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A Round and a Roundy: State DOT is Making the Problem Worse

12:01 AM EST on November 3, 2020

    Cartoon: Bill Roundy

    Editorial cartoon of Bill Roundy by editorial cartoonist Bill Roundy.
    Editorial cartoon of Bill Roundy by editorial cartoonist Bill Roundy.
    Editorial cartoon of Bill Roundy by editorial cartoonist Bill Roundy.

    Our editorial cartoonist loved his former Brooklyn Paper colleague Vince DiMiceli's story last week about a state Department of Transportation plan to widen a congested stretch of the Staten Island Expressway to supposedly reduce congestion — a process known as magical thinking.

    Roundy's take: The state DOT doesn't know the basics of the law of induced demand — create more space for car drivers and they immediately fill it ... with their cars, quickly nullifying any advantage they initially received from the expanded highway.

    (Roundy's cartoon even had the Dot, his cute personification of DOT, mimic what Rep. Max Rose told DiMiceli at the groundbreaking — that induced demand is just a "theoretical notion.")

    It's another classic from our national treasure cartoonist.

    All of Bill Roundy's cartoons are archived here.

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