Posted on 01/30/2020 8:08:02 PM PST by karpov
As worsening traffic has put a stranglehold on New York, the country’s largest city has moved to squeeze out cars, taking away street space to make room for bikes and pedestrians, and all but banning vehicles from a major Manhattan thoroughfare.
Now, New York is considering an even more startling step: eliminating one-third of the lanes on one of the city’s busiest highways.
That is the key recommendation from a panel appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio that was tasked with coming up with a rescue plan for a key stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which is rapidly falling apart under the weight of 153,000 vehicles a day, more than three times what it was built to handle.
Without an overhaul, parts of it could become unsafe and unfit for traffic within five years.
The idea of shrinking the highway to four lanes from six is a remarkable shift for the city, which like the nation, has been shaped by a car-centric culture and is now wrestling with the consequences, including gridlocked streets, polluted air and rising pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
Some elected leaders and policymakers are increasingly recognizing that the future health of the city depends on making it less accommodating to cars.
The notion of eliminating highway lanes is realistic because of another ambitious effort to move cars off the road: congestion pricing. Next year, New York will become the first American city to charge a fee to drive into the busiest areas of Manhattan.
The panel’s recommendation would still have to be adopted by the city’s Transportation Department.
Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for Mr. de Blasio, said city officials were reviewing the findings. “This is a thorny problem that defies easy solutions,” she said. “The external panel has put fresh ideas on the table.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
PING!
Here in San Fransicko, starting toda,Market Street will be off limits to cars. It is only to be used by bicyclists and pedestrians. Well see how that will turn out.
Are they insane?
Here’s an idea let’s get rid of all lanes all highways all over the place. Let’s bicycle from Illinois to Wyoming or better yet, from New York to California!
Communists love their bicycles
Agenda 21 / 30. Make the world greener. Jam people into micro -apartments with no cars allowed. Remove car lanes and put in bike paths to “nudge Americans out of their cars” . Make people live, work and shop in a small radius.
Here’s one article:
https://americanpolicy.org/2017/05/26/agenda-212030-foreshadows-convention-of-states/
They were installed to make it more difficult for people to use their cars to go shopping; the regional planners want residents to use the new Metro line and the bus lines already in existence. They want to “nudge” Americans out of their cars.
The entire area is now extremely congested thanks to the many high-rise, mixed-use apartments overbuilt to suffocating capacity. The construction of the Metro line eliminated more driving roads and businesses.
The EZPass lanes from the Beltway were reallocated without much input from the American taxpayers and given to investors who now scalp drivers during rush hour by as much as $30 per 8-mile commute one way. Because the average commuter cannot afford such confiscatory rates, now the interstate is even more congested. Before EZPass, when the lanes were HOV, anybody could use the lanes for free during non-rush hours and during rush hour if they had 2-3 occupants per car. It seemed very equitable; these roads were built with taxpayer’s money. The investing group claimed that they had spent a few billions in improvements.
Bicycle paths are being built everywhere, downtowns are closed to traffic completely, streets are narrowed to make driving more inconvenient, parking lots are eliminated, parking garages charge exorbitant fees, and high-rises are built without any parking spaces, all in an effort to discourage Americans to own a car and eventually to force them into public transportation.
New York boasts 400 miles of bike paths; they have transformed Times Square into a pedestrian zone, “equity of space” as planners said, where everyone can relax and spend quality time with each other rather than alone in cars, driving all the time. What if one needs to rush somewhere?
Millennials are first in line to advocate for bike paths, but I don’t see any of them biking to work on the dangerous Beltway to and from D.C.; they are usually alone in their Beamers.
I am familiar with the proletariat masses having no cars during my years of living under a communist regime. We stayed close to home, within a 40-mile radius by bus or train, or as far as we could bike, or our feet could carry us. But the ruling elite had chauffeurs, elegant cars, and planes at their disposal.
Progressives are telling us or forcing us to tighten our carbon footprint belts; use less water, less air conditioning, less electricity; eat less meat; drive tin can Smart Cars; and build tiny apartments, while they live in mega mansions by the sea, sail in huge yachts, ride in limos, jet around the world to resorts and climate change conferences, and own many expensive cars running on fossil fuels.
Most people don’t know that all these changes are deliberate and have been implemented for decades under the aegis of United Nations’ Agenda 21/2030 and sold to Americans as Sustainable Development, regionalism, and Smart Growth/Green Growth, encompassing every facet of our lives.
Every state in the U.S., every nation on the planet that had signed onto U.N. Agenda 21 in 1992 is now a victim of Sustainable Development, the lynchpin of U.N. Agenda 21/2030, of social engineering, of regionalism, of urbanism, and of the “nudge” out of cars and into public transportation, buses, light rail, and long distance trains.
Regulations have proven to be more restrictive and draconian than legislation. The people’s behavior has been modified bit by bit to align with the visions of the members of the Club of Rome who allegedly wrote U.N. Agenda 21. Adults and children are conditioned and controlled to adhere to the core desires of those who designed Agenda 21. The name Common Core Education and its Standards were not chosen randomly; it was a step towards indoctrination into their goals.
