Posted on 12/03/2016 4:47:01 AM PST by Beowulf9
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Only some of them. Some are sticking with the walk/bike Agenda 21 mantra.
“Don’t get me started on Austin’s idiotic one way streets with parking places angled the opposite direction.”
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Funniest thing I’ve read all day.
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You are not kidding. I-24 west, and all the way to I-75 at rush hour. It's a major bottleneck. I'm fortunate - I live north of town and while it's a pain getting on US 27, once I'm across the river, it opens up nicely.
Chattanooga really needs a bypass all the way around it, possibly including Cleveland, TN.
Nothing wrong with the “walk/bike mantra”. The ideal would be a city where people can walk, bike, and drive without interfering with one another.
Walking and biking are healthy, plus having people walking outside tends to reduce crime (more people observing) and help local businesses — easier to notice a new business if you’re walking or biking by vs driving at 50 mph.
That’s great if you’ve planned for it from scratch in a greenfield situation. Retrofitting it into existing uburban edge cities is darn near impossible, or at least practically so, as I see it.
There was no really good reason for the steam ban, especially since most of the railroads coming from northeastern Pennsylvania (even including the Pennsylvania with some of their engines) were fueling their steam locomotives with anthracite, which is nearly as smokeless as coke. The electrification laws (especially the 1923 Kaufman Act) were an early form of social engineering and interference in commerce.
The Park Avenue tunnel for the NY Central could have been “daylighted” economically enough even with older technology. And the railroad should have gone all the way to the Battery, in much the same way as the High Line used to reach St. John’s Park Terminal; a connection to the Central Railroad of NJ/Baltimore & Ohio in that area (which was instead terminating at today’s Liberty State Park in NJ) would have been far more of a benefit than a detriment.
The coast guard requirement of 200-foot clearance at high water mark for bridges over the Hudson River was excessive; they certainly did not require it for bridges over the East River (e.g. 135 feet for the Brooklyn Bridge). The most frequent river traffic is freight or waste barges, and they certainly do not reach up to 200 feet high. Instead, for ages, foot and even auto traffic had to use ferryboats. Gustav Lindenthal’s proposed union station coming from New Jersey was impeded thanks to the 200-foot clearance requirement.
suburban, obviously.
BTW, welcome to FR.
Since the “walk/bike mantra” is top-down dictation and not about freedom to choose to do so, it becomes repulsive. And nobody drives through a city at 50 miles per hour.
Ye lie with Dogs, ye get Fleas.
I really don’t give a damn about New York Ameriphobes
Hi.
The “walk/bike mantra” may be dictation from the top, but razing older walkable areas in the name of urban development, putting in expressways at grade level which split up neighborhoods, and tearing up public transport systems in the 1930s through 1970s also came from the top down.
Basically, cities were purposely made unfriendly to humans wishing to move around in the most natural way available. It’s good that the pendulum is swinging in the other direction and some of the worst excesses of the past are being remedied.
As far as no one driving 50 mph through a city, try Phoenix. Nice, wide streets perfect for pretending you’re on a freeway.
The steam ban: you’re neglecting the effect of the steam itself, which precluded engine drivers from seeing signals in some situations (hence the early 1900s ban). As far as the earlier ban, were they using anthracite prior to 1854?
Regarding the later ban, electrification is much better than steam in an urban environment. No boilers to keep heated. No boilers to explode. No coaling facilities. Tracks can be underground (like in Grand Central) rather than in a train shed. I suspect that electrification would have happened anyway, since land in Manhattan was getting pricey and the NY Central Railroad wanted to build over the platforms at Grand Central.
Agreed that the railroads should have gone all the way downtown. In a dream world, maybe a lift bridge or tunnel connection to Staten Island, then onward to NJ over the Kill Van Kull. Basically, a rail equivalent of I-278, except going to Lower Manhattan vs Brooklyn.
200 foot bridge clearance was for sure NOT excessive in the late 1800s to mid 1900s, though it is now. Remember that ocean liners used to dock at the Passenger Ship Terminal on the West Side of Manhattan. Up to about 54th St, plus room for maneuvering, the 200 foot clearance was very much needed.
and the MILLION people that DON'T live in the city that need access to do business there? ideal is the utopian dreamworld of the left
That’s why I said without interfering with one another. A 4’ bike lane doesn’t do much to restrict traffic capacity of NYC streets.
Bike lanes aren’t a major issue.
Went to Times Square last summer, could not get out fast enough. It gets worse every year! Bring back the XXXX porn shops and shows! THAT was less seedy.
Here in Queens, they have now reduced the very busy thoroughfare Main Street to ONE LANE thru stinking Chinatown. They have painted the curb lane red and labeled it “Buses Only”, so you have a ONE LANE bottleneck for many blocks going. They did the same thing on another major busy thoroughfare, Woodhaven Blvd., with a red painted bus lane closest to the curb. They also recently installed No Left Turn signs in a whole bunch of places it doesn’t make sense to have. If I want to visit my local Home Depot, now I have to go blocks out of my way to make a left turn to get there. Insane!!!
What time of day was that taken?
Looks like 7:00 AM on a Sunday morning.
Have no idea. Surprise, there are NYC streets which are not always crowded. Could indeed have been on a Sunday, though.
“Surprise, there are NYC streets which are not always crowded.”
I’m well aware of that but I thought the pic was posted to confirm your post about the red bus lanes causing more traffic headaches.
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Bring back the Metropole! In those days, decent people didn’t hit Times Square and it was easy to maneuver. That’s Guiliani’s fault, you know. I never supported the Disneyfication of Times Square.
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