I hate feeder roads. This is a subject my wife and I debate occasionally. She claims that feeder roads are almost universally praised. They provide additional lanes to relieve highway congestion during peak usage, and they reduce traffic on city streets away from the highway.

A feeder road, also known as a frontage road, access road, service road, etc., is a smaller road that runs parallel to a highway and allows access to and from the highway. They are rare in most parts of the US, but they are common in Texas and usually lined with store fronts in urban areas. Some feeders are equipped with Texas U-Turns, a curious invention allowing travelers in one direction on a feeder to switch over to the feeder in the other direction without having to wait for the stop light.

Nevermind that feeders cost an additional $1.5 million per mile to construct or that feeders and the mini-mall developments that line them are ugly. I argue that feeders are dangerous, particularly in urban areas where freeway exits are closely spaced. In some areas around Houston, feeder roads can be three or four lanes wide. If you’re exiting the freeway and have to turn right at the next signal, you’ll find yourself having to cut across multiple lanes of high speed traffic in a very short distance. Moreover, when entering the freeway, you often find yourself jockeying for the same lane with cars trying to exit at the next ramp. As for Texas U-Turns, these seem to provide only a minor benefit that is not worth the cost.

TxDOT appears to agree with me, but the rest of the state doesn’t. In 2001, TxDOT approved a change in policy that would limit construction of new feeder roads, but that policy was withdrawn in 2002 after protest.

I don’t get it. Can somebody explain to me why feeders are worth saving?