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> adding road capacity (e.g. more lanes) can result in zero change in congestion because more people choose to take more trips

This is not the paradox nor even an argument against adding road capacity though.

Even if congestion or travel times stay the same, now more people are able to travel to places they want to go. Traffic might not have improved, but some measure of quality of life did.

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Depends on the impact of sitting in traffic on quality of life.

You can still forgo the trip though. It's up to each individual participant to decide whether or not they want to make the trip. The ability for more people to take the trip at the same opportunity cost. Adding a lane or a road is little different than increasing the frequency of trains on a subway.

Peak demand will always saturate whatever capacity you have but the amount of stuff you move at peak capacity is greater so you spend less time fully saturated

> Peak demand will always saturate whatever capacity you have but the amount of stuff you move at peak capacity is greater so you spend less time fully saturated

That doesn't follow.

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