On 4/28/06, calwatch wrote:
calwatch has left a new comment on your post "WHY L.A. traffic sucks #2: bad (or not exactly forward-looking) design ":
Once again, this idea [keeping light GREEN from 3 to 5 minutes for long stretches over many intersections] , while interesting, ignores the fact that at those side streets there are cars and pedestrians that want to cross the street. And they won't be able to do so in the hours you mention. The Laurel Canyon Freeway (SR-170) and the Beverly Hills Freeway (SR-2) were really the solution to this problem, but you can blame Jerry Brown for that cancellation. I'd like to see a test, though, on Wilshire for a five minute green time similar to roads in Orange County and the Inland Empire, and watch what happens.
Posted by calwatch to L.A. traffic sucks: Let's fix it! at 4/27/2006 11:54:32 PM
calwatch has left a new comment on your post "WHY L.A. traffic sucks #2: bad (or not exactly forward-looking) design ":
Once again, this idea [keeping light GREEN from 3 to 5 minutes for long stretches over many intersections] , while interesting, ignores the fact that at those side streets there are cars and pedestrians that want to cross the street. And they won't be able to do so in the hours you mention. The Laurel Canyon Freeway (SR-170) and the Beverly Hills Freeway (SR-2) were really the solution to this problem, but you can blame Jerry Brown for that cancellation. I'd like to see a test, though, on Wilshire for a five minute green time similar to roads in Orange County and the Inland Empire, and watch what happens.
Posted by calwatch to L.A. traffic sucks: Let's fix it! at 4/27/2006 11:54:32 PM
italianesco replies:
Thanks again for your new comments.
No, I did not ignore "the fact that at those side streets there are cars and pedestrians that want to cross the street. And they won't be able to do so in the hours you mention." I did say that some kind of north-south uninterrupted traffic would have to be allowed for traffic to flow east-west uninterrupted. Overpasses, or better, underpasses, might solve this problem. The pedestrians can EASILY be take care of with skywalks or pedestrian crossing tunnels. Many American cities already have them and use them.
Yes, I, too, would "like to see a test [...] on Wilshire for a five minute green time similar to roads in Orange County and the Inland Empire, and watch what happens." But I'd like to see it not only on Wilshire but on Olympic, on Pico and on Venice as well (Santa Monica seems too complicated to try it there). This is the thing: no one seems to be willing to try any really INNOVATIVE ideas. At the same time, they don't realize that old and tired ideas (widening freeways, building subways, etc.) will not work. Or they might work temporarily but not in the long run. An overweight person might take a pill to lower his cholesterol. But unless he changes his lifestyle and starts to diet and exercise to get those arteries flowing, he is doomed. American metropolitcan areas are doomed to gridlock unless they start trying something new.
I wasn't aware of the Laurel Canyon Freeway (SR-170) and the Beverly Hills Freeway (SR-2) projects you mentioned, nor was I aware that Jerry Brown had been responsible for their cancellation. This should give you an idea of the DAMAGE that politicians in office can cause to the future of a city, a state, a country. Jerry Brown was in office a long, long time ago, wasn't he? I am amazed at the lack of foresight. Politicians and constituents seem to be caught up in the present and lose sight of what things might be like 20 years down the road. Whatever solutions are adopted to solve the traffic problem in L.A. should envision a city of L.A. 20 or 30 years from now. How will the current system be able to handle 3, 5 or 10 million more cars? SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE.
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1 comment:
Actually, they thought of pedestrian underpasses years ago. You see some pedestrian underpasses remaining in the older parts of Hollywood and on the east side, where they are common under Huntington Drive. The reason they were all chained up and fenced was because people were living in them, and so were only opened during school hours, except bullies would use them to accost their prey. Finally they chained them all up and no one uses them even during school hours.
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