburbs and only in newer developments. Like anything to do with cities, things like this are complicated. For many North American cities like Houston, the primary mode for civilian and goods transport throughout a city and its neighbours is by road. Combined with the nature or road transportation, this makes those billion dollar freeways relatively cheap compared to building the initial infrastructure required for rail transport. If the city had a much larger rail network, it would a) be able to utilise existing infrastructure to a greater extent, b) make it easier for people and goods to interchange with that existing infrastructure, c) have that city already built around the rail network, with a much larger amount of the population and industry close to those rail lines and d) be something the people and industry are already used to working with and would be likely to approve of it. In my opinion, I think that in the short term, this would have been the most viable solution but in the long term, more diversification of transport modes and planning would be ideal. I am not an expert on Houston and city planning in general, to take all of this with a big grain of salt. :D

"I read some stats on the iInternet" and "I made some assumptions"' level of research. This is like the people who say Dallas or Houston is losing people and treat Arlington or The Woodlands as a separate place. It's almost like, maybe, you would add lanes in the middle of the 5th largest metro in the US on 2500 mile coast to to coast freeway, and then you would reduce lanes outside the metro. Shocking stuff. Truly. Btw I have driven the big kahuna in Toronto and it's awful. I will take the Katy Freeway any day. Any day.

As someone who drives this highway, I am very glad it’s as wide as it is lol

Actually the world's busiest and widest freeway is Ontario King's Highway 401(MacDonald-Cartier Freeway) in Greater Toronto Area(GTA) Ontario Canada . It has 18+ lanes of pure freeway. The Katy Freeway has Frontage Roads that you included in the lane count.

My commute within inner Houston instantly became hellish on the day that the new inbound lanes of the expanded Katy Freeway opened. The inner city roadways choked on the increased traffic volume.

Those frontage roads were built to give emergency vehicles access to accidents and or bypass traffic while on a call.

It’s crazy how i drive in this everyday and it’s just annoying

That middle entrance is for the HOV lane

What happened to Cincinnati during the urban renewal and highway era is unfortunate and devastating

Induced demand is a real thing for sure. The addition of highways cause new development to spring up. But also consider Austin, which fought against additional highways and additional new lanes for years, but saw new development and an influx of new residents without the induced demands from the highway system. Now they are dealing with a worse traffic issue than Houston because they didn't plan for the addition of new residents.

You skipped over the fact that these roads are evacuation routes. How else is houston/ Galveston supposed to evauate for hurricanes?

That’s why everything’s bigger in Texas, including the roads…

Peak VMT and Peak Energy are also factors for long term travel demand, although inconvenient to admit.

this video is in-line with all the other tired and amateur reporting jobs on freeway expansion and the katy fwy. "it got bigger and then got more congested ergo it's a failed idea!" the houston metro area grew by 2 million people over these surveyed years, and NOTHING is ever said about the congestion relieved on all the back roads after the katy fwy expansion. i lived the nightmare of those back roads for 10 years before the expansion. i'm very happy it got expanded.

i was pondering this the whole time during the viewing of this video. If majority of traffic is presumably headed to work in downtown area, where is the park 'n ride points to get on a train to take them in? Atlanta has this. DC has this. Philadelphia has this. I am just naming cities that i used to live in. My wife drives to a nearby train station in suburban Philly to then take the train downtown for work. The time to drive downtown is insane here at any hour day and night. Not trying to discount the need for cars in reality, but who wants to make that commute everyday in their own car?

I think the 'induced demand' question needs to be further investigated. It's not like there's a spawn point generated cars out of thin air. Who are the people that seem to add to the volume which wasn't there before? Are these new residents? Are these people choosing the highway vs. surface streets? Are they former riders of public transit? Are people finding jobs on the other side of the city and the improved/new highway giving them access to a job they would have otherwise moved closer to? Is there an issue where traffic volume doesn't actually increase that much, but simply that the relationship between volume and congestion is not a linear one, but something approximating an exponential one? If we had answers to these questions, I think we could better obtain the root cause and then begin to correctly address and analyze the issue. To some answers, such as highway vs. surface, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Less cars on surface streets means quieter neighborhoods and more walk-ability potential.

Greater Houston has been booming population for many years and the Katy Freeway sure is wide. I'm surprised that it's as wide as 20 to 26 lanes with its widest point at 29 lanes. Compare that to the 401 in the Greater Toronto Area which widened so many times with local-express lanes and the widest portion of the 401 is 22 lanes in Mississauga just near the airport and east of the ends of the 403 and 410. Normally, the 401 is as wide as 16 to 18 lanes.

It would make for an insane game of frogger

One thing I heard a traffic planner say, "it's impossible to expand your way out of traffic congestion". I've thought about that many times since I heard it

Those highway and rides are wide enough to put bus/ridesharing lanes and rail line.

I Love H-Town / Houston, TEXAS Fall, Winters & Spring.

Actually, of straight up freeway, Ontario's Highway 401 is wider. Yes there's more lanes when you add the frontage roads and the toll lanes. But the 401 18 lanes of straight freeway. No frontage roads, no toll lanes, straight freeway. It's also considered the busiest highway in North America and sometimes even the whole world.

In many ways, the Katy Freeway should be considered a success. The Houston area has grown tremendously since the Katy Freeway was expanded. Traffic on the road has increased. but it hasn't completely failed. However, the approach shows some serious lack of vision: 1) If so many people need to travel between those points, why is there not a more efficient method of moving them? (anybody hear of rapid transit?) 2) Why is it that so many people have to move such distances every day? Isn't there a better way of planning such that homes, employment and services can be more easily accessed?

Freedom. Texas is the biggest exporter of freedom.

