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The locals in Washington, Pa., do that on I-70 on a constant basis (I just wish they'd get up to freeway speed when they do so!).
Good points, but I had to LOL at this one... when I drove to Cincy last summer for work, I decided to stay overnight rather than do the twelve hours at once. Sure I could have, but it was my first long solo drive and I wanted to take my time. So randomly looking along the way to see where I could stop, I picked the Hampton Inn on Murtland Ave right off of I-70....interesting little town. Sitting in my hotel room, I decided to go see Ted at the "Saved by the Bell-esque" movie theater at the Washington Crown Center mall.....and I took I-70 across town...in one of the scariest thunderstorms I'd ever seen in my life
Between that theater that was apparently stuck in 1992, the girl awkwardly flirting with me at Long John Silvers, the SLOWPOKES on 70 and the completely dead feeling in that town...I decided to stay in Somerset, PA on the way home..
Between that theater that was apparently stuck in 1992, the girl awkwardly flirting with me at Long John Silvers, the SLOWPOKES on 70 and the completely dead feeling in that town...I decided to stay in Somerset, PA on the way home..
That was a good idea. Somerset is much more civilized.
So, I am quite certain that another major freeway will never be allowed to be built close to or through a downtown again. That is a madness that belongs to a by-gone era.
Unfortunately, damage done.
That being said, I'm also fairly certain that more and more cities will choose dig, like Boston or reroute major freeways that severed many downtowns. It takes tremendous political will to face up to the people who can't fathom it, and it takes massive up-front financing. However, it will pay dividends in increased ad valorem taxes and generally contribute to revitalization efforts of cities all over the US.
This is a process that will play out over a 100 years. It will be tremendously challenging - but what was done can be undone.
Many cities will resist for decades they will be swimming against the tide of history. Unfortunately - this process is one that will benefit our children and their children more that it will be us.
Cities were destroyed by the So-Called greatest generation and left to fester by the boomers. GenX has been instrumental in a return to sanity that Millennials have embraced with a passion. Their children will wonder how we lost our collective minds and truly live in a a transformed world.
I didn't have the patience to read through all nine pages of this thread, so forgive me if this has already been answered.
You seem to writing in some secret code accessible to initiates. Please explain for normal people what the "damage" is that has been done and detail in what ways "cities were destroyed" by freeways. As it is, what you are talking about remains a great mystery to me.
to the downtowns in America if every freeway that currently runs though the official downtowns in America WAS BURIED UNDERGROUND, a la "The Big Dig" in Boston.
Thoughts?
P.S. Money is not an issue. Just the idea is being discussed, not the financials.
Essentially, the point is moot. Planned freeway extensions and upgrades within center cities were a dying issue when I was an undergraduate -- forty-five years ago. and with a few exceptions here and there, mostly in poverty pockets like the Apalalachians or the Deep South, the same holds for new Interstates in rural areas. The only areas I am aware of where expansions of separate-grade highways are taking place now are in the more exclusive "exurban" areas of cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Orlando, And I'd be willing to bet that these are not built with much of a capacity for commercial traffic (i. e: no heavy trucks). When the initial cost is recovered, they will likely go toll-free.
We are on the threshold of yet another quantum change in transportation -- for both passengers and freight -- but I wouldn't place my bets with those who salivate over the end of the automobile. Cars will continue to get smaller, (thereby diminishing their attractiveness for long cross-country trips, mass-transit alternatives will emerge where population density justifies them, and I suspect alternatives to internal-combustion engines will gain ground, but the process will be a slow one, and you will never convince most Americans to surrender their personal mobility to the myth that an environmentally-enlightened Big Brother knows what's best.
That leaves the problem of freight distribution, and while the railroads have been winning back (slightly) some classes of freight (merchandise and some perishables) they forfeited to trucking back in the early Seventies, they have a long way to go, and the "old" system of carloads delivered siding-to-siding was neither that comprehensive, nor that efficient; it began to erode as soon as the feasibility of long-distance trucking emerged around 1930. An opportunity to restructure will emerge in a year or two when the PANAMAX project, (widening and deepening the Panama Canal), will offer an option to divert a lot of the import traffic now moving through the Port of Long Beach to the East Coast ports, thus freeing capacity for other freight (which can be moved economically by rail, but with somewhat lower profit margins).
Beyond that, I can see no further change unless the prospect of ton-and-one-half (or less) private vehicles sharing the highways with truck-and-(semi-)trailer combinations as heavy as 65 tons (though admittedly only on a handful of toll roads) raises safety concerns serious enough to spawn a grass-roots effort along the lines of the successful campaign against drunken driving. That might drive size and weight limitations back to the levels at the close of World War II, for example, but again, the present distribution system is too closely integrated into daily life to completely ban highway freight.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 03-23-2013 at 04:28 AM..
Raleigh, North Carolina is one of the few American cities without an expressway or Interstate going through the middle of town.....it actually works for the city.
Deny people the choice of where to live and force everyone into the urban core.
[and like it]
But move the poor to the distant suburbs, where they can work low wage factory or retail jobs, or maybe the fields.
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