PIRG: I-94 Project One of the Worst "Highway Boondoggles"

[ghettopalmetto]

Attachment 24671Attachment 24672So long as you ignore facts like posted by DetroitPlanner about what's happening with freight.... albeit this ends in 2000 -- so I'm sure you'll discount it. So why don't you post the freight trends from 2000 onward, and tell us roads don't matter. They may be our past, and maybe not the future. But they sure are the present.

Your first chart shows an 80% increase in VMT over the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000. That's in an era when gasoline was less than $1.00/gallon. And it also perfectly coincides with the accelerated sprawling development that was constructed in the 1980s and 1990s [[which far outpaced the suburban land consumption rate of the 1950s-1970s). That period of rampant sprawl development is never coming back. Ever. No matter how badly you want it to.
So conducting a linear extrapolation from 14-year-old data is not only naive and inappropriate, but stupid as well.

More informative would be a chart that shows VMT from 2000 to 2014.

[313WX]

I would say that New York doesn't either. The closest thing to a freeway is the FDR, which is a parkway and has a 40 MPH speed limit.

That's true for Manhattan [[if you're excluding the Joe DiMaggio Highway).

The Long Island part of NYC has freeways...

[Detroitnerd]

What? Isn't bad science enough to get you on the concrete bandwagon? It's enough for so many people.

[ghettopalmetto]

That's true for Manhattan [[if you're excluding the Joe DiMaggio Highway).

The Long Island part of NYC has freeways...

I mean, look at all the economic development that came with the Cross-Bronx Expressway!

Robert Moses was a well-meaning idiot.

[iheartthed]

That's true for Manhattan [[if you're excluding the Joe DiMaggio Highway).

The Long Island part of NYC has freeways...

I don't consider places outside of Manhattan to be "the heart of the city." But even considering that, freeways are not nearly as prevalent in NYC as they are in Detroit. Brooklyn has over three times the population of Detroit and there is only one true freeway in the entire borough. Queens and the Bronx have a few freeways from the legacy of Robert Moses, but I doubt any of them have ever been upgraded from their original designs. Even Staten Island, which is probably the only borough in NYC where most households own a car, only has two freeways.

[iheartthed]

I mean, look at all the economic development that came with the Cross-Bronx Expressway!

Robert Moses was a well-meaning idiot.

Yeah, NYC is a very good demonstration of how freeways don't automatically correlate to economic development. The most expensive areas of New York City don't really have easy access to freeways, and it's not because the areas are meant to be exclusive. In New York, the most expensive places are in the core areas of the city.

[Wesley Mouch]

Your first chart shows an 80% increase in VMT over the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000. That's in an era when gasoline was less than $1.00/gallon. And it also perfectly coincides with the accelerated sprawling development that was constructed in the 1980s and 1990s [[which far outpaced the suburban land consumption rate of the 1950s-1970s). That period of rampant sprawl development is never coming back. Ever. No matter how badly you want it to.
So conducting a linear extrapolation from 14-year-old data is not only naive and inappropriate, but stupid as well.

More informative would be a chart that shows VMT from 2000 to 2014.

US Truck VMT, from http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinform...a/qftravel.cfm

All Truck:
2000: 205 billion
2006: 222 billion
2010: 286 billion

2000 to 2010 overall growth in truck miles travelled: 40% in 10 years -- and note that 2010 is still well within the financial slump....

This suggests we should add 2 lanes each direction, not 1.

[That Great Guy]

Mr. John Hertel oF SMART is the biggest supporter of this monster.

Now, that he raised $27 Million per year for the trucking industry, he will be gone with Million of dollars in his pocket. Thanks to y'all who voted for his smile last August.

Y'all never ever will learn what mass transit is

[DetroitPlanner]

Robert Moses was a well-meaning idiot.

Holy Crap! We agree!

[That Great Guy]

Fully 80 percent of the people support this mass transit project. We are allowed to use funding from cuts from SMART and DDOT because with less traffic on surface streets, buses move faster and more people fill them up. That is what Y'all want on DetroitYES YES YES, Let's all be SMART and build the HOV Lanes for another Billion and buy lots of buses and big cars.