Take for instance the implantation of chips in trash containers in Manningham, Australia. City officials have spent $6 million to retrofit bins with chips that supposedly help them find lost containers and monitor what substances people put in their garbage. The microchipped bins and the garbage truck cameras help Big Brother pay close attention to what residents throw out and if their waste is on the approved list; if not, the offending resident is fined $200.
In cases where minor visible contamination is found, a warning sticker is placed on the bin lid to educate residents on what can and can’t be placed in the bin.
The American Planning Association with other professional organizations have been instrumental in the deployment of U.N.’s Agenda 21/2030 through the voluntary design of architects and engineers who will do the bidding of those who reward them with grants and money. Federal grants fund local deployment of U.N.’s Agenda 21/2030.
As A.J. Cameron said:
Closing the gap on income inequality is not about shifting money and resources from the wealthy to the needy, it is about destroying the middle class to make everyone needy, except for those forcing the insanity upon the masses. In the meantime, the predatory puppeteers become wealthier and evermore powerful. Sustainability is a religion that is more dangerous than Islam.
Kathleen Marquardt, Vice President of the American Policy Center, wrote recently about Austin’s ‘Complete Streets’ policy.
If Austin planners have their way, they’ll impose a California-style ‘complete streets’ congestion-inducing nightmare. Complete streets policies seek to elevate non-auto modes of travel by using already scarce funds to construct bike, bus, and pedestrian facilities while reducing capacity and access for autos.
Marquardt mentioned San Francisco’s Proposition A which passed in November 2016.
The $500 million bond measure [aims] to impose a variety of traffic calming measures, which actually do anything but calm traffic. Rather they induce traffic. The measure includes speed bumps, road diets, traffic circles, intersection islands, train upgrades, expanding bus stops, special boarding islands or ‘bulbs’ for buses (which undoubtedly take up road space needed for efficient auto travel) and transit-only lanes.
The most focused and resolute advocate for property rights, the most important element of Sustainable Development, is the President of American Policy Center, Tom DeWeese. For over twenty-five years he has been educating groups around the country on the dangers of U.N. Agenda 21, now morphed into Agenda 2030.
Livable, walkable communities have sprung up all over the country, following the Smart Growth example of Portland, Oregon, a grand plan that destroyed the neighborhood atmosphere, increased population density, increased congestion, and escalated crime.
The Smart Growth plans have backfired, driving up prices beyond the reach of most people. The young and low income people are now forced to rent, and the poor have no hope of ever buying a home and experiencing the American dream of home ownership. In Portland, according to Tom DeWeese, after decades of Smart Growth policies, more than 10,000 minority families were driven out their homes, and in the San Francisco Bay area minority families were relocated against their will into “preferred development areas.”
Tom DeWeese is working on a book to define private property and why it is so important to create personal wealth and freedom, the single best way to eradicate poverty. “The book, with the working title, Property Rights Matter, will contain a detailed plan on how to restore property rights, from the Great Plains to the inner city.” He is putting together a team of experts to draft such a plan. His Property Rights Network will make property rights a national issue in local, state, and national elections. It will include organizations, individual activists, and elected representatives who advocate for property rights.
Tom DeWeese focuses on:
how we can roll back regulations that prevent folks in the inner cities from not only owning and controlling their property, but also destroy or prevent the establishment of local businesses. Under Smart Growth programs inner city ethnic neighborhoods are being bulldozed and replaced with expensive high rise ‘walkable’ communities which the lower income folks cannot afford. So they are displaced into federal housing project, stuck on the government’s plantation. They live a life of intimidation in a world full of crime and hopelessness.
He plans to reach out to small business associations to help bring about a non-government, free enterprise solution to build a life of their own and to improve their own neighborhoods.
DeWeese wrote:
Meanwhile, in the western states, where the BLM is a reign of terror, I plan to use the network to focus a large spotlight on it, demand that the states get back control of their land and stop calling it public land.
DeWeese announced that:
the American Policy Center has joined with 40 other organizations to urge President Trump to keep his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement. He is now under massive pressure to ignore that promise.
Such agreement made under the Obama administration would be disastrous for our industry and our economy.
Under the excuse of stopping global warming and carbon footprint, your water, gas, and electricity consumption are monitored and controlled via smart meters. HOAs tell you what to do in your suburban home if you were lucky to have been allowed to build in what the planners call “urban sprawl.” In some areas, if you own land, you cannot build a single family home; you must build a high-rise, mixed-use apartment complex with no parking spaces.
In Maryland, unless your land is close to a sewer system, you cannot build a home with a septic tank; you have to build on approved corridors.
In Miami, bike paths will become bike highways. If they run close to your home and your favorite magnolia tree is cut down without your permission, too bad; the regional council who gave the grant is not responsible for what happens to your home or your property. No one takes responsibility, but shadowy NGOs with unchecked power, armed with grants, will decide what will happen to your property.
“More government power leads to more government corruption,” said Tom DeWeese. Protecting the environment and having clean air, water, and soil, is important, but oppressing Americans in the name of environmental protection and preventing manufactured global warming is a farce that aims to control our living.
