I've heard that quote and seen it written elsewhere. It's a nice way to
capsulize what appears to be a straightforward cause and effect problem.
Unfortunately, national and international statistics clearly indicate that
you can build your way out of congestion, and many cities have done so.
Paris is the most heavily railed city in the world. The city has a
population density of 50,000 people per sq. mi. Including its suburbs --
which stretch out to an equivalent area about three times larger than our
metro area -- the density is 17,000 people per SM. Our metro area --
around 3,500. Paris is now underway with billions in new highway and
tunnel construction to relieve congestion at its outer edge. They've quit
adding rail lines, simple because they do not relieve congestion, and
people are not abandoning their cars.
At some point in the evolution of a city (albeit this only is true in more
developed economies), actual population becomes stagnant and neighborhoods
recycle and rebuild in unending waves. At that point congestion indices
change very little, except that recycling moves pressure points around.
The presumption that congestion will always be with us until we use
different forms of transit can only hold true if American cities,
economies, technology, education, and social evolution doesn't change. I
don't recall the exact timeframe, but the director of the patent office
around the turn of the last century believed it ought to be closed since
everything of merit had already been invented. That's medieval thinking,
and so is the presumption that roads should not be part of the solution.
Adding lanes is not the complete answer, and it may be a solution that
works for maybe only a decade or so. But my how things change in a decade.
If you're curious where real growth is occurring in the US, check into
works by Jack Lessinger, an academic whose work is in socio-economics and
the history of economic growth patterns in the US. His pioneering analyses
are revving up a whole new approach to public policy thinking in
conservative and liberal circles.
Caleb Faux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@mnforum.org on 01/18/2001 04:53:12 PM
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Re:Crosstown Follies & Adding Lanes
To repeat an oft quoted wag on the subject of transportation planning -
"solving
congestion by buiding bigger highways is like trying to cure obesity by
loosening
your belt."
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >Whining about the damage done by auto traffic,
> >concrete, oil companies, destruction of the universe, etc. doesn't
change
> history.
>
> No it doesn't change history, but that's not the point.
> I have a question for everyone. Where does it end? Or if you don't like
that
> question, Where is all this construction going, and why are we so bent on
> endless miles of pavement? How will Minneapolis look in 50 or 100 years
at the
> rate we are going? If you pull out a map of Minneapolis, you will see
there is
> a road about every 800 feet. It's to the point now where we are paving
over
> what we have left of our parks. Too many green things there I suppose.
Dirty
> smelly highways are preferable to some, or at least as long as it's not
in
> their back yard.
> So some say build more lanes, and pave over more land, that way people
will
> have a better way, to get away, from all of that pavement when they drive
home,
> to the greener suburbs. I can't be the only one who sees the irony here.
I
> think this is the heart of the reason why we can't build our way out of
this
> situation with bigger freeways. We need a better transportation system,
and
> bigger freeways aren't it.
> Freeways are a money generating system to promote autos above all else so
large
> corporations can make huge profits. And that's the truth. The
documentation is
> all over the place.
> Don't believe me? Watch the movie "Roger and Me" (available at your
local
> video store). This isn't about freedom to drive, or good of the community
or
> getting from point A to point B. It's about using transportation needs as
a
> pawn to making money, and it's at the cost of our environment.
> Go to
> http://www.highways.org/about/members.html
> It the highway users alliance website. You will find only companies who
stand
> to profit with a website and an alliance that acts like its a grassroots
> community organization.
> Then go to the Science Museum (see today's Star Tribune) and check out
the
> photo exhibit on global warming, showing melting permafrost, receding
glaciers,
> dying forests and disintegrating ice shelves, and tell me I'm wrong.
(God
> knows I want to be)
>
> Tom Holtzleiter
> King Field
>
> o: Minneapolis Forum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [Mpls] Crosstown Follies & Adding Lanes
> Date sent: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 10:48:30 -0600
>
> [ Double-click this line for list subscription options ]
>
> I don't want anyone to believe that my suggestion for adding lanes is due
> to the fact that my commute to Minneapolis from Hastings is taking
longer.
>
> There has been very little real job growth in both downtowns over the
past
> 20 years. Yes, the increase has been huge, but as a percentage of the
> total vehicle miles traveled in the 25 largest metro areas across the US
> downtown commuter traffic is a pittance of the increase. The real
problem
> -- or blessing of prosperity, if you see it that way -- has been the
> 'huger' growth in suburban jobs and housing. Intersuburban traffic is
> forced onto 50 year old freeways, making life miserable for everyone.
>
> Why not take $300 million from the LRT pot and bury 50% or more of the
> crosstown commons? The tunnel portion would be heavy traffic only with
> perhaps only three exits around 50th, 30th, and downtown. Then depress
> part of a double deck roadway for only light vehicle traffic -- vehicles
> with less than 3 ton axle weights. Lighter vehicles need less room to
> turn, stop, and accelerate. Lighter vehicles need much less than 18 feet
> of clearance and less structure, thereby reducing the heights and visual
> intrusion of every exit ramp, etc.
