The Perils of 'Shovel-Ready' Projects
"I fear that 'shovel ready' means boondoggles like the E- 470 beltway, a six-lane, 46-mile arc through empty high-desert grasslands dotted with new subdivisions east of Denver. Cars cruise the wide-open toll road at 80 miles per hour.
Touted as essential to the metro area's growth, this land developers' delight hasn't lightened loads on more centrally located highways. It's just rearranged growth patterns, scattering splotches of development over an unimaginably large landscape. New residents depend on long beltway commutes by car.
We can't do better now, the lobbying legions say, we need to start the bulldozers fast. Translation: No bridge to nowhere will be left behind.
What's wrong with America's way of building transportation has long been known. We segregate roads, mass transit, railways and air. Each has its own pot of money. It's no one's job to assemble a transportation system that offers the right travel mode for the task at hand."
Topics
- The Economic Defense of Sprawl (And What's Wrong With It)
- Searching for the Essence of Planning at the National Planning Conference
- Oregon Could Be Next to Legalize the Idaho Stop
- Time to Delink Homeownership from Asset Building
- WeWork's Real Estate Arm Launches 'Future Cities' Initiative
- More Evidence that Decline and Concentrated Poverty Define the Urban Experience
- $1.36 Billion in Federal Transit Administration Grants Awarded
- The Automobile as Prison. The City as Freedom.
- First City to Make Ride-Hailing Trip Data Public: Chicago
- New York City to Reduce Truck Emissions by Investing in Freight Rail Infrastructure
- New Tool Puts Miami Development Opportunities on the Map
- Reactions to Ontario's Subway Takeover Plan
- Lincoln Yards Mega-Development Clears Final Legislative Hurdle
- Transit Ridership Declined Nationally in 2018, APTA Report Finds
- Spotlight On Bay Area Planners
- An Alphabetical Compendium of the Gentrification Blame Game
- The Results of Short-Term Rentals: Fewer Long-Term Rentals, Fewer Homes for Sale, Higher Rents
- On-Demand Shuttle Service Launches in Seattle
- World's Largest Concentrating Solar-Thermal Plant Plan a No-Go
- King Street Transit Priority Project Now Permanent in Toronto
