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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Removal of Central Expressway would make Dallas a better city
Quality of life is going to be the driver of the 21st century economy.
Reader of this here blog has decided to pick up the cause of freeway removal in Dallas, starting with a Facebook page Save Downtown Dallas: Tear Out Central Expressway. Go like it, if you like of course. I did.
Along those lines, I'll repost the ScienceDaily article about Brown Economist Nathaniel Baum-Snow's study that intra-city freeways, when introduced into cities, correlate with an 18% reduction in population. Of course, ScienceDaily has to miss the point and put up a map of Eisenhower's interstate system. Until we can differentiate between inter-city (good) and intra-city (bad), the colossal mistake is many of these will continue to go unnoticed as cities, like Dallas, and bear the burden of intra-regional transportation infrastructure at (for the most part) their own expense in the way of disappearing tax base which moves beyond their jurisdictional boundaries.
Houston doesn't have this problem since they annex everything around them. On the other hand, if we were to only flip the mindset a bit, we can see this as an advantage. Those people beyond Dallas aren't voting in Dallas elections. Why are we making transportation decisions on behalf of people who don't live in Dallas?
Because of Dallas's "landlocked" nature, we actually could use far more competition between DFW cities. I know, I know, NCTCOG is hailed all the time as a model of regional governance. For the most part, because they do two things, 1) elicit cooperation amongst all the cities within the interconnected beyond-boundaries economy that this is, and 2) get federal money. They are quite excellent at 2. Unfortunately, that can mean freeways/road expansion projects.
To quote Namond Bryce/Senator Clay Davis, "I'll take any muh-effers money if they givin' it away." That's Dallas. A corrupt politician and the 8th grade equivalent of one. Of course, I'm making a parallel to a fictional television series, but is it so fictional?
Any effort to get more freeways/expand road capacity undermines all efforts at expanding scope/efficacy of other forms of transportation. Rail, bikes, new kicks for pedestrians become little more than niceties used primarily by the indigent as everybody else thinks life is just fine ... as gas climbs to $5/gallon. What then?
Isn't it in Dallas's best interest to look after its citizenry? To make the city more livable by getting rid of the very things that chased everybody out? Everybody will say, "OMG businesses will all die," just like they did in Copenhagen when they started taking cars off of streets. Or as they warned Vancouver when they wouldn't let freeways get built in the first place. Or when Portland or San Francisco began removing freeways from their inner-city. Do you think any of those places regrets those decisions? Do you think they said, "man, I sure hope Oakland and San Jose don't mind."
Then they'll say, "OMG traffic will be a nightmare!" And it very well might for a few days, maybe a week. Then you know what happens? That traffic begins to find other ways around. If it was to go to work, they might take the train instead. If it was to go shopping at an outlet, perhaps they do it online. If it was to drive somewhere that had to be driven, perhaps they find another route or go somewhere closer.
An amazing thing happens when you cut road capacity. Traffic demand falls with it. It doesn't just merely re-route. But some percentage disappears. This doesn't mean the economy shuts down and we all lock ourselves in our emergency shelters eating yankee beans by candlelight waiting for Armageddon to subside. Here is an excerpt for Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic:
If you do not believe that new roads bring new drivers (ed. note.: as the author explains in the previous section this is a concept known as "induced demand"), consider what happens when roads are taken away. Surely all the traffic must simply divert to other roads, no? In the short-term, perhaps, but over time the total level of traffic actually drops. In a study of what they called "disappearing traffic," a team of British researchers looked at a broad list of projects in England and elsewhere where roads had been taken away either for construction or by design. Predictably, traffic flows dropped at the affected area. Most of the time, though, the increase in traffic on alternative routes was nowhere near the traffic "lost" on the affected roads.
As I wrote the other day, in happily pointing out that Joel Kotkin has zero clue what he's talking about suggesting that the internet replaces walkability (which makes no logical sense whatsoever), the internet along with price corrections to driving as a way of life will be replaced by more affordable, more efficient, and FASTER forms of interconnectivity: 1) internet replaces many regional (and longer) connections, and 2) spatial relocation to walkability replaces others. Thus converting the abandoned city to a lively city:
Here is what will happen if in fact we were to remove one of the many freeways carving up our city like an Easter ham. We would open up hundreds of acres of land for development, which means increased affordability as well as increased livability (ie more walkable urbanism). We would have an increased tax base and the ability to provide more services, particularly at a neighborhood level. Businesses wouldn't shy away from Dallas, but instead say, "hey, they've got something going on there," and look to relocate here without having to fork over tax breaks to get them.
