The Department of Transportation Has a Plan for You

Flopping Aces ^ | 02-20-15 | Brother Bob

[Starman417]

The Washington Post reported that The Department of Transportation has some pretty big ideas about the future of transportation.

Before diving into a thicket of transportation data and questions, a hefty new federal study makes a traffic projection that could get a chuckle, even from folks in Nebraska: Omaha, the new Los Angeles.

That’s by 2045, the study says, when traffic congestion in Omaha (current population of 435,353) could be just as bad as it is in L.A. (current population of 10 million). The provocative prospect of gridlock in the heartland sets the stage for a 316-page document produced by the Transportation Department and released Monday by Secretary Anthony Foxx.

I've only gone through parts of the study itself, but what caught my attention for this post was a short .pdf with a bunch of well designed summary slides. Planning is a good thing - not doing so can leave you in a bind in almost any element of one's life. And as this presentation states, it's intent is more to start a conversation and get feedback rather than become some overarching policy. But bad policies that get inflicted on us start somewhere, and papers like this are one source. So I was genuinely curious as to what Secretary Foxx had to say. As I go through I'm going to include screen grabs of the slides, as I think they're worth a look. If the images aren't showing there will be small text captions immediately below each.

The Post article cited this as the first item that could draw some skepticism. If you look down in the comments section of the Post article, amidst a lot of flames there are a few good, constructive ideas about traffic near Omaha. Still, something like this is a good conversation starter.

If the local trains are that unreliable, she could get a ride from Uber, despite New York's best efforts to deny her that alternative.

I'm getting nervous that we're descending into Tom Friedman-esque calls for massive "investments" in high speed trains that all carry free Wi-Fi. Spoiler: it doesn't. But in some ways it's worse.

It's the government that tries to encourage money losing ventures like Amtrak, or trying to push unwanted, expensive streetcars onto us. As for regulating those new technologies, we get local fights against what people actually want (like Uber), or investment and job killing regulations, such as what's happening over Net Neutrality. The next few pages of the presentation continue with just some text inviting everyone to join the conversation, and offers a link to offer opinions on DOT's web site.

Then the slides with graphics start, and they are interesting. I'm posting the next one in its entirety only for illustrative purposes. Like I said earlier, the presentation was well put together, and is worth a few minutes of your time to check out.

This particular slide is more of just laying out some demographic changes that should be considered. For the most part, the slide does a good job of offering basic conversational items that should be considered in any planning. But one part of it caught my eye:

[RatRipper]

Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper to slow the immigration flow to a crawl . . . just more piss on me & tell me its raining. The time is now to bitch slap the big government control freaks back into line with the good folks.

[tbw2]

I read a really stupid liberal article saying that immigration isn’t the problem, they are more likely to ride the bus and ride-share. The guys riding in the back of the pickup are thus an example to those of us driving our own cars.

[Gay State Conservative]

Omaha becomes LA? And this is Obola's stooges talking? OK,I know the scam....the solution is mandatory use of "public transportation",solar powered cars that could be mistaken for roller skates and a tax (federal,state,county *and* municipal) on every mile we drive.

Am I getting warm?

[BikerJoe]

Big problem is...this is what they DO in D.C. Create and give powerpoint presentations. Lots and lots of them. And in powerpoint, everything ALWAYS works. Everything is always true.

[spokeshave]

In Asia...electric buses receive their power by wireless

I stopped reading right there.

[spokeshave]

In any case the only transport will be snow shoes, skis, and four wheel drive vehicles....

since the long predicted global cooling started in around 2020.

.....when the Sun stopped making any sunspots

and the reason that the Suns magnetic field declined is because it was all used up in a failed attempt magnetize Obama's moral compass....

[Chode]

odd that it says Omaha is the new LA but doesn't say what happened to LA... no more cars? everybody work from home?? southern CA is now simply a parking lot???

[equaviator]

And you’re always safe at the bus stop...Am I right?

[Svartalfiar]

If you can’t make it to work because the trains are too full, or traffic’s too bad, sounds like you need to plan better and leave earlier. Also, there’s only so much that can be squished into downtown. Look at Dallas, we now have HUGE growth outside the main city way up in Frisco/McKinney/Plano/etc. These cities used to just be residential areas feeding Dallas, but now they’re growing up and there’s less people making the long commute.

[Alberta's Child]

Thirty years ago I'll bet nobody would have believed that Austin, Texas would surpass New York City among the most congested cities in the U.S., or that the ten worst cities in the U.S. for highway congestion would include San Jose, Seattle and Bridgeport (CT).

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