General Road and Highway Discussion

[ijmorlan]

Who says that a function of the interchange is to provide greenspace? I find that an incredibly dishonest claim. The space is not usable by humans, and contributes nothing to ecological biodiversity either. The only thing it really achieves is not being a hard surface, which is a pretty low bar.

As for the proposal, you will find plenty of folks at the city who support these goals. The primary obstacle will be the Regional engineers, and unfortunately it is a regional road. That being said, this is a plan for the future, which I guess isn't a bad thing, but by the time it comes around (in 10-30 years) it might actually be the case that the region is ready to fix these problems.

By “greenspace” I don’t mean parkland for human use; I mean habitat for non-human life.

I agree that it depends a lot on how the interchanges are landscaped. Some have trees and marshes in the spaces between the roads, and standards for mowing vary considerably. Ours are mostly just barren grassy areas, not that different from pavement ecologically.

Another good use for interchange space is stormwater ponds. These have to go somewhere.

Overall, what I’m suggesting is that while I agree slimmer interchanges would be a good idea (my proposal would be diverging diamond), the space may not be completely wasted, or at least doesn’t have to be completely wasted.