Toronto still has larger. The 401/403 is massive. And doesn't have frontage roads. Just pure highway lanes. Express, collectors, hov

and it still has traffic jams and some of the worst drivers known to man!!!

I drove there and traffic wasn’t bad.

They never learned that making bigger highways does not solve traffic congestion.

Houstonian here: Why did you completely ignore our need to evacuate millions of people in under 24 hours for hurricanes and flooding?

portion a NOLA moved thurr afta katrina

4:21 I’m curious to know what the most expensive roadway projects in the U.S. have been

I am sure if they wanted to build a commuter train there would be complaints that it is too impactful to the communities.

I wish Texas would widen I-35 north of Fort Worth.

Replace it with passenger and freight rail!

The ripping up of the railroad right of way that ran parallel to the Katy Freeway wasn't mentioned. They could have put in commuter rail or light rail but didn't. I lived there during its construction and completion. It's totally ridiculous. I am sure the gas and oil lobby had everything to do with this.

For the toll lanes.

Lane mathematics

I also remember when it was built

The i-10 the "katy Freeway" is not more than 16 lanes (8 in each direction) wide at some interchanges not including on/off ramps. Bunker hill, is 12 main lanes, and 4 HOV/Toll Lanes for a total of 16 lanes. There is also a short on/off ramp. Frontage roads have traffic lights and at grade intersections, they are not limited access and are not freeway lanes because a lack of controlled access and signalization (traffic lights). Frontage roads are regular city streets allowing access to business, in/to out of driveways with property abutting the road. They are not interstate grade. Frontage roads are not included in freeway lane counts in California which has a 23 lane monster (i5/805), and Atlanta, which also has 16 lane (without HOV)... 2nd) Riddle me this since the Katy was widened in 2006, the metro population of Houston was 2.06 million, today (2023) it is 7.5 million, did this growth have anything to do with the increase in congestion? 3rd) induced demand is an economic paper only found a relationship between cities that had population growth, amount of road (or lack of) expansion. If population increased faster than lane growth, cities saw increasing congestion is what the paper said, not that adding lanes adds people driving around for no purpose than to just drive (misreading of the theory from wired magazine).. Does building more hospitals induce more people to be sick? Does building more schools induce more children? People drive because they go to work, have to see the doctor, pickup kids, food, etc. Widening a road does not suddenly trigger millions of people to take a drive with no reason aka induced demand. Population/Economic growth of which Houston does well, is the reason for increased traffic. I can say without a doubt as a frequent driver before and after the expansion, that traffic flows far better. Bunker hill was a 24/7 traffic jam before the expansion (6 lanes), now its only slow during some peak times. In spite of explosive population growth nearly 3.5x in less than 20 years, Houston is on of the only metro's in the country to decrease congestion delay, and dropped in the rankings for most congested.

They really can't take away like two lanes for a rail corridor? lol

This is insane....I couldn't accept this as life

As they say: Everything’s bigger in Texas

It doesn't matter how many lanes they add or how wide the roads are... if people still drive the same (selfishly) nothing will change.

Rethink I35

If you put toll Lanes it wouldn't work either

It helps that a texan former president younger Bush facilitated the big budget approval on this.

Forts to Ports

Houston is an hour and a half away from Houston.

The "Induced demand" thing is pretty much bullshit. There's no new demand created, it's only "induced" because vehicles now have a better route to drive! So then traffic is reduced on other routes, or on surface streets, which is a huge benefit of highways. And a better metric than congestion for a highway's performance would be throughout. A project can still be beneficial if it increases the road's capacity, even it congestion doesn't get better.

Because of car-brain induced by the car and oil lobby in U.S. but especially there. 😢

I drove through Houston a couple of weeks ago and drove the Katy Freeway. A few years ago I drove the runner-up for most lanes, Highway 401 in Toronto. When I first saw addresses like "27700 Katy Freeway" I wondered if "freeway" meant something different in Texas. It sort of does: these are addresses on the frontage road, not the freeway itself.

If you build it they will come

A clearly anti-highway video. Checking Google typical traffic, its not really that bad. Plenty of feeder roads are worse. Plus, as mentioned, counting the frontage roads as part of the freeway mileage is silly. Its a way to overglorify it.

My wife worked on this project. Thank you Katy Freeway. You've helped feed my family the last 15 years.

Face reveal?

Thank you for addressing induced demand.

1:56 we also have one of these on 90alt past Harlem

So when the population increases more, it should be time to expand the lanes again right? Right?

“Induced demand” is a debunked narrative even by your own video. If the population was booming eventually to another 3 million in the area, the demand was there, not induced. You said it around 6:02 it would have gotten worse either way? The economy induced people moving here before any expansion. Which you only mentioned about cars and not the public transit expansion for buses and trains. You said “15 lanes were added in some areas” yes, the area where commuter and local buses converge, those aren’t car lanes for everybody my guy. Thats for the metro. 😐

They are feeder roads, not frontage roads, since they have greater access to the main highway than frontage roads.

While your video was published in 2024, I notice that most of the graphs you published are from 2015 or older. If you actually have current numbers, building new graphs is simple. Otherwise, you are undermining your own point, implying that you are cherry-picking your data.

Everything is bigger in Texas, accept the towers. I made another video on how I think the legends tower will be great, do you think you can check it out and tell me if that format of doing more research is better?

If it is full of cars again, simply widen it to fifty lanes!

Would have been interesting to know if instead of widening the road, they had built a rail transit line with good frequency.

Would love to see a video like this on the I-10/US 60 Broadway curve expansion in Phoenix. They are using collector roads to help disperse the traffic.

1:54 There are a few interchanges like that along the capital beltway to the west of Washington DC.

Designed for Hurricane Emergency Exit Relief Route. I-10 is getting widened inland all the way to San Antonio.