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"Of course the entire interstate system wasn't a mistake. But building interstates through cities doesn't make much sense, just like building subways across the great plains doesn't make much sense..."

I am talking about I395 from Springfield to the Pentagon (and NOT about its continuation into DC as the SE-SW freeway). the areas surrounding it are a mix of urban/suburban even now, and were more suburban when I395 and its "shirley busway" lines were built.

"For folks who need a car, that's really the result of auto-centric planning as well - you can't separate the transportation infrastructure planning from the land development planning."

A. Some degree of "need" for a car is based on personal transportation preferences/patterns which go beyond land use - as see the non trivial numbers of people who live in high density, work in high density, and still drive, at least occasionally (and sometimes regularly) B.while I am all supportive of coordinating transport and land use planning, that was far from the state of practice when I395 was built. Once again, I think you are setting the bar too high - at that time, the more common approach would have been to build I395 as wide as it was, AND to build it all conventional lanes.

by AWalkerInTheCity on Jun 13, 2012 3:18 pm • link • report