Posted on 06/30/2015 10:47:03 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The problem is clear: Traffic congestion will become significantly worse and more widespread without big changes in how people and products get around.
Build more roads. Build more public transit. Rely on new technology. The possible solutions are many, but none is easy or cheap.
A few ways to ease the nation's gridlock:
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PUBLIC TRANSIT RENAISSANCE
Ridership on public buses, trains and subways has reached its highest level nationally since the 1950s, and transit boosters cite this as evidence that expanded service and routes is a good investment.
The nation's driving capital, Los Angeles, is making a multibillion-dollar investment in building or extending five rail lines. Transit advocates say that should be a model: If LA can do it, any region can.
Skeptics point out that the record ridership still translates into just a fraction of all trips people take. They also make a bang-for-the-buck argument, saying big-ticket transit projects just don't make enough of a difference to justify their cost.
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TOLLS ARE 'HOT'
Driving is expected to remain the primary means of travel for most Americans. But finding the money to maintain aging highways, much less build more lanes, is increasingly difficult.
To help fund new construction, the Obama administration has proposed letting states toll federal interstates. That's been prohibited since the interstate system was launched in 1956, except for a few exceptions, including highways that already had tolls. Congress would have to approve the change.
One way to make existing highways more efficient is "high occupancy toll" (or HOT) lanes. The idea often involves converting carpool lanes that may be relatively car free into lanes that solo drivers can pay to use. Carpoolers typically travel for free...
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
First, stop buying your teenagers a car before they graduate from high school! That will stop the drunk driving and other idiotic things, for a while, and give them a chance to mature a few years, before they run into a telephone pole or something.
Second, if the author is complaining about how the traffic is snarled now ... wait till ‘he’ gets stuck in line at a tollbooth!! Stop, pay a toll, drive at high speed for a few minutes, stop, pay a toll, and do it all over again for the duration of that piece of highway.
Third. You who use ‘truck routes’ will see those to be clogged, if not already, as alternate driving routes become discovered to bypass the tolls, except for the bridges across major rivers, where it will become a mess once more.
Fourth. Your gas mileage will go to that more of ‘city’ average than ‘highway’ which will mean you will pay FOR more gas, at a HIGHER rate, just on the other side of the exiting highway toll gate, if you don’t run out of gas, first.
Staggered by 5 minutes?
And if they earn the money to buy one on their own?
The cramming of too many people in too small a space makes traffic a problem-duh! Even the Romans had traffic problems, slums, high crime-all the problems associated with people living like ants or bees. Maybe-just-maybe people aren’t supposed to live in hives like bees-might be better to spread out a bit and have more small shops and businesses instead of big boxes and big companies employing 1000’s in one building...
Is it really that important for them to be more mature when they hit a telephone pole?
Easy solution. If no one is working then no one has to drive to work. We’re halfway there!
I would not have thought such short increments would save appreciably on traffic jams; especially at very large offices/factories.
But if it worked, it worked.
I’ve often thought that if the federal offices in Washington,DC adopted start/end times staggered by 60 minutes it would help their traffic woes.
Future toll roads won’t have toll booths. They will use all-electronic tolling where you’ll speed under a gantry at highway speed and either the reader will recognize your transponder and deduct your toll from a pre-paid account, or a camera will take a picture of your license plate, so that the tolling authority can bill you by mail.
Dear WayneS,
Your academic question, placed in the light of the present national job market, is moot.
The only way that teenagers can earn enough for an automobile, these days, and the funds for the insurance rates, and the maintenance thereof, is with mommy and daddy co-signing a loan, which there has always been a 50/50 possibility of getting stuck with, or the legal fees for Johnny/Jane’s one time idiocy.
I had a part time job after school, was in athletics, earned an ‘A’ in economics, bookkeeping, and two years’ worth of the Russian language, lived in a city, and either rode the city bus to school, or my bicycle.
Dear WayneS,
The increased maturity will be a factor in improving the odds that they might NOT have that telephone pole jump out in the street.
Good for you. But does that make you qualified to tell other people how to live their lives? YOU didn't need a car, so why would ANYONE need one?
I live in a rural area with no bus service and dangerous roads for riding bicycles. The nearest store (and it's a little one) is about 7 miles away. There are plenty of small farms and businesses that need assistance so work is there for young people if they want to work.
Also, I wasn't talking about a new car, or even one of particularly recent vintage (so your reference to co-signing a loan is "academic" and "moot"). In my opinion, nothing builds character for a teenager like having to diagnose and repair his (or her) old junk-heap vehicle so he can travel where he needs or want to go. And nothing motivates him (or her) to work harder so he can afford a nicer vehicle, either.
I got my first job on a farm at the age of 13. I bought my first "junker" vehicle at 14, and promptly sold it for a profit without ever even driving it. I bought my second vehicle at 15 years of age. With many hours of assistance from Dad, but very little of his money, we fixed it up so that it was ready for me when I got my driver's license at 16. I worked very hard to pay for maintenance, gas and insurance.
I will not deny my son that same type of adventure if he chooses to go that route.
Everyone has different life experiences, and one size does NOT fit all.
I remember here in Los Angeles when the illegals were trying to throw their weight around they decided to go on strike.
Traffic was very light the days they did not drive and everyone wanted them to to stay off the roads!
I agree with you. Good presentation.
That would work. AT least half of the country thinks it would anyway. :-(
Not what the statists like 0bama and the morons who vote for him think.
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