LA's traffic would improve if they made 90% of the city one-way streets (Los Angeles: houses, earthquake)

[Hwnwbrwncw]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

You don't know what scary is. Try ridding your bike up and down Angeles Crest with packs of rice rocket motorcyclists and tuner cars racing on the highway

Sorry. The 2 is just such a fun ride

[citizensadvocate]

Come to think of it LA could reclaim many streets for walkers and bikers if they are willing and make the budget to build underground tubes to funnel all that excess traffic from the freeways without damaging the neighborhoods or building unsightly flyovers. It doesn't have to be nearly as big as the Boston big dig project though it can do wonders. I believe SF should do the same so most of the traffic would not be going through the city and endangering pedestrians and bicyclists on the surface streets.

[MordinSolus]

Would underground roadways even be feasible in Los Angeles? Could the ground support it all or is it too soft?

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

Come to think of it LA could reclaim many streets for walkers and bikers if they are willing and make the budget to build underground tubes to funnel all that excess traffic from the freeways without damaging the neighborhoods or building unsightly flyovers. It doesn't have to be nearly as big as the Boston big dig project though it can do wonders. I believe SF should do the same so most of the traffic would not be going through the city and endangering pedestrians and bicyclists on the surface streets.

It would have to be several lane-miles BIGGER than the Big Dig to make a tiny dent in LA.

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by elhelmete

It would have to be several lane-miles BIGGER than the Big Dig to make a tiny dent in LA.

The big dig in Boston is actually a very complicated and dangerous project there are miles of tunnels under deep water and they also had built a BRT and rapid transit tunnel underwater as well. Under water projects would need to be able to withstand millions of tons of water pressure pressing against it adding to the complicity and expense. Also Boston is an old city and these Tunnels cannot follow existing street infrastructure as the streets are in a irregular web pattern therefore there is a great risk of causing ancient centuries old buildings and towering high rises to cave in if they are not particularly careful with construction. In LA they can build one under very wide east west existing streets/blvd such as Santa Monica, Beverly blvd, or Pico blvds as well as north south corridors such as La Cienega blvds or La Brea ave. Just two of these under ducts could greatly alleviate pass through traffic through neighborhoods in the central west area of the city. I mean there are already plans on doing this underground tunneling to extend the 710 to the 210 to complete its originally intended blueprint routing which was incomplete due to disruption by South Pasadena NIMBYists back in the days. Therefore I wonder why there isn't yet proposals to do the same for car loving yet traffic hating central west LA.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by Hwnwbrwncw

Sorry. The 2 is just such a fun ride

Also fun if you want to see a car down the side of a mountain or motorcyclist crashed into the side of of a wall as your almost guaranteed to see every weekend there.

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

The big dig in Boston is actually a very complicated and dangerous project there are miles of tunnels under deep water and they also had built a BRT and rapid transit tunnel underwater as well. Under water projects would need to be able to withstand millions of tons of water pressure pressing against it adding to the complicity and expense. Also Boston is an old city and these Tunnels cannot follow existing street infrastructure as the streets are in a irregular web pattern therefore there is a great risk of causing ancient centuries old buildings and towering high rises to cave in if they are not particularly careful with construction. In LA they can build one under very wide east west existing streets/blvd such as Santa Monica, Beverly blvd, or Pico blvds as well as north south corridors such as La Cienega blvds or La Brea ave. Just two of these under ducts could greatly alleviate pass through traffic through neighborhoods in the central west area of the city. I mean there are already plans on doing this underground tunneling to extend the 710 to the 210 to complete its originally intended blueprint routing which was incomplete due to disruption by South Pasadena NIMBYists back in the days. Therefore I wonder why there isn't yet proposals to do the same for car loving yet traffic hating central west LA.

Yeah, I worked for the Big Dig agency so I'm aware of it. A massive project no doubt, but when all is said and done, though...it really impacted a small area...one new tunnel to/from Logan and the depressed roadway from North Station to basically the Globe bldg. Boston is basically 93 and 90 through the center of town.

LA, otoh, is so many freeways in such need of capacity in so many areas of the county that it would be impossibly to reasonably single out one or two for attention and have it make a systemwide difference. The 710 is just one bitty area of a dozen that could use some separation of through vs local traffic.

As a hypothetical, I would say for it to be a legit comparison, the Big Dig project limits would have had to be extended through the NH border on i-93, exit 9 on the Mass Pike, and the Bourne/Sagamore bridges on the Cape.

[MordinSolus]

If the ground under Los Angeles could accommodate new roadways how would they work? Straight shots across town to alleviate the congestion from cross-town commuters? Frequent entrance/exit tunnels to act as underground freeways? Would adding subway lines alongside these new roadways be feasible?

[nja2016]

There were a bunch of one-way streets in my college town and people would drive the wrong way down them all the time. That was a small city with polite, patient drivers who would wait as the wrong-way driver maneuvered around to get going in the correct direction...so yeah, not a good idea here with the combination of bad drivers and road rage.

[YoungTraveler2011]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

If the ground under Los Angeles could accommodate new roadways how would they work? Straight shots across town to alleviate the congestion from cross-town commuters? Frequent entrance/exit tunnels to act as underground freeways? Would adding subway lines alongside these new roadways be feasible?

Underground freeways would be great.

I think we should have 1 exit at each neighborhood / city.

Like one exit in the middle of santa monica, 1 exit in the middle of culver city, 1 exit in the middle of beverly hills, etc.