Regional Boards > Pacific Southwest
The Embarcadero Freeway
shoptb1:
--- Quote from: njroadhorse on January 25, 2009, 05:05:23 PM ---It was a genius idea for SF, idk why they scrapped it :banghead: :pan:
--- End quote ---
I'm a huge freeway supporter, but I am really glad that SF got rid of that piece of crap freeway. The Embarcadero is a beautiful section of the city that needs to be showcased, not hidden by an ugly monstrosity of a freeway. I will agree that perhaps the city went overboard with their scrapping of some of the proposed freeway connections, but this is not an example of that IMHO.
TheStranger:
--- Quote from: HighwayMaster on December 27, 2009, 05:14:33 PM ---What CalTrans should do is extend I-280 via tunnel under the Embarcadero. It would have exits at 3rd Street, Harrison Street, and Market Street, then it would tunnel under Washington Street and emerge onto Columbus Avenue.
--- End quote ---
Honestly, I'd love to see that (and provide a more direct route to the Bay Bridge)...I don't know if this state will ever have enough money, and if SF will ever warm up to the idea of IMPROVING road access to the city (something that they tend to be against). A Southern Crossing - as proposed decades ago - probably would make the best use of the existing Southern Freeway east of 101.
--- Quote from: shoptb1 ---I'm a huge freeway supporter, but I am really glad that SF got rid of that piece of crap freeway. The Embarcadero is a beautiful section of the city that needs to be showcased, not hidden by an ugly monstrosity of a freeway. I will agree that perhaps the city went overboard with their scrapping of some of the proposed freeway connections, but this is not an example of that IMHO.
--- End quote ---
Think of the money wasted on building (then tearing down) the Embarcadero instead of completing just one north-south link! I forgot where I read it - somewhere, someone suggested the hypothesis that Toronto's lack of through routes comes from officials trying too hard to get everything they wanted, and I sense that happened in SF as well, especially with what in retrospect appears to be the extremely pointless Western Freeway I-80 proposal.
Now, had the 480 tube proposals been accepted - who knows how this all would have played out? I even think I've seen a map where the 101/Central Freeway connection to 480 would have been underground as well...maybe we don't see the revolts as they were in the 1960s, but the structures' survival in Loma Prieta would be harder to assess.
I will say that there are some minor things that can be done to alleviate some of the arterial loads, i.e. having Route 1 traffic take Junipero Serra instead of 19th for a mile or two. I like using Franklin Street (northbound only) as an alternative to the official US 101 routing (Van Ness Avenue) to get through the Western Addition area, but Franklin has steeper grades that are not recommended for trucks.
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