 New highways can also cause habitat fragmentation, encourage urban sprawl and allow human intrusion into previously untouched areas, as well as (counterintuitively) increasing congestion, by increasing the number of intersections.They can also reduce the use of public transport, indirectly leading to greater pollution.High-occupancy vehicle lanes are being added to some newer/reconstructed highways in North America and other countries around the world to encourage carpooling and mass-transit.