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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I think there are problems like this in many places, where the actual traffic on these highways, exceeds the amount expected by the road planners decades ago. And that’s why there is so much congestion, and wear and tear on many of the interstate highways.

There are also deferred maintenance issues, I’m sure.


11 posted on 06/22/2019 4:25:13 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego
I-4 was originally intended to pass to the west of downtown Orlando instead of through it. Unfortunately, a group of local notables with ties to LBJ lobbied and got the route changed so that it would instead pass through downtown Orlando. It was thought that this would help assure that downtown Orlando and their valuable properties there would not wither because a major flow of traffic had been diverted.

Contrary to those expectations, I-4 led to massive growth of new suburbs north of Orlando, which in turn caused I-4 to soon exceed its design capacity. The daily commute from north of Orlando became a vexation and a major political issue. A series of upgrades and expansions to I-4 helped only temporarily and marginally because they could not keep up with the area's burgeoning growth.

The current project -- called I-4 Ultimate -- will create new privately owned tolled lanes but do little to remedy the miseries of driving I-4 as experienced by most motorists. In time, it will become apparent that the principal beneficiaries are the private interests who are financing the new toll lanes in return for guaranteed profits in near perpetuity.

Oddly, after I-4 was built, downtown Orlando withered as its large department stores and many small retailers and service shops lost much of their customer base. The customers instead preferred to shop at the enormous mall and strip centers that sprouted close to their new homes in the north of Orlando. The loss of downtown jobs also devastated the nearby Black community and pushed many of its residents deep into poverty. Local civil rights activists tend to regard the placement of I-4 and local toll roads as bulldozing Blacks and taking their jobs.

Notably, in recent years as I-4 became ever more overburdened, downtown Orlando and many of the neighborhoods around it began to experience growth and redevelopment -- even the neighborhood that I grew up in. In broad terms, this is probably what would have happened decades earlier had I-4 not been routed through downtown Orlando.

20 posted on 06/23/2019 2:36:32 AM PDT by Rockingham
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