LA's traffic would improve if they made 90% of the city one-way streets (Orange: gated, income)

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

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.

great until the big one hits and tunnels collapse on hundreds of cars

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

great until the big one hits and tunnels collapse on hundreds of cars

Isn't that exactly what people said about towers and skyscrapers in Los Angeles?

[elhelmete]

Originally Posted by elhelmete

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.

Just refreshed my memory...

The TWT/Pike Extension and underground O'Neill tunnel collectively cover around 11 miles of road corridor and cost what...$24B???. That's about the equivalent of I-405 from LAX to Wilshire Blvd. One freeway.

[citizensadvocate]

I wonder who are these NIMBY special interest groups who consider themselves "Progressives" but in reality they tend to lobby against any type of progress towards modernization.
Elevated road they riot against it, underground where its practically invisible and leaves all existing neighborhoods undisturbed they still will make every effort to block it using every possible excuse they can find.
I see in Asian cities they have plenty of these multi leveled roads that channel traffic into and out of cities connecting to main freeways. Not every city is in China where there is low wages, quick yet shuddy low quality construction, and lack of individual land rights. Some of these cities are also in active Earthquake zones. If LA could build a combination of elevated and underground to close the gaps left by the "freeway revolts of the 1960s" they could greatly tame the traffic issue in central west. That is if they also are able to accept to build a descent a rapid transit system simultaneously. I mean they kept blocking the Wilshire subway using Methane pockets as an excuse. Though why its not considered to build overhead through the "Methane pockets."

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

I wonder who are these NIMBY special interest groups who consider themselves "Progressives" but in reality they tend to lobby against any type of progress towards modernization.

It's the upper-middle and upper class busybodies that donate to local charities and use their canvas shopping grocery bags but don't want to associate with the riffraff infrastructure expansion would bring to their front doors. Liberal white people who like to talk about how fantastic diversity and urban living are but are terrified of minorities and the working class.

[Hwnwbrwncw]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

It's the upper-middle and upper class busybodies that donate to local charities and use their canvas shopping grocery bags but don't want to associate with the riffraff infrastructure expansion would bring to their front doors. Liberal white people who like to talk about how fantastic diversity and urban living are but are terrified of minorities and the working class.

Whereas those upper-middle and upper class conservatives just love to rub elbows with them?

One group may be hypocritical, but I can assure you rich conservatives are just as disdainful of the poor and working class and exert tons of political pressure.

[MordinSolus]

Originally Posted by Hwnwbrwncw

Whereas those upper-middle and upper class conservatives just love to rub elbows with them?

One group may be hypocritical, but I can assure you rich conservatives are just as disdainful of the poor and working class and exert tons of political pressure.

The conservatives don't play pretend. They form their enclaves and stay far removed from the common folk.

[YoungTraveler2011]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

great until the big one hits and tunnels collapse on hundreds of cars

Tokyo has TONS of stacked highways... and they get much worse earthquakes.

[YoungTraveler2011]

i personally think they should triple deck the highways.

and make each level ideal for certain destinations...

and then on the sides of them do some artwork

[citizensadvocate]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

It's the upper-middle and upper class busybodies that donate to local charities and use their canvas shopping grocery bags but don't want to associate with the riffraff infrastructure expansion would bring to their front doors. Liberal white people who like to talk about how fantastic diversity and urban living are but are terrified of minorities and the working class.

True these people brainwash politicians mainly of certain political parties to act there way. They are the ones who push for ridicous policies that mainly target the end user's use of bags at the checkout stand and no where else in the name of Saving the environment. And the first to push unprecedented government mandated price fixing on end users just to avoid public vote. What they are oblivious to is their propaganda makes things worse for the environment and just about everything and everyone else. Though brainwashed polticians continue to listen to them and upheld their decisions as "politically right." Traffic and pollution is much worse as now we have a large amount of traffic being bottlenecked from many freeways into one or two freeways and way overcapacity city streets as people have no choice but to drive as they not only blocked road project but mass metro rapid transit ones as well. I mean come to think of it they could have planned the Wilshire metro together with elevated roadways simultaneously and killed two birds with one stone while saving a bunch of money. Wilshire is pretty much commercialized end to end anyways with high rise buildings therefore the ugly infrastructure excuse would be just bogus as its not very visible from most houses and high rises with views are much higher than elevated roadway.

Originally Posted by YoungTraveler2011

Tokyo has TONS of stacked highways... and they get much worse earthquakes.

True not all futuristic cities in the far east are in China in which labor is nearly free under the socialist government who also decided where people live and work.
Labor is expensive in Japan and they have historically strong stance on property rights(They have to jump many hurdles just to build an airport over farm villages). Despite all these challenges they are still able to build modern infrastructure over the decades. Taipei is somewhat similar to Japan in terms of property rights and earthquakes but they built both miles of elevated roadways into the city and MRT lines.

Alas I notice during the past decades I notice these progressive groups are invading the far east in droves and Californicating these places and their politicians at an alarming rate. More and more "progressive" propaganda are being passed into law there. I bet this would have a major impact on future development.
It is already happening now. For example Some planned high speed rail lines/roadway projects are being hindered by NIMBYists in China and other Asian countries, for example The Maglev train project in China had been tabled indefinitely as some groups lobby against "magnetic radiation," they believe the train might cause. In Japan groups had been lobbying against greenhouse gases which placed a lot of projects under the axe and anti nuclear groups since March 11, 2011 now makes it difficult for Japan to have enough energy for economic recovery which Japan struggled with since 1990s as Japanese economy is a highly electronic based one. Though its great that these groups did not reach their shores before we had all these infrastructure already built. If they were there any earlier I doubt Asian cities would become what they are today.