https://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/1nt3agp/the_katy_freeway_the_widest_highway_in_the_world/
As a major seaport region and overall big business center, Houston has to accommodate a tremendous amount of vehicles.
https://www.facebook.com/unboxfactory/videos/texas-katy-freeway-boasts-26-lanes-and-handles-about-220000-vehicles-every-day-t/864115019920783/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_10_in_Texas#Houston_and_East_Texas_(the_Katy_Freeway)
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/the-worlds-widest-highway-spans-a-whopping-26-lanes
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/it-s-not-just-you-the-katy-freeway-is-15945843.php With all that extra space there could easily be 2 BRT lanes, 2 truck lanes, as well as 2 HOV-express bus lanes. https://websiteprod.ridemetro.org/riding-metro/hov-hot-express-lanes
https://www.hctra.org/Content/hctra3rdPartyPages/katymanagedlanes/media/katy_managed_lanes_map.pdf
https://x.com/the_transit_guy/status/2052394178550571351?lang=en
https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/docs_pdfs/Traffic/10%20Katy%20Freeway%20HOV.pdf
https://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/i10west A 10-12 lane freeway is pretty wide, but 20-26 lanes is gigantic. At a certain point like 30 lanes would just get ridicules. Two commuter train tracks, 2 LRT tracks, 2 BRT lanes, 2 express lanes, 2 HOV-express bus lanes would move a lot more people than a 30 lane highway.
Induced_demand, or simply adding a lot more lanes for single vehicle occupancy doesn't necessary improve things in the long run. Unless a major highway has enough space for parallel rail and bus, its just a matter of time until the road reaches maximum capacity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#Definitions
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2025/10/06/532681/stretch-of-i-10-katy-freeway-to-be-reduced-to-two-lanes-until-mid-2026/ It was almost as if some people from Vancouver, Canada tried to convince Houston to just have 2 wagon roads in 2026. However, this was totally a TX initiative with no influence from BC.
While Texas has had a THINK BIG mentality for generations, at the other end of the spectrum is backwater BC in Canada. The Greater Vancouver Region has continually stunted or thwarted itself, due to several imposed restrictions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge Only 3 lanes wide with no plans to build a parallel double track LRT tunnel and a 2 lane BRT tunnel. The very narrow Lions_Gate_Bridge wasn't designed to eventually have another deck for express bus traffic. Its one of the worst bottleneck-chokepoints in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Massey_Tunnel Originally designed to only have 2 lanes each way. No future space for bus and truck lanes, despite being in a major seaport region.
https://www.highway99tunnel.ca While the 2030s tunnel will have 4 lanes each way, there is no provision for an LRT section. The new tunnel should have been designed to have enough width to eventually accommodate a 5th lane each way. Then there still could have been 3 general lanes each way, plus an express bus-HOV lane each way. Then, the 5th lane each way for BRT that could eventually be upgraded to LRT.
https://im.rediff.com/money/2012/aug/30high7.jpg Boston has 5 lanes each way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig#Final_phases
https://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-10-wildest-highways-in-the-world/20120831.htm
https://www.reddit.com/r/urbanplanning/comments/184m1pe/induced_demand_is_misunderstood/
https://www.webuildvalue.com/en/facts/widest-highway-in-the-world.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/1jjlf3j/widest_highway_in_the_world_is_in_ontario_canada 18 lanes in Toronto, so wide, but no space for 2 BRT lanes, GO Train, express bus and HOV lanes.
