Is It Time To Take Highways Out Of Cities?

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Lets put on tight brown corduroy pants, flower orange shirts, and have mustaches with long unkempt hair!

It was like everyone lost their minds

California circa 2019.

[M II A II R II K]

The Downtown Highway That Could Drive Hartford’s Comeback

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/...zoning/603922/

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- Battered by population loss and the departure of manufacturing and corporate anchors, Hartford has been on the brink of bankruptcy for several years. In response, the city has taken a sophisticated multi-pronged approach in plotting its post-industrial future: It’s implemented a series of zoning and land-use reforms, encouraged adaptive reuse of historic buildings, and improved mobility with new transit and better facilities for bike riders and pedestrians. --- But in an illustration of how a mid-sized legacy city can work smart and still face existential challenges, Hartford finds another monumental task in its way: a crumbling piece of 20th-century infrastructure, a stretch of the Interstate 84 viaduct adjacent to downtown that is well past its expiration date.

- The ideas for what to do with it now range from a plain-vanilla rebuild to a tunnel system more elaborate than Boston’s Big Dig. Optimists might argue that the viaduct dilemma represents an opportunity for city-building on a grand scale. But most are unhappy—even resentful—about being stuck with this problem; it’s like working hard to rehabilitate a sore shoulder, then being told you need an expensive hip replacement. Ultimately, the choices ahead will hinge on how much the state, and even more so, the federal government, is willing to invest. It will also be a test of the belief that a megaproject will truly save the day—or whether a more frugal and incremental solution would be the wiser path.

- Amid all that earnest activity, however, the nagging question remains: what to do with the two-mile section of I-84 just outside downtown, which in an ironic reference to past glory is known as the Aetna Viaduct. Its projected lifespan ended in 2005, and engineers are now worried about catastrophic failure. Replacement options under consideration include just fixing the viaduct so it is in a state of good repair ($2 to $3 billion), or lowering the highway with a series of decks ($4 to $5 billion). A study commissioned by the city calls for a more artful integration of the urban streetscape and the area’s existing rail and bus rapid transit system, known as CTfastrak.

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[Pedestrian]

America’s Love Affair With Driving Takes a Back Seat
By David Harrison | Photographs by Caitlin O’Hara for The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 24, 2019 5:30 am ET

. . . Around the country, the American love affair with driving is cooling in ways that are changing how cities look and feel. Over the past three years, the average number of miles driven per person has hovered around 9,800 miles a year, roughly 2% fewer than at the 2004 peak. Driving is down in states with urban centers like California and New York and in some rural states such as Wyoming and Vermont.

Driving is even down . . . in Phoenix . . . .

Among the reasons for the national decline are migration to dense urban areas; young adults’ preference to live close to their jobs or to use alternate modes of transportation; more online working, shopping and streaming; and a growing population of retirees who don’t commute to jobs anymore.

. . . a raft of data suggests Americans are changing how they move around.

Younger people are delaying getting their driver’s licenses and using them less than their predecessors. Drivers aged 16 to 19 drove 24% fewer miles in 2017 than did people of the same age in 2001, according to U.S. Transportation Department surveys. Those aged 20 to 34 drove 22% less.

. . . The number of trips for shopping, socializing or recreational activities has also declined.

The share of workers who work from home every day has risen to 5.3% in 2018 from 4.3% in 2010, according to the U.S. census. Many more workers—roughly 15%—work from home for a full day once in a while, according to the Labor Department . . . .

Evolving travel patterns have prodded urban planners to take steps that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. They are reducing the number of lanes on city streets, intentionally slowing down traffic and making room for bicycles, pedestrians and public transit. They are eliminating parking requirements for new construction. And they are welcoming the proliferation of shared bicycle and scooter services . . . .

(Even in Phoenix, in a recent referendum on extending the city's light rail system) almost two-thirds of voters supported building more light rail . . . .

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america...s&page=1&pos=1