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PERSONALLY...I think the subway system in NEW YORK is amazing! People are crazy for wanting to take a highway through Manhattan.
Stop somewhere, and take the subway into the city, it'll be 1000 times easier, quicker, etc. I've never understood why people drive into the city anyways and spend an hour looking for expensive parking, when everything is already setup for people to avoid doing that.
PERSONALLY...I think the subway system in NEW YORK is amazing! People are crazy for wanting to take a highway through Manhattan.
Stop somewhere, and take the subway into the city, it'll be 1000 times easier, quicker, etc. I've never understood why people drive into the city anyways and spend an hour looking for expensive parking, when everything is already setup for people to avoid doing that.
Because people have unfounded biases and fears toward public transit. Sad, really.
Because people have unfounded biases and fears toward public transit. Sad, really.
Yes, it is sad. Here is a list of the 32 largest subway/metro systems in the world, by annual ridership. NYC, is the only one in America that makes this list ( ranked 4). Some of these cities, I'm sure the average American never heard of, yet it has a bigger subway system than cities like Chicago or Washington. What does that say about Americans and public transit?
^^^ NJ, is a densly populated state. In fact, it is the most densly populated stated in the Nation, with almost 9 million residents, in a area less than 8,800 sq miles.
Though, most parts of NJ, is heavily reliant on cars, building a megahighway system in NJ wouldn't help because of the amount of highly dense areas.
Yes, it is sad. Here is a list of the 32 largest subway/metro systems in the world, by annual ridership. NYC, is the only one in America that makes this list ( ranked 4). Some of these cities, I'm sure the average American never heard of, yet it has a bigger subway system than cities like Chicago or Washington. What does that say about Americans and public transit?
But I'm not just talking about NYC's highway, I also talk about about NEW JERSEYS
Its costly to maintain the roads, as well as being expensive to build them in the first place (construction and land acquisition). My old planning professor would constantly harp on the fact that a single mile of exit/entrance mitigation lane costs a cool million dollars just for labor and material in NJ (). Any new lanes or new roads you build make more real estate development feasible. If you allow the development to be created, then you end up using up all the extra capacity that the roads you built provided. Thus, we could build 8-lane roads and end up with as much or more traffic than before. Everyone agrees that public transportation has the potential to move much, much more people than roads, so, at least imo, if we want to invest in transportation infrastructure, we should favor public transit.
How come New York metropolitan area (Incl. Northern New Jersey, New York City, Long Island), especially Northern New Jersey only have 2 - 3 lines per road (not incl. both sides of the road) on their highway? It's the most popolous metropolitan area, and the highest population density in the U.S.
For example, other metropolitan, such as Miami, LA, Atlanta etc. has 5 to 8 lines per road on their highway. We should have the same, our traffic is not better! Not just because of traffic, the U.S. is famous for its huge, wide roads, and New York/NJ doesn't feel like it.
New York Highway (3 lines highway like the picture below is most typical for 90% of New Jersey/New York highways!)
It goes back to the way Robert Moses designed the city. He basically designed the highways more for leisure use and nice views not as a main mode of transportation. Hence why are highways are so small and outdated. In Manhattan more than anything this can be appreciated because I really don't think Moses imagined people driving so much in Manhattan.
But I kind of like we don't have huge ugly highways everywhere. It has its pros and cons. More pros in my opinion.
To the OP: you list one of your locations as NYC. So let's be serious: where would you like the space to built an 8-lane highway to come from? And besides, the city with the greatest urban transportation network in the world--the world; fuhgeddabout the US--does not need more highways. Quite the contrary, it needs less.
Because people have unfounded biases and fears toward public transit. Sad, really.
I knew a guy from Wisconsin, who would literally look down upon you for wanting to take the Subway.
Then again I think the guy had some unrealistic fear of getting mugged. He freaked out a little about walking down 1st ave. after 8. Then he freaked out out after a show at the Apollo theater and we were having trouble getting a cab. He went frantic trying to get a cab and when he got us one, he acted as if he saved our lives by taking us out of that neighborhood before we got "killed".
He would pay a $20 cab fare for no good reason by himself when everyone else was taking the Subway.
Some people should just stay in Wisconsin.
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). Any new lanes or new roads you build make more real estate development feasible. If you allow the development to be created, then you end up using up all the extra capacity that the roads you built provided. Thus, we could build 8-lane roads and end up with as much or more traffic than before. Everyone agrees that public transportation has the potential to move much, much more people than roads, so, at least imo, if we want to invest in transportation infrastructure, we should favor public transit.
