Do you have any idea what it would cost to build "lane capacity" to meet an unconstrained demand? They actually tried that in Los Angeles. See what that place looks like now.
There are very, very few areas of life where it makes any sense to design something for a peak operating condition that occurs relatively infrequently. A typical city will have peak rush-hour traffic for maybe 4-6 hours in a day. Why would you ever design it for a condition that occurs maybe 16% to 25% of the time, especially considering the enormous cost of adding that one additional lane every time you think you need it?
This isn't unique to transportation infrastructure, either. It's the same rationale that is used in sports. The Yankees could probably sell 200,000 tickets for any game they play against the Red Sox, but it makes no sense for them to build a 200,000-seat stadium when they would draw an average of maybe 40,000-45,000 fans for almost any other game.
Actually, they DID NOT try it in Southern California. Jerry Brown effectively killed it when it was half completed. That’s why there’s a nice green strip through Beverly Hills and Orange County got stuck with a bunch of useless toll roads, among a large number of other aborted builds, too numerous to name here.
But what the hell, turn highways into playgrounds for the RICH, why the hell not!!!
...and by the way, you don’t have to TALK DOWN to me, I’m not as dumb as you think. I didn’t say to add lanes until congestion cleared, I said to add capacity as population grew - which actually did happen in much of the country. Take a look at the New Jersey Turnpike some day. I realize there will have to be some congestion to get anywhere close to optimum efficiency out of highways - I just don’t like the idea of PUNISHING people for stuff that many, perhaps most, don’t have control over - like what their work hours are or what their class hours are.
I’m also not into the government cutting CRONY DEALS, as has been the case time and time again with these schemes...although, I guess others are into that.