As it turns out, some road improvement projects change the pattern of route usage in a way that they paradoxically make the situation worse. It's called "Braess's paradox" and it stems from analysis of network topology and Nash equilibria:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braesss_paradox" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braesss_paradox</a><p>Also, a typical road improvement project costs between one and five million dollars per mile. Based on the mean value, Musk's $50K contribution would add capacity to 106 feed of roadway.<p>Nice gesture, though.