Expected freeway traffic horrors don’t develop

Fewer vehicles on road; BART posts ridership record

Patrick Hoge, Erin McCormick, Chronicle Staff Writers

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?=/c/a/2007/05/03/MNGQOPJU651.DTL

Roland wrote Lets dump all those old posts in the middle of those big loops! :D

Nice! Randomize it all and there’s your inter-loop destination:

The Oracle of Walker at Columbus

I think a vacation is more in order than a toaster!

:lol:

Quite a milestone. You should get a free toaster or something.

cab124 wrote Any attempts to make too sudden a shift away from this norm will almost certainly result in a backlash from the culture.

Agreed. I think balancing new development between mass transit and roadways will be the gradual change we need to achieve. To rip out old roadways and actually move that mode of transportation abruptly backwards would only upset the majority of the population. And I garuntee the majority of them wouldn’t be of the mindset of “Oh, I guess now we have no choice but to adapt to mass transit” but instead would think “Oh, I guess now we have no choice but to move to another city”.

:?

I’m all about leveling the transportation playing field, but I’d rather raise the mass transit bar higher instead of lowering the roadway bar.

That is an interesting thought.

Let’s face it – we live in a car culture. To the average person in Columbus, transportation means private cars in the same sense that lighting up a room means light bulbs. Any attempts to make too sudden a shift away from this norm will almost certainly result in a backlash from the culture.

Any progress that we make in shifting the way we allocate transportation resources is going to have to be very gradual, and it will have to involve an attempt to change the culture. If the people of Columbus grew to appreciate the benefits of public transportation, we would eventually see public transportation. But what can be done to change the culture??? Seems like a daunting task. Maybe it will take $7/gallon gas prices.

This would be a huge negative blow to our economy that would take years to adapt and recover from.

Also: it’s not just tourists. It’s visitors for everything from conventions at the Convention Center to concerts at Nationwide to OSU football and basketball games. We don’t have people coming to take pictures of landmarks and skyscrapers and tall French rusted copper statues like some other cities, but we still bring a lot of people into town from out of town … and they’re not all going to be able (or inclined) to take a train here.

Columbusite wrote Let’s face it, we don’t have to worry about tourists coming here.

I hope you’re kidding.

http://www.jugendgeschichtswerkstatt.de/stammtisch/autobahn45.jpg

dru wrote I think you could squeeze four, maybe five mini-golf courses in there.

hahaha! I nominate this for “best post of the day”! :lol:

Columbusite wrote Now, if the city heavily dissuaded car-dependent suburban style development from happening then the highways would have not been so influencial on the kind of development that exists inside most of 270.

I think the key part of this sentance is the “would have”. Highways are the way that history played out for us, and I really don’t think eliminating a large chunk right now would really be a viable option. As shroud said, it would be more of a hassle for tourists and visitors to approach our city, not to mention the vast majority of locals who may not be ready to switch from a two-car garage to a zero-car garage overnight.

I’m all about leveling the transportation playing field, but I’d rather raise the mass transit bar higher instead of lowering the roadway bar.