200-mile loop highway proposed for Chattanooga (Atlanta, Tucker: low income, neighborhoods, income)

[gtjared]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

That's a pretty expansive definition of sprawl. That area is about a mile from Peachtreee Rd. So, you would say that Georgia Tech is sprawl? I think your definition would make Morningside and Virginia Highlands sprawl, too.

In my mind it has a lot to do with block and lot size. Georgia Tech is a bit different because it doesn't have many roads, but there are a lot of pedestrian paths, so the block size is vague there. Vahi and Morningside have much smaller lots and blocks than the blocks on West Paces, while East Paces are a bit more comparable.

[jsvh]

I don't think sprawl is a "yes" or "no", it is a sliding scale. Some sprawl is worse than others.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Nothing is free. If people want to live in the suburbs great, but don't force people to live there to save money by taking advantage of tax-payer provided subsidies.

Last time I checked, the interstate system in Georgia all zoned in on the center of Atlanta. Three major interstates converge on the hub, the city of Atlanta. They don't find their confluence in the suburbs do they?

This network brings workers, products and visitors all to the city center. If this were a subsidy, who is benefitting the most from it?

[Georgiafrog]

I think Chattanooga is decades away from needing this. It's the biggest city near me, and I almost never have traffic issues when driving to or through. Pipe dreams methinks.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Last time I checked, the interstate system in Georgia all zoned in on the center of Atlanta. Three major interstates converge on the hub, the city of Atlanta. They don't find their confluence in the suburbs do they?

This network brings workers, products and visitors all to the city center. If this were a subsidy, who is benefitting the most from it?

Yes they do all connect into the center of the city and I wish they never did. As a city resident I almost exclusively take surface streets. The suburbs benefited from those highways at the expense of the city center. After they were built the city saw a huge drop off over the following decades as businesses and residents used those freeways to leave the city center for the suburbs. That land was heavily used and would have been too valuable for the highways to be built except by government over reach. Most major cities with more vibrant city centers have much less or no highways that cut apart the core.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Yes they do all connect into the center of the city and I wish they never did. As a city resident I almost exclusively take surface streets. The suburbs benefited from those highways at the expense of the city center. After they were built the city saw a huge drop off over the following decades as businesses and residents used those freeways to leave the city center for the suburbs. That land was heavily used and would have been too valuable for the highways to be built except by government over reach. Most major cities with more vibrant city centers have much less or no highways that cut apart the core.

What examples would you use for "most"? Chicago has freeways in the core. San Francisco did until the last earthquake.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by bu2

What examples would you use for "most"? Chicago has freeways in the core. San Francisco did until the last earthquake.

Manhattan (only the edges), San Fran (as you said), London, Paris, Amsterdam... And Chicago does have I-90 on the edge but has none east of the Chicago River or inside "the loop" in downtown.

How many major metros with a vibrate core can you name that have a comparable number of highways in the core as Atlanta?

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Manhattan (only the edges), San Fran (as you said), London, Paris, Amsterdam... And Chicago does have I-90 on the edge but has none east of the Chicago River or inside "the loop" in downtown.

How many major metros with a vibrate core can you name that have a comparable number of highways in the core as Atlanta?

Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh.

[skbl17]

To add to cqholt's post, Oslo, Norway also has a freeway (E18) that goes through the core. The difference is that it is tunneled through the urban core, much like Boston's I-93 post-Big Dig. Also, some cities in Australia, such as Sydney, also have freeways that travel through the urban core.

- skbl17

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by skbl17

To add to cqholt's post, Oslo, Norway also has a freeway (E18) that goes through the core. The difference is that it is tunneled through the urban core, much like Boston's I-93 post-Big Dig. Also, some cities in Australia, such as Sydney, also have freeways that travel through the urban core.

- skbl17

Sydney is built on a huge sandstone deposit, making tunneling easy and the tunnels very strong. Atlanta's core is built on a granite deposit.