Quality of life is going to be the driver of the 21st century economy. Job growth will come from the businesses looking to locate in areas precisely because of the area, the quality of life, and to be near all of the other similarly-minded people doing similar constructive things.
And as far as the suburbs go, this would be the best thing possible for them as well, like 30-year old children still living at home. At some point ya gotta cut the cord. They wouldn't be so dependent upon the core city. They would have to become more resilient, more walkable, more diverse, more independent themselves.
DART needs the ridership. The state needs to spend less on infrastructure (and certainly wouldn't mind unloading its biggest asset (Right-of-way) in order to balance its own budgetary crisis). Cities need tax base. And citizens could probably handle far less Vehicle Miles Traveled and the associated gas/ownership/maintenance costs that go along with them.
Lucky for us, we have the perfect storm of opportunity and economics swirling around us to make it happen. If we were only willing to piss off our neighbors a bit. I'm sure they'll forgive us.
Pegasus News Content partner - Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth
Editor's note: After posting the above article, Patrick Kennedy expounded further on the topic on his site. Click on the link to read.
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Egorsti, anonymous:
They did it in San Francisco!
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texrunner, anonymous:
While I would LOVE it if downtown became revitalized and more walkable, I think tearing out central expressway is short-sighted. According to census projections, the population in Dallas is set to grow at an exponential rate in the next 10 years. Right now, there are still several places to grow in relatively close suburbs. Once the land around those areas are built up, more people will be "forced" to (1) move closer to downtown or (2) move further away. I think it is better to have the foresight to prepare the city's transportation infrastructure for the jump in population. While population trends can swing dramatically to the opposite direction (i.e. Detroit), I think the local economy is diverse enough to sustain the groth we are experiencing. Take Boston for example. The city is congested and difficult to manuever, so the city underwent the "big dig" project. The city of Boston isn't any less of a city because a high speed transportation system is making it easier to get in and out of the city; there isn't a dramatic flight from the city to the burbs. I think 20-30 years down the road we will appreciate central expressway AND have a better urban Dallas (unless we finally get those flying cars we were promised in the 1950s).
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Clay213, anonymous:
Move to Austin. Be car free there.
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alexander troup, verified:
Car culture came after the railroads while Central was once the Texas and Houston Central that came to Dallas in 1873/74....the link to Deep Elm or Elm street back in the day...while car culture is the next thing to people being caught up in the future, it does serve the moment now but at a price, so quit your gripping and quit driving..or learn to walk and talk again..A/T, Earth day is a reality not a highway....
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useach, anonymous:
"An amazing thing happens when you cut road capacity. Traffic demand falls with it. It doesn't just merely re-route. But some percentage disappears."
That's right. Just ask all those small towns that shrunk to nearly nothing when bypassed by the freeway system.
"Quality of life is going to be the driver of the 21st century economy."
Many people have to go places to work. They can't just sit at home and spout off nonsense on the Internet. To them, quality of life includes getting to where they want to go easily.
The notion that Dallas would grow if it were isolated and difficult to pass in and around is stupid -- much of the area's growth is precisely because it is a transportation hub in the middle of the country.
btw, how would your little plan to divert traffic affect the areas where that traffic would flow?
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Jason Rice, verified:
There's a reason we have a moat.
If only we could have closed the highways before this yahoo found Dallas.
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useach, anonymous:
"They did it in San Francisco!"
They closed the Embarcadero freeway after it was damaged by an earthquake. They found it didn't cause gridlock, so the notion of removing it gained ground. It probably didn't cause gridlock because it was only 1.2 miles long to begin with. And it was built over another roadway. Yes, the area saw a lot of development afterwords, which is to be expected since the double-deck freeway was next to the waterfront. Tell you what, why don't you close down Central Expressway for a year and then see how much support your idea has?Link to this comment | Suggest removal
OEsophagus, anonymous:
Peak oil already has this one covered.
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mezzetin_subaquatic, anonymous:
this is why townshend abandoned lifehouse, nobody but him could comprehend what he was on about.
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Jason Rice, verified:
lifehouse - did that ever make it to stage?
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Why not write about moons made of cheese?
BTW; did anyone else find the author's writing style a bit too jumpy?
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
PN editors: what are your standards for getting published?
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Sarah Blaskovich, staff:
SitizenKane, our content partners' work remains largely untouched when it's republished on Pegasus News. We reserve the right to edit their work, but we don't re-write it.
That said, this story qualified as news for several reasons: It's interesting and thought-provoking (which is reinforced by the comments above); it's timely; and it's local.
