Transportation networks and economic stimulus money

Of the $787 billion economic stimulus, ~$50 billion will be dedicated to renewing US transportation infrastructure. While repairs are needed, I wonder to what extent the Department of Transportation will take into account transportation network theory. In class this week, we learned through the example of the superhighway that adding resources often makes traffic worse. So to what extent can state governments reinforce their stimulus money with network theory and traffic engineering to avoid buildups on roads and highways? The Department of Transportation’s 2010 Budget Overview (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Department_of_Transportation1.pdf), mentions as a goal to “[develop] high speed rail networks across the country to link regional population centers.” Hopefully the implementation of this project will be with the knowledge of transportation networks.

I think that adding resources can be good under certain circumstances. For instance, assume that there are three routes existing, all with equal delay,x, and a fourth route is added, with the same delay as the existing three. If there is no increase in traffic, the delay of all of the routes should decrease by x/4. This would then help the society, right?

When they say speed rail networks, they probably mean trains or subways. Wasn't one of the points of applying the transportation network theory to traffic systems toencourage people to use mass transit? I think perhaps cities should consider this theory especially in light of the focus on global warming and the rising interest in saving the environment by going green. Problem with that is that mass transit might get congested...I mean it already majorly is in places like NYC. So....maybe people should invest in hovercrafts.