Urban planners have long debated whether wide, multi-lane roads reduce congestion by increasing capacity or worsen it by inducing additional demand —…

Urban planners have long debated whether wide, multi-lane roads reduce congestion by increasing capacity or worsen it by inducing additional demand — a phenomenon in which drivers who previously avoided a route, chose a different time, or used public transport instead begin driving once the road appears to offer an easier trip. Decades of traffic data across dozens of cities now favour the second view with unusual consistency: widened roads fill to their old congestion levels within a few years, not because planners underestimated growth, but because the extra capacity itself generates the trips that consume it. The uncomfortable implication for policymakers is that a popular, visibly concrete solution to congestion — build more lanes — is one of the few traffic interventions that reliably fails to achieve its own stated purpose over any meaningful time horizon.
Which one of the following best captures the paragraph's central point?