Comments on: When the Status Quo Doesn’t Cut It http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/12/15/when-the-status-quo-doesnt-cut-it/ Covering the New York City Streets Renaissance Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:07:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Charles Siegel http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/12/15/when-the-status-quo-doesnt-cut-it/comment-page-1/#comment-60552 Charles Siegel Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:55:29 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=5134#comment-60552 You can vote in a newspaper poll about removing Seattle's Alaska Way freeway at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008499817_viaduct12m.html. so far, the vote is: The "surface and transit" plan 54% (966 votes) The elevated bypass highway 46% (821 votes) You can vote in a newspaper poll about removing Seattle’s Alaska Way freeway at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008499817_viaduct12m.html.

so far, the vote is:
The “surface and transit” plan 54% (966 votes)
The elevated bypass highway 46% (821 votes)

]]> By: Charles Siegel http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/12/15/when-the-status-quo-doesnt-cut-it/comment-page-1/#comment-60550 Charles Siegel Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:25:49 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=5134#comment-60550 It is not that road projects are easier and faster to approve. It is that most of the funding has gone to road projects in the past, and therefore, most of the projects that are already ready to go are road projects. It is easy to continue the status quo and speed it up a bit. It takes longer to do the planning needed to change direction. It is not that road projects are easier and faster to approve. It is that most of the funding has gone to road projects in the past, and therefore, most of the projects that are already ready to go are road projects.

It is easy to continue the status quo and speed it up a bit. It takes longer to do the planning needed to change direction.

]]> By: Rhywun http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/12/15/when-the-status-quo-doesnt-cut-it/comment-page-1/#comment-60549 Rhywun Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:13:43 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=5134#comment-60549 I'm having a hard time believing that 94.4% of all projects that are "ready to go" are road projects in any but the most rural states. Where is this assumption that road projects are easier or faster to approve coming from? PS. Like it matters. If the way Albany has long treated NYC is any indication, the fact that the *states* are getting the money means it will be greatly skewed towards cars anyway. I’m having a hard time believing that 94.4% of all projects that are “ready to go” are road projects in any but the most rural states. Where is this assumption that road projects are easier or faster to approve coming from?

PS. Like it matters. If the way Albany has long treated NYC is any indication, the fact that the *states* are getting the money means it will be greatly skewed towards cars anyway.

]]> By: Charles Siegel http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/12/15/when-the-status-quo-doesnt-cut-it/comment-page-1/#comment-60548 Charles Siegel Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:27:57 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=5134#comment-60548 "Picking up a list of already designed projects also perpetuates the status quo in transportation planning..." Transportation activists are not going to have any influence if they show that they are out of touch with reality. The economic reality is that we need immediate stimulus to the economy, which means funding for already designed projects. I worked on a plan to convert one-way streets to two way, and it required a year-long traffic-engineering studies before anything could be built. That is exactly the sort of thing that we cannot do as part of the stimulus package but that we would be able to do if federal transportation funding were more flexible. Stop focusing on the stimulus package, where there cannot possibly be a significant change of direction, and start focusing on the reauthorization of federal transporation funding in September, where there can be a significant change of direction and where Obama will probably be on our side (if we don't poison the well by criticizing the stimulus package in ways that convince him that we are total flakes). “Picking up a list of already designed projects also perpetuates the status quo in transportation planning…”

Transportation activists are not going to have any influence if they show that they are out of touch with reality. The economic reality is that we need immediate stimulus to the economy, which means funding for already designed projects.

I worked on a plan to convert one-way streets to two way, and it required a year-long traffic-engineering studies before anything could be built. That is exactly the sort of thing that we cannot do as part of the stimulus package but that we would be able to do if federal transportation funding were more flexible.

Stop focusing on the stimulus package, where there cannot possibly be a significant change of direction, and start focusing on the reauthorization of federal transporation funding in September, where there can be a significant change of direction and where Obama will probably be on our side (if we don’t poison the well by criticizing the stimulus package in ways that convince him that we are total flakes).

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