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Boston's Big Dig Finally Open
techiemac writes "I just saw a news story on yahoo about Boston's Big Dig finally opening. The Big Dig is considered by many to be the largest modern urban construction project ever!"
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Liberal politicians do not support massive highway projects; they support public transportation which moves more people more efficiently for less cost with less atmospheric and other pollution as the result. No, it's the Republicans and their oily buddies who have paved over the USA and blown billions on the effort. Thanks to such "thinkers" the city of Los Angeles, for example, devotes about 35% of its total land area to auto-exclusive uses. And I had thought cities were places for people to live in. Guess I was wrong, they're just for storage of cars.
Yah ok. Once your brain is done growing, let us know. For now, let's all be glad people with common sense are in charge.
Note to crazy left-wing Democrats and your allies: nominating a presidential candidate with opinions like those of the parent here (*cough* Howard Dean *cough*) will ensure your utter defeat in '04. Choose wisely.
Beautiful for a century? Think back to major transport infrastructure in 1903. A lot changes in a hundred years. Your reference to a cathederal confuses the functional with the spiritual, and perhaps speaks volumes about the USA's quasi-religious attitude to cars and petrol, but that's a them for another discussion.
... [and was] overwhelmed with more than double
Do you really think people will be using this tunnel to drive cars through in 2103?
It even says in the article that
"... the Central Artery [was] hailed as a modern "highway in the sky" when it opened in 1959
the number of cars it was designed to carry."
Preliminary design began in the '80s , so it seems that a decision was made that the Central Artery was a mistake only around twenty years after it was finished!
There's a line somewhere about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
14.6 Billion US Dollars. I'm sorry, but this is a good example of a waste of money, there's no two ways about it. If cars perist as the transport of choice, it too will eventually become "overwhelmed with more than double the number of cars it was designed to carry".
If cars are driven through in large numbers, close together at high speed to get the "throughput" required, you'll see horrific accidents within this long tunnel, it's only a matter of time.
I'd love to see what the health and education services of Boston reckon they could do for the twenty to fifty year economic future of the city with a cash injection like that and a free hand to work with...
Cheers!