"We built these freeways, and they’re not generating less trips, they’re generating more. More freedom. People want to live out away from the city and drive in to work, or they want to live in one part [of the metropolis] and work in another, or go shopping or so forth. They don’t want to live all in one place like they do in New York."
This is a very common theme all across the world and time. It's quite literally the tragedy of the commons, nobody has any direct incentive not to move further out or drive all the way across town or whatever and we all suffer in traffic for it.
Given all the negative externalities of extra driving today, building more roads seems less than helpful.
Freedom to live and work in one small area, or to do otherwise. Freedom to go where you want, when you want.
Is there a cost to that? Hell yeah. But for an awful lot of people, it's worth it.
Too many time to count, I've met someone whose car was their only significant possession, the only thing of any real value they owned outright. They'd lost or sold everything else, but the car they wouldn't part with - it wasn't just transportation, but their home, and for a few dollars in gas it was heat and a lifeline to those who could help in an emergency. I guess in NYC, they'd have been sleeping on the subway somewhere... But instead, they had freedom.