Darrell Howard, the principal transportation planner for the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, was the keynote speaker at this morning’s ONB Monthly Breakfast. His presentation on the In-Town Transit Partnership Project was timely. A tractor trailer overturned this morning shutting down I-459, the main connector to the south between all of our major traffic arteries (I-20, I-59, U.S. 280 and U.S. 31). Despite the fact that a recent report says that we here in Birmingham have the 3rd highest amount of time spent commuting per capita in the nation and the fact that we average a 6-hour a day rush hour period, many of us got up and went to work this morning, some of us unable to avoid the gridlock. Many of us also never even had the thought of hopping on a bike or riding a bus enter our mind. It took our guest speaker more than an hour to do a trip that should take less than 20 minutes. So what are we to do? Or what are we willing to do to make it better?
The Ramble: Can you really build your way out of a traffic problem?
Published by Andre on August 18, 2006An article in yesterday’s Birmingham News spoke of an engineering plan that will call for a four-lane elevated toll road over U.S. 280. The plan was approved by the Progress 280 group with the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce yesterday, with public hearings to take place at the end of the month. Here’s the links to yesterday’s and today’s stories:
A conversation with a long time resident this morning has me wondering why people would be more willing to pay to drive on a road than pay to have the ability to get additional work done during their commute. I was reminded of the benefits of a transit commute by a recent editorial written by John Saxon to the Birmingham News about his experiences in Budapest. Here’s a cached link to his letter courtesy of Google. Here’s a cached link to a response that the newspaper published. It goes back to the idea of civic pride, but there’s something to be said about always selling yourselves short. Nothing will ever result. This is also where I remind people that we have not always depended on cars in this city; it once boasted the nation’s second largest streetcar system. Read on…