The new Verona Road "improvement", which Mayor Dave now reportedly supports, doesn't consider the cost of "improving" (expanding) the rest of the Beltline to accommodate the increasing volumes of motor vehicles that the Verona Rd. expansion will allow. That is a fatal flaw of this project.
DOT continues to add more capacity to the system of roads feeding into the Beltline, knowing full well that the Beltline capacity is already exceeded on almost a daily basis. So now they propose to re look at the entire Beltline in another study. Widening the Beltline would cost in the billions of dollar, not millions. The traffic volumes would unacceptable from a community health and safety standpoint, to say nothing about the environment. The Verona Rd. "improvement" should not be considered in isolation of that reality. In the meantime, motor vehicle traffic on Madison's streets system continues to increase, resulting in injuries and deaths from cars running into bicycles and pedestrians and other cars. However, rather than propose nonstructural alternatives (mass transit and economic incentives to avoid driving), which encourage less driving by the public, the state instead funds massive and expensive new road "improvements", which primarily benefit the road building, automobile and transportation fuels industries, while those who enjoy bicycling, walking, and breathing get the short shrift. Equity and common sense are both lacking in Wisconsin's transportation policies and programs. Mike Neuman ------------- Preceding Message ------------- [Bikies] Re: Verona Rd alert - meeting Thursday! Tim Wong Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:01:05 -0700 what bugs me is where highwaymen refer to highway expansions as "improvements." Excuse me, improvements for who?????? > The price tag for just the interchange could be $55 million, and the portion of Verona Rd leading up to the interchange could take $140 million. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
