Abstract
Effective instruments to reduce the growth of the environmental damage created by urban traffic, or to even roll it back, are in scarce supply. This is particularly so in the large cities of the developing world, among other reasons because of their seemingly uncontrollable expansion over vast areas. The author's view is that, rather than being a very welcome relief of urban traffic congestion, urban highway systems, by the way they are designed, fuel environmentally unsustainable transport system development.