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LaDivina, anonymous:
I think we should get rid of the tollway.
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mezzetin_subaquatic, anonymous:
well, i believe it was to have been a film, but again, the storyline was misinterpreted by more than a few people as unfollowable. having given up and moved on, they of course resolved to rescue the music in the form of who's next. unless you know something i do not. i'm not too big of a who fan to accept a furthering of the facts.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Couple years back I picked up a script in a used book shop -- I think in Seattle, maybe Portland -- and it was stage formatted (not screenplay) so I figured that was its goal. Seemed pretty straightforward to me as a stage production.
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Jason Rice, verified:
And yes, this is off topic. The ONLY thing remotely useful about articles from "Mister I-Wish-I-Were-In-Soho-And-So-Do-You" being the tangents they produce.
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mezzetin_subaquatic, anonymous:
well, i heard dave marsh and various members talking of taking over the old vic and staging things, much of which was either filmed, or was going to have been filmed. in any event, thanks for the info/input.
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Jibberish Neo Urbanism that I studied many years ago in Urban Planning 101.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Ditto - Thanks, mezz*
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mjdio, anonymous:
SitizenKane,yes! In fact, I couldn't understand the first couple of paragraphs at all. It was like someone took out every third or fourth word. Weird.
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Scott Doyle, verified:
An amazing thing happens when you cut road capacity. Traffic demand falls with it. It doesn't just merely re-route. But some percentage disappears.
Is it fun to make sweeping generalizations with absolutely no citation or reasoning to back it?
Oh, some percentage of traffic might disappear. Well hell, let's raze that bitch and watch traffic drop by one or two percent!
Obviously you haven't tried driving down Coit or Hillcrest during rush hour as an alternative to 75. People gotta work, and the light rail sure as balls isn't utility enough to accommodate the majority. Sounds like you hit the bong and wrote an farfetched article, bud.
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Jason Rice, verified:
But you see, Doyle. If all the streets were cut off, that nasty traffic wouldn't make it so yucky down there and then small redundant businesses would flourish, artists would gallivant in the sun and wildflowers and soft fluffy bunnies would come right up to you and eat from your hand.
Then the lithium wears off and you live in Dime Box TX.
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jtmbls, anonymous:
Y'all are so jaded. You should try reading The Secret – Then you would know that all you have to do is ask for it, believe in it, then receive it.
When you wake up one day and Dallas traffic has magically disappeared, you will know it was because Patrick Kennedy wished it, believed in it enough to put it into print, and made it so. Bunnies and all.
There is a never-ending supply of lithium, isn’t there?
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
This script been done before - "The Prisoner"
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Jason Rice, verified:
Be seeing you.
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bonzo3790, anonymous:
I'm not sure tearing out Central is a good idea. First, I like the walkability plan but I think we need to put our hopes first into railway transportation. To get people to walk you first need to get them out of their cars and railway does that. Second, why rip out a model freeway? Honestly, Central is an architectural work of art as far as freeways go and if every other freeway in the Metroplex was up to it's standards we would be far better off. People in Dallas need to push that the same treatment is given to I-35 E, because most Americans driving through Dallas use 35, not Central, to get through and the quality of 35 is pretty craptastic at best. Look at the vibrant businesses that have grown up around Central, and most of the unpleasant ones you can't see because of the fact that you're down in a trench. Driving down 35 you would think that Dallas is a dirty city due to the fact that you have to drive by old warehouses, awful looking coporate buildings designed in the 80's, and strip clubs galore. Perhaps if Dallas could fix up 35 E, and even 30 for that matter, to Central's standards then maybe the rest of the Country would begin to see Dallas the way we do, as a city with World Class potential.
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danwindham, anonymous:
He's talking about the little section of central as it cuts through downtown (after woodall and ending at I30). Turn that into a boulevard and restitch the surface street grid. The Right of Way that the city would own would be cheap enough to be very tempting to developers (not to mention it would lower prices of other little-used plots in downtown like the blocks of parking lots). The percentage that re-routes would go around the other side of downtown, take the new boulevard between dtn and deep ellum, or spread out through the grid around Haskell. Lots of cars aren't always a bad thing- that's how most people travel- and it can infuse life into an area if it's designed well. It's the elevated freeway that creates a dead zone around it, choking downtown. The author may be a pie-in-the-sky type of dreamer, but this is definitely an idea to toss around and tweak. Think about the future of the city and the development in terms other than cars lanes and highways for a change.
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What do you think?