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We here at Reconnect Austin couldn’t relay this sentiment any better than the Observation Deck‘s Adam Rogers does:

“Tear it all down!

“Well, OK, not all of it. Let’s start with the freeways. They look permanent, sure, but most highways, especially the ones cutting through city centers, aren’t that old — only a few decades. And in some towns, they do more harm than good. They don’t decrease traffic, they cut sterile swaths through once-vibrant neighborhoods (or cut parts of the city off from what could be useful public spaces). So how about we all make like San Francisco, or Boston, or Seoul, and tear down the freeways we don’t need.

“This week on Observation Deck I’m thinking about what could happen if we tear up some of those ribbons of roads and start over again. We might end up with better cities”…To view the movie, please click here.

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There are several ways in which LA’s network design is superior; in order from broad planning down to engineering details, they are: service area, overall route configuration, station spacing, grade separation, and route geometry.

letsgola's avatarLet's Go LA

Regular readers know that this blog doesn’t have a devotion to any particular transportation technology. I’m all about efficiency. The best options are the ones that move the most people and goods as fast as possible. Now you can drift off into daydreams about “slow transit” but fact is, people usually want to get where they’re going quickly and reliably. People vote with their feet and if you want their feet on your transit vehicle instead of on the gas pedal, your transit better be competitive. People don’t want slow transit any more than they want slow freeways.

So, if you’re investing money in a light rail network, you ought to make it look like ours in Los Angeles. Chances are your city doesn’t have the density of Manhattan or narrow streets of downtown Boston that make subways the only practical option. If you look at LA’s light…

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Please participate in the upcoming open houses for Project Connect, the vision for Central Texas’ high-capacity transit system. Linking activity centers within the fastest growing region in the country, Project Connect (a partnership between Capital Metro and the city of Austin) aims to connect people, places and opportunities in an easy, efficient way.

1) Thursday, September 26, 2013 – 5:00pm to 8:00pm  Public Open House  Givens Recreation Center  3811 E. 12th St.

2) Friday, September 27, 2013 – 12:00pm to 1:00pm  Online Open House  Webinar (projectconnect.com)  Register at http://projectconnect.com

3) Wednesday, October 2, 2013 – 5:00pm to 8:00pm  Public Open House  Norris Conference Center  2525 W Anderson Lane (Red Oak Ballroom)

Project Connect leaders hope to have a decision on which areas of the central corridor urban rail will travel through by the end of the year and then next year decide on the routes.

A bond election would have to fund urban rail.

If all goes as planned urban rail would become a reality in 2020.

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“The Texas Department of Transportation has also taken note of the problems with 35, noting that the design of this highway causes decreased speeds and increased congestion. Something has to be done, and the two plans TxDOT proposes include one conventional solution (simply updating the current infrastructure) and one new solution (creating a depression for traffic lanes from 8th Street to Holly Street).

“Doing a conventional update on the highway would just be more of the same. Depressing the lanes is a good start, but then you have wasted space at street level. The Reconnect Austin plan proposes to actually bury those depressed lanes, creating more “people space” where car space used to be. When this was done in Boston, the “capped” area became public park space. It’s a beautiful promenade of sorts that runs through the middle of the city. People sit on the benches or get some exercise during their lunch breaks.

“In addition to the additional green space, the cut and cap option would also provide more developable land that’s now consumed by on and off ramps. Reconnect Austin says 30 acres of frontage road could be turned into prime real estate for businesses, restaurants and homes. As more people see what can be created when we replace concrete structures with green space and people-focused space, maybe more people will be encouraged to get out of their cars and exist in that space.”

Click here to read the full article: Stephanie Myers, “I-35 Cut and Cap is Good for Austin,” Austin Post, September 5, 2013