Regional Boards > Mid-South
In preparation for I-27 extension, expect bypass and/or 4-lane upgrades...
Scott5114:
--- Quote from: Bobby5280 on September 05, 2022, 03:27:05 PM ---Considering all the practical (and political) issues in play, it's all but guaranteed if the US ever does get any kind of true high speed rail networks off the ground they'll have serious drawbacks.
For one thing, it's pretty much impossible to build new true high speed rail rated tracks directly into a city center. The general public hates elevated viaducts for highways. Why would they feel any different about an elevated rail line? Building tunnels in the US costs too much money.
What will end up happening is the high speed rail stations will have to be built way out on the edge of cities, in the same manner as airports. And that would ruin any time advantage the high speed trains would have over planes.
--- End quote ---
I don't think that's enough to ruin the time advantage—you'd just have to have some sort of facility there where you could change to some other mode of transportation for the last mile. (Transfer to city metro system, city bus system, rental car, taxi/Uber, etc.)
Some one:
--- Quote from: TXtoNJ on September 06, 2022, 01:31:09 PM ---
--- Quote from: Some one on September 03, 2022, 12:58:13 AM ---
--- Quote from: TXtoNJ on September 02, 2022, 09:49:17 PM ---
--- Quote from: Bobby5280 on September 02, 2022, 12:47:13 AM ---The problem is certain powers that be have fantasies of Americans just using bicycles and trains to get around. That goes right along with the fantasy of New Urbanism.
--- End quote ---
No they don’t. That’s silly. There are certainly groups that grift off this vision, but they don’t have the power that car dealers and local construction contractors do.
--- End quote ---
They saw the I-45 project get temporarily halted and now they're making up scenarios in their heads.
--- End quote ---
Temporary is the key. Removing the Pierce is the best New Urbanist development in years, but it got held up because of changes in the Harris County power structure. A different set of consultants needed to wet their beaks - the ideology is just the window dressing.
--- End quote ---
From what I've heard, the main problem isn't that they're removing the pierce elevated or trenching 59, but it's that they're doing it while doubling the ROW, essentially destroying a portion of the EaDo neighborhood. It is annoying they halted right as construction is about to start but it's somewhat understandable (an unpopular opinion here I know).
bwana39:
--- Quote from: TXtoNJ on September 06, 2022, 01:31:09 PM ---
--- Quote from: Some one on September 03, 2022, 12:58:13 AM ---
--- Quote from: TXtoNJ on September 02, 2022, 09:49:17 PM ---
--- Quote from: Bobby5280 on September 02, 2022, 12:47:13 AM ---The problem is certain powers that be have fantasies of Americans just using bicycles and trains to get around. That goes right along with the fantasy of New Urbanism.
--- End quote ---
No they don’t. That’s silly. There are certainly groups that grift off this vision, but they don’t have the power that car dealers and local construction contractors do.
--- End quote ---
They saw the I-45 project get temporarily halted and now they're making up scenarios in their heads.
--- End quote ---
Temporary is the key. Removing the Pierce is the best New Urbanist development in years, but it got held up because of changes in the Harris County power structure. A different set of consultants needed to wet their beaks - the ideology is just the window dressing.
--- End quote ---
Consultants: TXDOT has more engineers per lane mile than they did when they engineered virtually everything in-house. Today consultants do most of the engineering and TXDOT primarily does quality control.
J N Winkler:
--- Quote from: bwana39 on September 07, 2022, 01:39:37 PM ---Consultants: TXDOT has more engineers per lane mile than they did when they engineered virtually everything in-house. Today consultants do most of the engineering and TXDOT primarily does quality control.
--- End quote ---
Plan production has changed too. The original construction plans for the Four Level interchange in Los Angeles, the first Maltese cross stack in the world, had fewer than 100 sheets. Even as late as the 1960's, interchanges of similar design had construction plans sets aggregating to fewer than 2000 sheets. In 2001, the High Five alone had more than 5000 sheets.
Rick Powell:
--- Quote from: Cerlin on September 02, 2022, 08:35:29 PM ---I mean it’s common sense that infrastructure should be upgraded to standard no matter what type, so an I-27 corridor is a big priority. But, I think as a nation that upholds “freedom of choice”, you should be able to comfortably move around not only in your city but between cities with whatever mode of transportation you want. Forcing an entire country to use car dependent infrastructure is stupid.
--- End quote ---
Redundancy costs money. Duplicating every possible type of service wherever travel exists would be a debilitating expense.
As for the matter of forcing people into automobiles, transportation is a function of moving people and goods from Point A to Point B. By their nature, roads serve more Points A and B than any other mode and nearly every residence in the US is served by one directly or nearby. Planes can fly to wherever someone provided a landing strip, and there are around 5,000 public airports in the US. Rail and other guided vehicles can only go where the guideway goes, but Amtrak serves over 500 locations, and there are 30 commuter rail, 17 light rail, and 15 heavy rail systems in the US with multiple stops. Roads can be made more friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians, and options such as on-call passenger van service, fixed route bus service, vanpooling, and commercial providers like taxi service and Uber/Lyft can provide additional flexibility for people who don't/can't drive or own an automobile. There's lots of options right there.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version