>
> Lighter weight roadways will last longer and be much cheaper to maintain
--
> they're far less costly to build and repair since they don't take the
> dynamic pounding of 18-wheelers. Noise would be substantially reduced,
> very little new ROW would be needed. All the current exits to 35 from
city
> streets could be better landscaped, entrances could be shorter, steeper,
> faster, heavy trucks and buses would be limited to the tunnel. Some of
the
> despicably ugly sound walls could likely removed or shortened or
actually
> rebuilt as an amenity instead of an eyesore. Real aesthetics could be
> introduced.
>
> It's being done in Paris, London, Sydney, Boston, LA, etc. Oops -- I
> forgot, LRT construction has started, so forget that idea. Too
> controversial and expensive, I'd guess. Only makes the lives of several
> hundred thousand commuters every day better -- not to mention the local
> residents -- instead of the 15 to 20 thou who will be on the Hiawatha.
Oh
> yes -- and let's not forget that federal transportation dollars forbid
> separated grade single purpose roadways. That wonderful attitude from
> Washington explains why many states routinely build privately financed
toll
> roads to do just what I suggest here.
>
> Until and unless voters demand policy makers to perform real long range
> transportation planning -- untainted by politics and very narrow ideals
--
> we need to get used to the fact that drive time will be an hour each way.
> Folks in most every larger metro area than ours have been getting by for
> decades with that reality. Whining about the damage done by auto
traffic,
> concrete, oil companies, destruction of the universe, etc. doesn't change
> history. We are in such better shape that our immediate predecessors, we
> -- live longer, are better fed, better housed, better employed, better
> educated, spend far more time in leisure pursuits, travel at will, etc.
> Immigrants flock to our shores. Am I being too optimistic??
>
> Things will change. Politicians change much slower, and policy slower
> still. How long would you guess it will take for federal and state
> transportation officials to "get it" ?????
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]@mnforum.org on 01/17/2001 11:26:16 PM
>
> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> cc:
> Subject: [Mpls] Crosstown Follies
>
> Terry Matula ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>
> "And what evidence can you point to that indicates that adding lanes is a
> bad thing? I find it curious that so many people care so little about
> factual information when it comes to transportation issues."
>
> It's not always the present facts that are disturbing. The idea (several
> years ago squashed) of expanding 35W between the Crosstown and
> Downtown--and myself possibly having a freeway sound wall for a view if
> they tear down the block to our east to do it--that is a "bad thing."
Not
> to mention people being forced to move because someone 20 miles further
out
> doesn't want their speedometer needle to flutter under 65 mph...
>
> "List manager" (we all know the man behind the curtain?) wrote:
>
> "?should city officials lobby to delay the Crosstown Project, to keep
lanes
> open and ease the heavy impact (while perhaps stretching it out) on South
> Minneapolis neighborhoods where commuters will inevitably cut through?
OR
> What mitigation steps SHOULD the neighborhoods try to get?"
>
> Preferable to me, that the commuters should remain in that concrete
> riverbed than to have them speeding through our neighborhoods (and some
of
> them ending up with their cars entangled in my fence in the inevitable
> increase in accidents at our intersections)? That one reason for the
> Crosstown being altered is for safety reasons, bothers me--the accidents
> along 62 are less due to its design than to drivers' impatience. I say,
> cancel the project altogether and just keep the potholes filled. Too
late
> for that, I suppose...
>
> [Driscoll2] wrote: "[the commuters] actually admit to preferring a
freeway
> parking lot where they spend twice the time they do when the flow is
faster
> as long as the gummint isn't telling them what to do! By Gad."
>
> Well, they made their bed[room communitie]s in Ham Lake, Princeton, and
> various exurbs in Wisconsin, now they can lie in it. THis isn't
> anti-suburb sentiment, it's just reality that if you're further away from
> your job, you shouldn't expect to get to work faster than those half the
> distance or less...
>
> It'a kind of bizarre but the ramp meters democratized commuting: After
> dropping off my spouse at her job in St. Louis Park, my gantlet through
two
> separate meters on Hwy 100 and I394 make my commute time exactly the same
> as the Cargill V.P. who lives in Deephaven!!!! (Wait, what am I
saying?!)
>
> Luther Krueger whose commute (when Jo takes Metro Transit) is under 12
> minutes from 35th and 1st Av. S., to my ramp at 4th & Nicollet.
> Lyndale, 8th Ward
>
> Signup for your free USWEST.mail Email account http://www.uswestmail.net
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--
Caleb Faux, AICP
Pflum, Klausmeier & Gehrum Consultants
5533 Fair Lane, Cincinnati, Ohio 45227
(513)-272-5533 Fax (513)272-5522
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web-site - www.pkgconsult.com
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Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
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