The Mayor of Tempe, Arizona, is advocating widening Interstate 10 from Tempe to East Phoenix to 12 lanes in each direction.
"State transportation officials are considering widening a section of Interstate 10 in metropolitan Phoenix to 24 lanes, a configuration that would be unique in the state.
The first phase of the project would cost an estimated $550 million and double the width of I-10 from U.S. 60 in Tempe to just south of Sky Harbor Airport in east Phoenix. The second phase could would widen the freeway all the way to Interstate 17 and bring the project total to $1.3 billion.
The Maricopa Association of Governments, which coordinates freeway-construction money in the region, has money to begin the first phase by 2012."
Comments
24 Lanes of Traffic
How delightful.
(It also amazes me that this being a city planning forum, there are no comments about this.)
hahaha
cause we all know it's nuts. :-)
Making Arizona Uninhabitable
According to today's NY Times, scientists have found that the southwest had exceptionally high rainfall during the twentieth century and has been drier historically than they used to believe. They also predict it will become even drier because of global warming.
So, it makes lots of sense for Arizona to adopt transportation policies that will make global warming even worse.
Charles Siegel
Doubling down...
Actually, they're doubling down on heating up the planet by 1) covering huge expanses of real estate with (very hot) asphalt plus 2) yet tens of thousands more big, air-conditioned SUVs will fill all those extra traffic lanes, at which time the transportation 'planners' in Phoenix will decide that the best solution is to build 48-lane highways. Incidentally, one by-product of all those air-conditioners is yet more hot air thrown into the atmosphere. (Well, I suppose however, given that Phoenix is 100-deg.+ for half of the year, perhaps they don't even notice down there that the planet is warming up all around them.)
Regrettably, the forces which cause global warming are probably irreversible. Moreover, most people in our society live for 'now,' (that's why so many drive huge trucks and SUVs, live in monster houses, and buy all kinds of consumer crap for themselves and their children which they don't need). Sadly, these folks, who make up a big part of the American population, including our very wise, all-knowing President, seem to show little interest in what, a few decades hence, will be a catastrophe likely to dwarf all other human concerns. I suspect that most residents of Phoenix really don't give a sh..., which is why proposals for 24-lane highways can be given serious consideration there.
Aneurysm
I'm just so flabberghasted I don't know what to say. It's roughly as mind-blowing as having someone tell me that the aliens have now dictated that the ducks are in charge. Apparently, in Phoenix, they might well be. I'm going to go have an aneurysm now.
- Brandon