Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You can either have your tax money alloacted for roads or your toll money allocated for toll roads not go to where it's supposed to. Without the toll roads, it's lesss money coming out of your pocket. While the toll roads may be privatized, the gov't isn't eliminated from the picture, so there will still be some issues with it.
Groove, what do you then suggest to improve our road infrastructure? Doing nothing resolves nothing.
Drive less. Carpool when possible. If you have an express bus or other mass transit option, vanpool, light rail or whatever, and it works for you, use it. You can find carpool info on Share the Ride NC and you can sign up for a guaranteed ride home if you have an emergency. I know these won't work for everyone, but they would for a lot of people. If we build more roads, they will just fill up as it only puts more vehicles on the road.
Drive less. Carpool when possible. If you have an express bus or other mass transit option, vanpool, light rail or whatever, and it works for you, use it. You can find carpool info on Share the Ride NC and you can sign up for a guaranteed ride home if you have an emergency. I know these won't work for everyone, but they would for a lot of people. If we build more roads, they will just fill up as it only puts more vehicles on the road.
Yes in theory or an ideal world, that would be great. World peace is also desirable. Actually achieving either is impossible. People will continue to migrate to Charlotte and they will continue to use their cars. Unless GovCo restricts driving (and I'm sure you wouldn't endorse that), people will not decrease their driving times. So what are we left with? Improving and expanding the road system in conjunction with the rail transit system (fwiw, I don't endorse the rail for Charlotte, but it's a losing battle nonetheless). The 100,000 transplants expected to flock to Charlotte over the next decade (I think that's the number) will do nothing less than congest the roads anyway. The rail system is not designed to alleviate that traffic. The only option is to widen the roads we have.
Why don't people get smart and move near light rail stations, instead of living out in far-flung areas, which increases sprawl and clogs roadways? The goal is not only to build a light rail system in dense, urban areas, but to induce people to move near those stations. Real, progressive cities are areas in which a significant percentage of people use light rail, subway, or bus systems, instead of being car junkies.
Not everyone can afford to live in urban areas, where homes are commonly more expensive, and some of us don't like living in the city and like horses and such. Why is the answer always for everyone to have to live in urban apartments? A lot of us didn't grow up that way, and don't want to raise our kids that way. If I wanted a New York urban lifestyle (and could afford it) I would be there. The things you say are the exact same things being said in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, and people are not living by the light rail stations, and they all have horrible traffic and extremely high home prices.
Yes in theory or an ideal world, that would be great. World peace is also desirable. Actually achieving either is impossible. People will continue to migrate to Charlotte and they will continue to use their cars. Unless GovCo restricts driving (and I'm sure you wouldn't endorse that), people will not decrease their driving times. So what are we left with? Improving and expanding the road system in conjunction with the rail transit system (fwiw, I don't endorse the rail for Charlotte, but it's a losing battle nonetheless). The 100,000 transplants expected to flock to Charlotte over the next decade (I think that's the number) will do nothing less than congest the roads anyway. The rail system is not designed to alleviate that traffic. The only option is to widen the roads we have.
The point isn't to eliminate traffic but to control the rate of congestion. It will take cars off the road. The traffic we have now isn't going to go away, but hopefully we can help slow the rate of congestion (as in, try to not let it get any worse than it already is) by giving people options. It makes a lot of sense and really isn't that hard to understand...
Yes in theory or an ideal world, that would be great. World peace is also desirable. Actually achieving either is impossible. People will continue to migrate to Charlotte and they will continue to use their cars. Unless GovCo restricts driving (and I'm sure you wouldn't endorse that), people will not decrease their driving times. So what are we left with? Improving and expanding the road system in conjunction with the rail transit system (fwiw, I don't endorse the rail for Charlotte, but it's a losing battle nonetheless). The 100,000 transplants expected to flock to Charlotte over the next decade (I think that's the number) will do nothing less than congest the roads anyway. The rail system is not designed to alleviate that traffic. The only option is to widen the roads we have.
I agree. I am from the west (Missoula MT, Boise ID, Portland OR and Seattle WA) and the old saw of "if you just widen the roads more people will use them" was commonly used. Funny thing, even if a road didn't get widened MORE people still used them anyway, and traffic was a horrid mess. More roads and or widened ones are the only true answer, people just don't want to dig in and do it until it's to late. Kind of like the salmon, nobody wanted to deal with the situation until it was critical, and by then it was almost to late and mega expensive.
The point isn't to eliminate traffic but to control the rate of congestion. It will take cars off the road. The traffic we have now isn't going to go away, but hopefully we can help slow the rate of congestion (as in, try to not let it get any worse than it already is) by giving people options. It makes a lot of sense and really isn't that hard to understand...
Except that it won't slow the rate of congestion, and Ron Tober, the mayor, and the Jennifer Roberts have ALL admitted that. They say that it offers an alternative to congestion - aka: live where the developers are building along the rail line.
Except that it won't slow the rate of congestion, and Ron Tober, the mayor, and the Jennifer Roberts have ALL admitted that. They say that it offers an alternative to congestion - aka: live where the developers are building along the rail line.
Actually it does, because it takes cars off the road. And like you said, it also offers an alternative to congestion. People will move to those developments because transit is considered an amenity. Even if it takes the same time for you to commute, atleast it is A LOT cheaper, you save gas and wear and tear on your car, and it is a lot less stressful. Transit systems aren't a short term fix, they are a long term investment that will pay off in the future. Even though I agree I-77 should be widened along with HOV lanes, it will only end up just as congested as it is now. Then what? Spend another hundreds of millions (maybe even into the billions?) to widen it again? Is there even enough right of way to do that (I-77 in South Charlotte)?
There are other benefits as well, such as connecting our city together. Think about the benefits of having a station at UNCC and connecting our college students, who are important to our future, to downtown and other parts of the city. We have a great college here that is so disconnected from our city. It would be nice to go to UNCC and not have to drive everywhere.
While I definitely respect every one's way of life and choosing to live in the country if they would like, there are allways things you can do to minimize driving. As far as growing up a certain way, I'm not too fond of that argument. You can be raised a bad way and do bad things if your parents did them (sexuual abuse is a common one, poor health/eating habits is another). Real change begins with the individual, not with their parents. In many ways, actually living in the country may be beneficial. When I lived in Charlotte, just 3.5 miles from work, I had a lot of things close to me, so I would make more seperae trips to get to the same places. Now that I'm not really all too close too anything in the townshp of Fort Mill, I tend to consolidate my trips more. I also eat better because I usually make my meals at home rather than going out to eat because there isn't all that much near me. So living in a less than urban area does have its advantages.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