Speaking recently to a group in Virginia, Tom DeWeese explained that the Convention of States advocates keep telling us that all these Agenda 21 problems will be fixed and government overreach will be brought under control if we just amend the Constitution one more time. But the shadow leftist government wants to completely change our nation, not fix it, and to replace the Constitution with their own version, a progressive constitution, an environmental green constitution, and any leftist constitution that harmonizes with international law. And all the George Soros-funded organizations are busy incorporating their agenda into the progressive U.S. Constitution waiting in the wings to replace the old and archaic, out-of-touch U.S. Constitution. The “democracy” the leftists keep bringing up is nothing but a means to grab political power. We are not a democracy, we are a constitutional republic. But if the left repeats a lie non-stop, the uninformed masses believe it.
The Constitution provides no guidelines on how delegates for a Convention of States are chosen, who does the selection, and how it will run. The precedent has already been set when the original Convention of States did not focus on the specific orders given by their states; once delegates were locked inside the convention hall, the wishes of the states were immediately ignored, and the chosen delegates became the most powerful force in the country, with no “boss.” When they emerged, we had a new Constitution.
DeWeese asked a rhetorical question:
Why are they trying to redefine our Constitution? Because everyone is ignoring the law, the left claims that we must have an amendment to force them to do their jobs. What motivations would drive the Schumers, the Pelosis, to say, oh, the Constitution is the law of the land, and we must follow it.
Nameless, faceless bureaucrats, yielding power in the backrooms is not freedom. The Constitution is not broken, it is the people we have been put in charge, they are broken (concluded DeWeese).
Sustainable Development is harmonization of our system of government with the global government envisioned by billionaire elites. Private property ownership is the reason why the United States has been the most successful country on the planet. “Stand up for property rights and we can stop Sustainable Development,” Agenda 21 , and its sibling, Agenda 2030.
Yes!
Let’s have a highway book shaped like a highway to put several of them on the highway to block all the traffic!
OMG. San Fran is already a mess. Pplotoci
.. how can we possibly make San Francisco even worse than it already is?
Make America China Now!
That strange word was meant to be politicians.
bureaucrat planners
as if
Very, very enlightening.
DumblASSio and his wrecking crew have been getting rid of left turn lanes (I cannot fathom why in the world they'd want to do that), taking away right lanes to convert them to bus-only lanes (resulting in massive congestion in the remaining 2 lanes), eliminating parking spaces to make room for bike lanes no one uses (thereby ruining business for the stores where there's no parking available), placing No Parking signs at the ends of streets in well-to-do neighborhoods which takes away perfectly good spaces where there are already few, etc. The message is clear: we want to emulate Europe--which has SO much to recommend it--NOT--and take away your cars from you. Add that to guns, large sodas, etc. and you can see that nannyism is taking over to take your entire quality of life from you.
That’s a very risky thing to try, but they have to see what works. I hope the highway doesn’t end up like those ‘Round-a-bouts’ I’ve heard about in Italy.
It is called ‘road diets’ here in California.
Remember Paradise town that was destroyed by fire. People died in their cars as they were trapped because the town politicians accepted state money for road repairs. It was the state democrats that killed those people.
That should greatly reduce the burden on the other arteries in my body.
Regards,
Get out yer bicycle kids !
Oh ! There’s three feet of snow ?
Get snow tires !
Bwa ha ha
If our grandparents had the attitudes of the public officials today, we’d still be riding a horse and buggy. These people don’t increase transportation infrastructure, and then whine whine whine whine when traffic backs up.
How many lanes have they added in the last twenty years?
How much true traffic planning have they done inside the city?
Look folks, I know we’ve grown as a society, and that demands improvements in infrastructure. It’s just that they steal funds from the highways and bridges and parking facilities, and apply it to trains and buses.
I don’t want to get on a train or bus and mingle with people. I’ve done that in the past, and when you do it, you’re subjecting yourself to problems.
It only takes one problem, to ruin not only your day, but weeks, months, years, perhaps your life.
If our city managers would give up the idea of being “the People’s” managers, as in the Communist Party, and start thinking outside the box, a lot could improve.
This idea of cutting lanes is imbecilic.
They are cutting up to one third the lanes to improve traffic flow. Consider how ignorant you have to be, to think that is a solution.
It’s raining outside. Today’s forecast predicts between 1-3 inches of rain. Okay, hop on your bike boys.
It’s snowing. There’s three inches on the ground, but if you take it easy you can get to work in your car. Nope, drag out that bike. Are you afraid of a little exercise?
Hey, it’s -5 degrees today. There’s two inches of fresh snow? How about a nice four mile walk? How about riding that bike?
Come on. I know you think we just did this to make traffic flow faster, but in truth, it’s the global warming we’re concerned with. We’re going to hit our targets if it kills you. We have limos. All is well...
Fewer cars mean less wear and tear on the roadway with faster average speed and less congestion. The paradox of road construction is that the more roads you build, the more congested they get as people drive more. The new approach emphasizes other means of travel and tries to reduce car use and ownership in major urban areas.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.