It's not just you: The Katy Freeway is scientifically awful

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The Katy Freeway consistently strikes fear in the hearts of Houston's commuters.

You'd think that because it's so wide, there wouldn't be as much congestion as other, less huge highways. But alas, that is not the case.

A video from Vox uses the Katy Freeway to explain how adding lanes to a highway doesn't automatically mean less traffic.

At its widest point, the Katy Freeway has 26 lanes including the feeder roads. It doesn't matter. Those 26 lanes at the Katy Freeway at Beltway 8 were ranked the second-worst bottleneck in the country in 2004.

Vox points out that adding more lanes just brought in more drivers that might not have used the highway before, making all efforts to mitigate the paralyzing traffic moot.

Yes, the Katy Freeway is not the place to relax or enjoy a pleasant morning commute. But it does bring us some other fame because of its ridiculous size.

The concrete monstrosity is reportedly the widest freeway in the world. It's wider than several Houston landmarks, including NRG Stadium, Discovery Green and Minute Maid Park.

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