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Why be sad? This image represents commerce and growth. They're building freeways which is a good thing. The signs mean that despite the recession some businesses are still keeping their heads above water and therefore giving people jobs. Good for San Antonio.
Cities like LA and NY were built up before freeways. They're more dense, making freeway construction much more difficult and expensive.
Adding lanes allows for greater traffic volume and less delays. More volume means more economic activity. The worst congested freeways in the nation are not the ones that have a ton of lanes or are adding lanes... they're the ones that are built too small and haven't been able to be upgraded, or else they lack alternative routes. Light rail isn't really going to dent traffic much in a place as sprawled as Houston.
Huh? LA has some of the widest freeways in the nation. Adding more lanes doesn't allows less delays? Since when. All they do is add more cars which will add more traffic which will add more pollution to the air. The Beltway in DC is one of the widest stretches of freeways in the nation and people still sit in traffic. Or how about that Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Atlanta commuters spend more time behind the car then any other city. These are cities that have WIDE freeways. Light rail's job isn't to take cars off the road. It's to offer alternatives to just road transportation. Taking cars off the road would be just icing on the cake.
Why be sad? This image represents commerce and growth. They're building freeways which is a good thing. The signs mean that despite the recession some businesses are still keeping their heads above water and therefore giving people jobs. Good for San Antonio.
No it also represents ugliness and sprawl. It's also dangerous to drive around.
Why would you wish that? Nobody envies Toronto having those freeways and nobody would envy Washington having it either. Freeways are nice to travel at but that's it. Extra lanes do nothing but add more cars to the freeway.
I'm sorry but they just had a thing in the Washington Post about how DC has like the second worst traffic in the country. How is this possible when DC also has the second highest rail transit usage in the country.
Only New Yorkers use trains more than Washingtonians. Yet the traffic is so horrible. Because the freeways are tiny as all get out. Three lanes in each direction on 395? Come on! I'm from a town with less 200,000 people and our main freeway has three lanes how can a city with millions of people have the same freeway as a city that isn't even a tenth its size?
The DC area hasn't updated its transportation to keep up with population growth at least Toronto did something.
Yes if you just build more freeways then traffic will only get worse. There has to be multiple transportation options. There should be light rail in addition to multiple freeways with multiple lanes.
Why be sad? This image represents commerce and growth. They're building freeways which is a good thing. The signs mean that despite the recession some businesses are still keeping their heads above water and therefore giving people jobs. Good for San Antonio.
It represents a fantastic disregard for maintaining an environment to be proud of. In addition to using the unsustainable 'strip development along freeway' model of growth, it completely neglects aesthetic for function yet manages to deteriorate the quality of both still.
Commerce and growth are not good things when they are done in an ill thought out way. I think this very recession shows that.
Huh? LA has some of the widest freeways in the nation. Adding more lanes doesn't allows less delays? Since when. All they do is add more cars which will add more traffic which will add more pollution to the air. The Beltway in DC is one of the widest stretches of freeways in the nation and people still sit in traffic. Or how about that Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Atlanta commuters spend more time behind the car then any other city. These are cities that have WIDE freeways. Light rail's job isn't to take cars off the road. It's to offer alternatives to just road transportation. Taking cars off the road would be just icing on the cake.
It's only 4 lanes in each direction. The only time it's wider than that is when it's time to change freeways. They are trying to widen it which would be good if it weren't for the fact that the new lanes will be toll lanes. Which will only cause more traffic. They're called HOT lanes in case anyone has never heard of them. It's a nice idea pay to use lanes with less traffic. So you have a choice of sitting in even heavier traffic because so few will want to pay a toll or paying a toll which adds up if you're doing it everyday. The haves will win while the have nots fight even heavier traffic. Sigh. There's no winning.
It represents a fantastic disregard for maintaining an environment to be proud of. In addition to using the unsustainable 'strip development along freeway' model of growth, it completely neglects aesthetic for function yet manages to deteriorate the quality of both still.
Commerce and growth are not good things when they are done in an ill thought out way. I think this very recession shows that.
At the end of the day isn't this just about aesthetics? I mean so you don't like the way strip malls look. At the end of the day looks aren't important money and jobs are. Somebody living paycheck to paycheck working at Barnes and Noble is probably more concerned about bills than whether or not the store is in a strip mall or somewhere more environmentally friendly.
Please don't misunderstand I like the idea of store fronts and main streets but to be sad about something that represents someone's job? I don't know. I see what you're saying it's not the prettiest thing in the world but at least someone is putting food on the table. At the end of the day what matters is that I can go into Barnes and Noble and get a good book.
