Trying to implement policies along northern European lines in US cities is ridiculous; until recently those countries had homogenous populations that were for the most part all “on the same page”. Traffic in US cities is unmanageable because our permissive policies let people in who have no concept of driving - and we issue them licenses at will. The gauges I use here in NJ are 1) how many people don’t use blinkers anymore, 2) how many people don’t use their headlights in rainy/snowy weather (it is required), and 3) how many people will stop in the middle of a busy roadway to pick someone up - even if that person will “be out in five minutes”. In the remaining civilized areas, those offenses will generate warnings or tickets from cops; in the areas filled with foreigners, cops don’t even bother. My town is morphing from the former to the latter.
We have put in all kinds of medians. They make maneuvering to addresses difficult.
The emergency vehicle operators hate them.
I naively thought they were a proven safety device with a trade-off for all the inconvenience.
Now--They are some silly Swedish leftist fad?
Designed to get rid of the automobile?
“The international Vision Zero movement began in the 1990s in Sweden, where it apparently worked well.”
That’s because Sweden in the ‘90s consists of Socialist blond bimbos and girly men who will do as they are told. I wonder if their new muslim overlords are as cooperative.
Stop your stupid plans! You have no idea what you are doing! You screw up, and the next guy has a “plan” to fix it, which screws things up even more, so that the next candidate comes up with his “plan” which also fails.
Just go in a corner with a good book and don’t break things that are not broken.
These feel good commie mayors should be arrested and exiled to their socialist utopia of choice.
Are there any tricks any more to get thru the WSJ paywall short of shelling out couple $100?
City planners are largely impractical lemmings who have been taught to hate the automobile and move us to a wonderful future filled with walking, biking, and mass transit.
The smartphone was Introduced in 2010. THAT IS THE CAUSE. The rest of these measures are a waste of money.
Hey, there is a positive side to the “road diet.”
Since Eric Garcetti has visions of higher office, there is an opportunity to gather video clips and sound-bytes of people impacted by this grand scheme.
If you like the ROAD DIET vote for Eric!
Venice Blvd., heavily used by commuters going to and from the West Side is a major alternative the Santa Monica Freeway. Reducing the number of lanes from from four to two will impact the freeway and other surface streets, greatly exacerbating the drive between Downtown LA and Santa Monica/West LA while polluting the air.
I would NEVER consider driving my car in and around NYC or any other big city on a regular basis for that matter. Traffic, parking, etc., too much of a hassle. If big cities were to be restricted to taxis only, I'd be fine with that but urban public transit would need to add 10x the capacity and I don't see that happening.
I could see parking my car in the outer ring of a city and jumping on a mono-rail or something. But we are talking trillions of dollars in infrastructure.
It doesn’t work? Do more of it!!! </liberal ‘logic’>
The idiots running the city in Tempe, AZ have the same misguided vision. All they do is make traffic worse.
I recently got a notice/survey that they want to do more to encourage electric vehicles. I wrote back, reminding them that electric vehicles have a larger carbon footprint than gas and diesel vehicles.
I have not heard back.
Is there anything that the leftists don’t destroy?
Worse yet, is there anything left that they don’t control?
those aren’t bike lanes. They are bird and lime lanes.
They are doing this in Colorado Springs, making down town such a hassle it’s not worth going there. When I have to drive through it, the bike lanes are empty space where an additional lane used to be. No one is using the bike lanes and traffic is backed up, waiting single file to get through the lights. Utter stupidity.
LA has been jammed with epic traffic for decades. And what to the extreme leftist in CA do? They start taking away lanes.
No joke.
It’s all part of the plan to push whats left of the middle class out of CA, eliminate the car and eliminate freedom to travel to go when you want, to where you want.
Dallas put in some HOV lanes under some sort of Federal pressure and bait program. I think they are far underused, especially when traffic accidents close lanes, and traffic would move much better if those dedicated empty lanes were released to the general traffic.
“Vision Zero”. Pretty much sums it up.
I’d love to see the stats for non-fatal accidents with property damage and/or injury. That info is never readily available for some reason.
This thing being a leftists thing, I presumed ‘diet’ referred to liberals eating road kill ... but it is just their way of making more road kill.