CComMack wrote:25Hz wrote:My question then is why on earth is anyone building a GD trail when we have real problems with road congestion and pollution and wear/upkeep on these roads? Not only is this trend frustrating and ridiculous.....it's embarrassing!!!!!
Because cycling for transportation needs just as much help as transit, and we're not going to need those ROWs for trains for decades yet. Every person commuting or running an errand by bicycle is one less car on the road, and the least we can all do is to say "thank you". And apart from younger, active, predominantly-male enthusiasts, most people will only ride a bike when they have some form of protection from traffic; in the suburbs, that mostly means trails. And trails are dirt cheap.
25Hz wrote:I am so desperate for some bold and innovative thinking and planning from 1234 market. I am so weary and wary of all the decisions they have made so far in the last 10 years. People love ot point out tiny little improvements that in reality are useless half measures. Service to colmar, increased subway service. You gotta be joking, you know? Show me a SEPTA that moves forward and i'll happily change my tune and end my rants.
Pretty sure those improvements are only "half-measures" to those who don't benefit from them. To those of us who do get overnight subways or headways cut in half, they're real blessings. And they'd be unthinkable 10 years ago.
25Hz wrote:Having everyone living on top of each other has proven to increase everything from crime to the spread of illnesses and poor air quality and heat island due to lack of vegetation & flooding due to lack of permeable surfaces.
Please try another line of argument, because this one is offensive as well as being wrong on the merits. Merits first: Crime is as bad or worse in the suburbs on a per capita basis, and don't even try to say that per capita isn't a fair basis. Heat island is only worse because Philadelphians haven't been painting our rooftops white or planting green roofs or maintaining enough street trees; there's virtually no heat island effect on Pine Street through Rittenhouse Square, and the overall outlook is improving throughout the city. Flooding due to impermeable surfaces is something the suburbs contribute to far more than the city, and the gap is widening as the city is cracking down on runoff in lieu of wasting billions of dollars on sewer upgrades to handle rainwater. (Before you're tempted to gloat over the superiority of your separated storm and sanitary sewers over our older combined sewer, think about what that means, about what the relative prioritization of sanitation was, and when.)
Look, it's clear I'm a city person, but I'm not against suburbs. I just think older railroad and streetcar suburbs have a better prognosis going forward. If the newer car-centered suburbs want to retrofit to more transit-friendly arrangements to proof themselves against the new future, I'm more than happy to support them. If people want to turn more farmland into sprawl, I'll oppose them at the top of my lungs. But I don't lie to make my case, and I don't insult the dignity of people I don't know.
I think you'll have an easier time here if you learn to only post what you know for certain, and let others talk about what you don't.
Um, back up a bit. I said cramming everyone into philadelphia isnt the answer. In that mode there would be no "suburbs". The heat island effect (in that mode) isn't just about rooftops, it's about local emissions, humidity expelled by air conditioners, the sun hitting a building vs ground, rooftop or not. Then there's the roads, black and extremely prone to extraordinary heating in direct sunlight and the blanket effect keeping the hot air from rising off of it (that mirror effect you can see is a good example). I think you will have an easier time talking with me when you realize that sustainability and many/most of the issues involved in such are topics i am overly informed about, and that i make it all most like a job to be correctly informed about. The idea of driving anywhere to me that has a rail line or could have a bus route is insane.
My dentist is in feasterville for example. To get home... I walk to trevose station, then ride to langhorne, then take the 130 into newtown, then walk or ride home from the bus stop. It's really no big deal, but if the newtown line existed & connected at bethayres, i'd take the train at trevose (or somerton) the other direction, and hop on the newtown bound train, and not be any closer to home vs bus, but its more direct since the train does not double back on its route like the bus does. On top of that, the train isn't affected by traffic like bus is.
In any case, clearly the cause is lack of funding & the symptoms are..... well lets face it, the SEPTA we know today has been shaped by its being starved of funds both from county sources and the state. We then go back to the idea of how do we sell a tax to fix this funding shortfall in the counties (bus to fill in between the rail lines) and more frequent service & r-activated lines to people who may want nothing to do with transit?
Maybe something like "Hey joe smith, your drive to work will get better if you vote for this thing to allow this new tax and so on"?
I dunno, anyone have any ideas on that point?