Actually strip development uses less land. I mean that's the purpose having stores close together versus scattered here and there. In VA they're building these lifestyle centers that remind you of an old fashioned downtown with tree covered sidewalks and parking in out of the sight garages. People can get offices or apartments on top of the stores just like in a big city but in a suburb. Those are indeed more aesthetically pleasing and better for the environment at least for the people who live within walking distance. But those "fake" downtowns take up a good bit of land and often are out of reach price wise for a lot of people.
So while I understand the aesthetic disagreements it's what we got and at least some of those stores are still running with the exception of course of Circuit City. Yeah Best Buy is a better store.
I'm sorry but they just had a thing in the Washington Post about how DC has like the second worst traffic in the country. How is this possible when DC also has the second highest rail transit usage in the country.
Only New Yorkers use trains more than Washingtonians. Yet the traffic is so horrible. Because the freeways are tiny as all get out. Three lanes in each direction on 395? Come on! I'm from a town with less 200,000 people and our main freeway has three lanes how can a city with millions of people have the same freeway as a city that isn't even a tenth its size?
The DC area hasn't updated its transportation to keep up with population growth at least Toronto did something.
Yes if you just build more freeways then traffic will only get worse. There has to be multiple transportation options. There should be light rail in addition to multiple freeways with multiple lanes.
Easy. Because the DC suburbs outside the beltway are some of teh lowest density suburbs in the nation that have basically little use of public transportation or no care for it anyway and the only way they can get by is with a car. The problem is that the area has gotten to big for it's current freeway system and as a result, you see the traffic nightmare as it is now. I will repeat, adding freeway lanes does nothing but add more cars and then you will be back to where you was before you added more lanes. It does not do anything else. Add to that in that most people in the area still use their cars.
You act like this is all cheap. DC wants to build light rail. It's up to your leaders to build it. They are already building another metro line from Stadium-Armory to the Reston Town Center by 2015 which will travel through Tyson's Corner and Dulles Airport. Light Rail is being studied or under construction in the city and the DC suburbs but only Maryland is the only one proactive to do that.
DC isn't updating it's tranportation system like Toronto? Haven't been on the Beltway in Alexandria in a while? They have been doing construction for five years now expanding and widening and fixing the Wilson bridge. What more do you want?
It's only 4 lanes in each direction. The only time it's wider than that is when it's time to change freeways. They are trying to widen it which would be good if it weren't for the fact that the new lanes will be toll lanes. Which will only cause more traffic. They're called HOT lanes in case anyone has never heard of them. It's a nice idea pay to use lanes with less traffic. So you have a choice of sitting in even heavier traffic because so few will want to pay a toll or paying a toll which adds up if you're doing it everyday. The haves will win while the have nots fight even heavier traffic. Sigh. There's no winning.
4 lanes in each direction is enough. We don't need it to destroy the countryside just to pump more exhaust air in the sky just because they want to get their jobs. There is nothing impressive about Toronto's 401 freeway system only that it's wide. Are you one of those people that would want to pave the entire Western world with asphalt? Who will be jealous of that? I know who would be the laughing stock.
Easy. Because the DC suburbs outside the beltway are some of teh lowest density suburbs in the nation that have basically little use of public transportation or no care for it anyway and the only way they can get by is with a car. The problem is that the area has gotten to big for it's current freeway system and as a result, you see the traffic nightmare as it is now. I will repeat, adding freeway lanes does nothing but add more cars and then you will be back to where you was before you added more lanes. It does not do anything else. Add to that in that most people in the area still use their cars.
You act like this is all cheap. DC wants to build light rail. It's up to your leaders to build it. They are already building another metro line from Stadium-Armory to the Reston Town Center by 2015 which will travel through Tyson's Corner and Dulles Airport. Light Rail is being studied or under construction in the city and the DC suburbs but only Maryland is the only one proactive to do that.
DC isn't updating it's tranportation system like Toronto? Haven't been on the Beltway in Alexandria in a while? They have been doing construction for five years now expanding and widening and fixing the Wilson bridge. What more do you want?
Ok. You know I've been here only a year. From my understanding they have built some stuff before I got here. But umm...I'm on the beltway everyday. Like I said it's only 4 lanes that's hardly wide enough. Yeah they're widening the beltway just to add in toll lanes that's not going to help people aren't going to pay tolls if they don't have to. Then there's 66 which is a joke. 395 is only 3 lanes in each direction. I"m sorry but that's lame. Well you can't use 66 anyways unless you carpool which is easier said than done. So 50 gets clogged and it's nowhere near wide enough to accommodate the traffic so they need to widen the side roads too. So no I"m sorry but a city that uses public transportation as much as DC shouldn't have the traffic problems it has. Second highest use of trains but second highest traffic too? That's silly.
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