-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday 23 October 2002 21:53, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Ever notice how poorly designed/operated out city traffic control system > is?
No. I never did notice this. Is it something that other cities our size are getting right and we have completely screwed up? I haven't noticed the difference, but I don't get out much (and when I do I love taking advantage of mass transit in other big cities-- so much less time spent being lost or fighting traffic and so much more time to enjoy the scenery and people watch and stuff). > You can probably travel around any part of the city and find several > locations where the signal timing, lack of light coordination, lack of a > "Left Turn" function just make no logical sense at all. Signal timing and light coordination? Aren't the signals *meant* to stop people every once in a while? And a left turn function, wouldn't that require a whole separate lane down the middle to actually work? Most of the major thoroughfares where this might be useful don't have room for another lane, do they? > City politicians can pursue any agenda's they wish, but first and > foremost must be in making sure the infrastructure of the city, > including traffic control and management is consistent, adaptable, and > meets the growing needs of a major metro city. The next time your out > and about in your car, pay attention to not only traffic control at your > corner, but 1-2 blocks ahead and behind, see how it all connects good or > bad; then call your Councilman and ask him/her what they will do about > it. I won't be out or about in my car any time soon because I gave that up. But if you insist, I'll call my council[person] (or just cc her on this email) and ask her to please work on making sure the buses and trains get the support they need to actually be a workable piece of our infrastructure. As I understand it, these are amenities that most world-class cities have these days and our bus system seems to be barely holding the fort and our train system is (as yet) non-existent. Additionally mass transit enfranchises large segments of our population: the handicapped, the elderly, youth, and those whose wages won't stretch to cover car payments/repairs and insurance. Also, I am certain that drunks on the bus are annoying, but they aren't killing 45,000 of their fellow U.S. citizens every year. Auto-centric city planning disenfranchises all of these people and adds an unnecessary level of danger to all our lives. I'll also ask that she do her level best to stop encouraging driving with proposals like mandatory garages on new home construction. Encouraging car ownership by designing the city around cars simply, ahem, drives up the cost of living. Now with places like Stone Arch being allowed to define "affordable housing" using prices that are equal to 50% of 50% of the residents gross income, I'm not even sure how the majority of us will be able to afford both housing and automobiles. I guess if the City has leftover money from revenues directly related to transportation I would encourage it to put them towards mass transit first, then work on minor issues like signal timing and left turn lanes. The only place in the city I've ever had trouble driving (when I was doing that) was the side streets in the Uptown area. It seems like everyone there must own a car-- and they all seem to be taking full advantage of city-subsidized parking on the streets, rather than providing themselves with off-street parking. -michael libby (cleveland/north mpls) <signature> <name>Michael C. Libby</name> <email>[EMAIL PROTECTED]</email> <web-site>http://www.ichimunki.com/</web-site> <public-key>http://www.ichimunki.com/public_key.txt</public-key> </signature> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE9t/mk4ClW9KMwqnMRAu3MAKCdNocUq0muV3Xe5v4TogIM+Y37DQCgjdR2 kCinvzo9rQuLibYc4C5DIhw= =7AQB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
