Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Proposed Greenwich Village/SoHo/Tribeca expressway was the beginning of the end for Robert Moses and those that believed American cities were best served as being carved up by highways.
Mr. Moses had faced opposition before to his plans, but always managed to get what he wanted in the end. So much so that he was rude, distainful , and down right arrogant towards those that stood in his way including the "little people". That Jame Jacobs and a bunch of rag tag housewives, "kooks", and assorted others that lived in the affected area came out against Moses was not new, but that they gained traction and defeated the man was news.
NYC should put up a statue of Jane Jacobs somewhere. Also Lilian Edelstein who led the heroic but ultimately losing battle to save East Tremont from the Cross Bronx Expressway.
NYC should put up a statue of Jane Jacobs somewhere. Also Lilian Edelstein who led the heroic but ultimately losing battle to save East Tremont from the Cross Bronx Expressway.
It was the results to the Tremont community that were not lost on Jane Jacobs and others when the Lower Manhattan Expressway was proposed.
Tremont property values plummeted after the CBE was built which many blame the high poverty rates in much of the South Bronx that followed and to an extent still are there today.
You know what will reduce traffic, imo?
Fully self-driven cars.
Cars equipped with sensors, GPS, and all the necessary technology to replace human driven vehicles.
It only takes 1 bad driver to jam miles of a road or highway.
This will happen one day, I'm sure, it's just a matter of time.
You can already purchase vehicles with all sorts of technology that in theory should cut down on driver error caused accidents.
From in-lane technology, warning about too close to traffic in front or back, safe to merge distance/speed and so forth it is out there. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi amount the European car maker seem to offer all these bells and whistles.
However as with modern airplanes one would be very concerned with vehicles equipped with technology that makes operators almost redundant.
Old school pilots did not take well in good numbers to the Airbus model of jet planes with heavy computer technology. Those guys cut their teeth on actually flying a plane and making it do what they wanted, not sitting there with a joystick and pushing buttons. *LOL*
The more we are learning about Air France Flight 447 it does seem the pilots relied too much upon the airplane "flying" itself and did not know how or realize what to do manually in order to save the plane.
There are many, many, MANY reasons why the last successful attempts, a tunnel and a bridge at connecting New York City with New Jersey for cars were both opened in the 1930's.
But suffice it to say that the fact there were no more built in the last 80 years stands as the very best argument that these connections are infeasible. If it couldda been done, it wouldda.
Alas, starting with the 1940's all excess wealth that the country could produce has gone into endless warfare planning, and now, endless wars. You cannot have guns and butter...and tunnels and bridges are definitely butter.
There are many, many, MANY reasons why the last successful attempts, a tunnel and a bridge at connecting New York City with New Jersey for cars were both opened in the 1930's.
But suffice it to say that the fact there were no more built in the last 80 years stands as the very best argument that these connections are infeasible. If it couldda been done, it wouldda.
Alas, starting with the 1940's all excess wealth that the country could produce has gone into endless warfare planning, and now, endless wars. You cannot have guns and butter...and tunnels and bridges are definitely butter.
When the GWB and various tunnels connecting NY to NJ were built there was much open land in NJ on their side of the Hudson and or it was easy to ram through transportation projects because the American love affair with autos was beginning, a trend that accelerated during the post WWII era. Now that is pretty much over.
Just try and use eminent domain to condemn major parts of any area on the Westside for a highway/tunnel/bridge project and see what that gets you, it will be tied up for decades in the courts, just as what happened with Westway.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
