Presently, if I want to drive to the Marigny and points further East, I usually take the Claiborne Expressway or South Rampart. I could certainly go through the Quarter, but that’s generally a nightmare. I could also go further north, but reaching a road north of the expressway would be a major detour. The options are pretty well limited.Owen comes at this a little differently from the way I do. I don't think either of these projects is driven by a policy objective (or, has he jokingly calls it, a conspiracy) to make driving less convenient.. or to keep Uptowners in Uptown.. or to keep Owen in Uptown.
For some inexplicable reason, plans are being made to kill both the expressway and Rampart as useful thoroughfares for vehicular traffic.
I do think they're motivated more by real estate development plans than they are by transit strategy, though. And I tend to agree with Owen's assessment of their negative impact in that regard.
Alon Levy of the transportation blog Pedestrian Observations had some really useful thoughts about the breakdown of political opposition to various transit plans. It's not really progressive vs. conservative or drivers vs. transit advocates. For me transportation politics is driven by transactional politicians vs. idealogues. Transactional politicians from both parties favor developers over people which is why so much of our transportation infrastructure is not about transportation at all but favors and tax giveaways.
ReplyDeletehttp://pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/who-are-the-opponents-of-transportation-alternatives/