Sean Wherley wrote:
> While the Star Tribune's support for light rail is encouraging, it is > difficult to square the paper's enthusiasm for the Hiawatha line with its > advocacy for more highway construction in south Minneapolis. I would argue that they are eminently reconcilable. The reality is that if current trends hold, we are going to add about 1 million more people or about 25% more people. Due to travel trends, we are going to increase the amount of travel much faster than this, with daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT) increasing over 50% during the same period and an increasing amount of that travel has been occurring on highways. Highway capacity construction on the other hand has slowed every decade, with the highway capacity increasing only about 10% over the last decade. Current funding projects mean that highway capacity will increase even more slowly than it did in previous decades. The short answer is that congestion is worsening and going to continue. What is the solution? There are transit advocates who argue that only transit can "solve" this problem. There are highway advocates who argue that only highways can "solve" this problem. The reality is that there is no "solution" to the problem, only actions that can help mitigate the increases that are coming if current trends hold. To do so, we need every tool that we have in our tool belt. It isn't transit vs. highways. It needs to be transit and highways and telecommuting and carpooling and vanpooling and every tool that we can find. Folks also need to understand the limitations of both approaches, highways and transit. Transit functions well in the urban areas where the trolley car was the organizing principle for development. Houses are close together, commercial densities are high enough to support transit, and a large number of people are going to concentrated destinations like downtown or the University. In the suburbs, the automobile was the organizing principle for development and houses are far apart, with streets that are not on a grid, and not convenient for transit. People are also going from multiple origins to widely spread destinations, also a model that does not work well for transit. In short, urban form works well for transit because it was built for transit while suburban form doesn't because it wasn't. Likewise, highways do provide great mobility but they also have limitations. Part of it is financial. We simply do not have enough money to build all the highways that would be necessary to mitigate congestion. Even with increases in taxes for transportation, we will be short of what is necessary to maintain even current levels of congestion. In addition, many of our congested highways are in areas where it will be difficult to get right of way, like through the Lowery Hill tunnel or I-94 between the two downtowns. Completing Hiawatha took decades and one has to expect controversial highway expansions would be similar. This means that transit needs to be focused on the places it is successful. This includes taking people to the downtowns and University of Minnesota and providing transit for people in the urban core so they do not have to travel on highways. It also needs to be focused on taking people through congested highways, especially those that have a low likelihood of expansion. Likewise, highway expansion needs to be focused on areas that can be expanded within a reasonable cost and reasonable timeframe to give as immediate payback for investment as possible. But transit and highway investments need to be in synergy with each other, each filling a void the other cannot. Mobility is the lifeblood of a community. It is hard to weigh the romantic dinner forgone because it was too hard to get together, the customer who chooses to not make the trek to a business, the handshake deal that never happens because the hands could never meet, the job not taken because the commute is too arduous. If Minneapolis is going to remain successful, if it is going to remain economically competitive, and if its citizens are going to have a good quality of life, we need to fight to maintain as much mobility as possible. That means we need every tool that we can muster - transit and highways together, not in opposition. Carol Becker Longfellow REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
