Is a toll road for U.S. 280 a good solution?

03.15.2010 by Andre Natta · 6 Comments

It’s being talked about continuously right now… the plan to fix U.S. Highway 280. We just talked about some of the current issues on our front page.

Do you think it’s a good idea or is there a better one? Let’s hear ‘em.

Filed under: Birmingham

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Emily Jones Rushing

Please give me an in-town transit system so we can go back to thinking about mass transit from the suburbs.
http://www.bhamwiki.com Dystopos

The proposal for an elevated tollway strikes me as a costly mistake which, at best, only accelerates unsustainable development practices. The alternate proposal for the 280 corridor put forth by Walter Kulash might be part of a better solution for that corridor, but what’s really needed is a way to reduce the miles being driven back and forth by developing mass transit, densifying development at urban centers and limiting (or even reducing) development in areas without maintainable infrastructure.

Conversely, the elevated proposal exacerbates the negative effects of sprawl (putting more cars on the road and opening new regions for low-density exurban development) by constructing an expensive-to-maintain eyesore.
Janet

It’s absolutely dystopian! A two-story eyesore along 280 would be bad for businesses and bad for real estate for miles in all directions. In addition to this, I doubt many of us (especially in these economic times) would dip into our pockets to travel on ANY local road… if they build their elevated overpriced highway, I expect them to find it literally empty, while the humble masses continue to sit in the existing levels of traffic below, miserably out of sight of the sun. What kind of a future are we creating for ourselves and our children?

Cheaper alternatives (that are less prone to collapse) exist- for example, a ground-level plan involving through-traffic lanes, service lanes, and some overpasses or underpasses. Equally expensive alternatives (that are better for us all) exist- for example, an investment in effective mass transit- if you’re going to build a huge elevated something from point A to point B, please make it a monorail!

The best solution may, after all, be to do nothing. If the traffic to and from work is so bad that you want to move, then move. If not, get over it. I hesitated to move to the 280 corridor, having heard terrible things about the traffic, and I found it to be far less than I’d imagined. I-65 down near Alabaster or 31 near Helena have far worse problems. If you want to build a big bridge, why not put it over the Helena railroad tracks (a promised project that has been repeatedly shelved for a decade).
TODD PIERCE

NO NO NO !!!
This is an outstandingly boneheaded waste of money Alabama simply cannot afford. Mass transit is what we need, it’s what more & more of us want, and it is in alignment with the social trends sweeping across 21st Century North America. Suburbanization is in its waning hours, and the national push is to reclaim the inner cities and first-wave suburbs.

Spend that $1 Billion of ALDOT money on the Northern Beltway, the I-85 extension into Mississippi through the Black Belt (bringing much needed development there), and on Corridor Y through the Tennessee Valley. Developers made the Hwy 280 “mess”- let THEM pay for their monster! Private enterprise, my hiney. Two bit hypocrites…
Adair

Build it and they will come! The more lanes they add, the more commuters will be emboldened to brave 280 at 5:00. We don’t need one more car commuting 280 at rush hour, much less the invitation of 10 lanes.

Environmentally this is especially concerning. What about the runoff from all those new commuters trying their luck for the first time on a 10 lane highway?

Lets consider the implications of this expansion right next to the Birmingham Water Works. How will they prevent the runoff from further contaminating our water supply?
Andrew

Why is anyone even thinking about this? Have a look around the world and see what happens when people try to resolve heavy traffic by creating a way to speed that same traffic: worse traffic ensues elsewhere is all!

The only options that actually provide some benefit are either a) bypasses that take traffic destined beyond the city clean around the city without mixing with local traffic or b) road pricing in the center of town with effective mass transit (i.e. London, England where road pricing and a huge increase in buses virtually made rush hour traffic disappear).

Having lived in multiple cities in three countries, I’ve seen how this works. It amazes me that local councils always seem to think they have to come up with an idea themselves, rather than do some research and see who else has tried to solve the same problem, and who has actually succeeded.

Is a toll road for U.S. 280 a good solution?

03.15.2010 by Andre Natta · 6 Comments

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