The problem is that eventually those freeways will get clogged at rush hour unless you continually expand them, which is crazy expensive if you need to rebuild dozens of bridges etc, and suffers from the laws of diminishing returns (adding a 5th lane to a 4 lane high way does not result in a 25% capacity gain).
I'd be surprised in the long run if even Omaha isn't susceptible to this, and electric vehicles don't really do much to help this (perhaps autonomous driving may allow a small %age increase but I am highly sceptical past that).
Houston and Dallas both have fast growing light rail systems, and there is the Texas Central railway project to link the cities with high speed rail so I don't think they're a perfect example - they also have a massive wind power boom going on right now.
> (perhaps autonomous driving may allow a small %age increase but I am highly sceptical past that).
I'm imagining in the future that some roads will be reserved for automated use only except in emergencies. At that point, you greatly increase the trust in individual agents and planning can be communicated ("I plan to move 3 lanes to the right in 1.5 miles, FYI"). Average speed increases, "turbulence" reduces, which improves throughput and speed consistency though doesn't help with exit bottlenecks.
That said, you're right. The law of diminishing returns continues to apply even if it kicks the can down the road a bit (i.e. adding a 5th lane results in a 10% capacity gain without SDVs, 21% gain with SDVs -- numbers are completely made up).
I'd be surprised in the long run if even Omaha isn't susceptible to this, and electric vehicles don't really do much to help this (perhaps autonomous driving may allow a small %age increase but I am highly sceptical past that).
Houston and Dallas both have fast growing light rail systems, and there is the Texas Central railway project to link the cities with high speed rail so I don't think they're a perfect example - they also have a massive wind power boom going on right now.