The Reason Foundation has a new study out on combating traffic congestion that is making headlines across the country today. Going beyond the familiar critique of wasteful government spending and foolhardy transit fixations, the report puts compelling new facts and figures on the table.

For example, only four American metros – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, and Chicago – currently have congestion delays that prolong average rush-hour commute times by more than 50 percent. But if current trends continue, that dubious distinction will belong to 30 more cities by 2030. Congestion already costs us about $63 billion a year, and in the future this cost – really a tax, caused by bad governmental decisions and imposed in time and money – will skyrocket.

The solution, say the Reason authors, is to do what so many so-called experts say we shouldn’t do: build a lot more major highways. Fund some of this capacity with electronic toll collection, the remainder by redirecting tax dollars currently squandered. Most of all, stop humoring extremists who claim that America is being paved over (more than 90 percent of the country remains open space) and that building new highway lanes is pointless because they will just fill up with cars. Uh, that’s a goal, not a problem. You want cars and trucks shifted off of narrower, secondary roads. The real problem would be if we built a road and it didn’t fill up. That would be like, you know, building a road or bridge to nowhere.