General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

I think the real problem is that few people bother to think past the "more lanes is always better" mindset that existed in the 60s.  So they'll oppose fewer lanes almost reflexively, even if it's justified.  This happened with every other road diet in the region, to the point that people were screaming about the sky falling.

I wonder if it would help to sell it as intersection improvements rather than lane reductions.

With any transportation construction project, how good it is will depend on all sorts of details about exactly what gets built. And this is true no matter ones priorities: somebody who wants more car capacity should be unhappy if they get more lanes but intersections are still jammed up, somebody who wants better transit will be unhappy if the exact location of the bus stop makes it hard to board and difficult for the bus to navigate traffic, and somebody who cares about bicycle infrastructure will be unhappy with bicycle lanes that interact poorly with fast-moving traffic.

So the one-line “this is what we’re doing” is really just a marketing slogan, and it should be chosen to be both accurate and sell the positives (to all the relevant constituencies) of the proposed project.

This is assuming that a) the city controls the message, and b) people think carefully about things.  So many ways this can get lost.  Even just your example, if intersection improvements were emphasized, the media may still report it as "Losing two lanes on Belmont", or worse, and most likely "bikes vs. cars, bikes are stealing your lanes"....but even if the newspaper reported it sanely, people are just as likely to read that headline into it.  They're unlikely to really understand that congestion occurs at the intersections, people don't think too deeply about this.  It's very hard to force them to understand, even harder when they're emotional and angry about it.

Again, this is exactly what happened with Davenport.  A road which was rebuilt into a vastly better road, with better traffic flow, better bike infra, and a more pleasant streetscape, people freaked out about it because the only thing they heard was that they were taking away 2 lanes.  And the city sold this hard as an improvement (because it was).  

As for "what is built"...you're absolutely right, and I have found no way to overcome this issue.  I'm so frustrated by seeing bad designs get built.  I mean, what miracle of nature would it take for us to pave flush curbs when putting an (unnecessary) curb in at a trail entrance.  Brand new curb built on the IHT has a 1 inch lip for no reason except to make the trail more unpleasant for road cyclists and mothers with strollers (and frankly dangerous for those with a mobility device, or skateboard).  But I've found no room from anyone anywhere in the government to give feedback on detailed design issues of any kind.  Very frustrating.