Submitted by Cunninghams_right t3_10pitas in baltimore
Comments
Longey13 t1_j6kzaiq wrote
Hi there. So I'd like to say that there are plenty of people with similar ideas and beliefs here, and that I can assure you that it is not that simple. The more feasible idea that has been floated is applying for a federal highway removal grant, which is likely already going to be used for US-40 (highway to nowhere). If we did somehow get enough money for I-83, the pushback would be significant, and the compromise would probably be a large boulevard next to the Jones falls (an improvement, but not quite what some of us would want) starting from around cold spring lane.
On the positive side, know that there are people like this, just not in large positions of power. Plenty of officials at the DOT would love to tell you about all the big projects they'd like to do that they just don't have the funds and/or personnel for.
If you'd like to learn more about how the Netherlands achieved this, and other great practices they have that we could learn from, check out Not Just Bikes on YouTube.
If you're interested in local advocacy like this, check out Strong Towns Baltimore, of which I am a member (shameless plug).
Cheers.
z3mcs t1_j6kzs9i wrote
>I can assure you that it is not that simple.
Yeah I already addressed this:
> I'm not trying to make it sound easy, it'll definitely be hard
Also I'm not talking solely about this, I'm talking to OP about his history of transit and community development posts. But thanks.
ohamza t1_j6lhg9f wrote
There are groups in Baltimore like Bikemore and Strong Towns that have been working on this stuff. OP should reach out and get involved with like minded people.
And I love the JFX posts, but that will have to come in the next phase. We need better transit options to the city first. Advocate for the North/south line on york road, and for TODs at the light rail stops.
Optimus_RE t1_j6o8ewx wrote
Soo just curious, if you make 83 into a Blvd are you just telling drivers to drive longer and further to the 95's and jam 695 even further? Because 83 is very heavily travelled by commuters and if you want to eliminate commuting to the city then you have even more company's leaving the city. Less commerce and business, the higher crime will get. I'm just confused how this helps the city financially
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6lu3cv wrote
I'm generally torn. I very much wish we could transform Baltimore into a less car-centric, more livable city. however, there are a LOT of different groups who oppose such things.
the worst of both worlds tend to have loud voices:
- one group being the people who want to preserve their car-centric lifestyle (like when they modified the monument street bike lane just to make a few more parking spaces for church, one hour per week), or people who just commute by car everywhere.
- the other voice is one that is delusional and wants transit modes that are not cost effective (streetcars), and when presented with their poor cost performance simply declares "just raise taxes" as if that's the way out of the problem.
that leaves me with a feeling that I can't really cause the kind of change that I think makes sense, so I just try to help people see how much better things could be if they just didn't make everything about cars.
the hard truth is that Baltimore's transit is completely failed. the operating cost per passenger mile is above the cost of just ubering everyone everywhere, and the most efficient and effective mode (bikes, scooters, rental bikes, rental etrikes, etc.) is not even considered because prevailing the culture sees it as such a foreign concept that they can't even imagine taking an ebike anywhere.
I wish I could magically take every Baltimore resident, one at a time, to Amsterdam or Copenhagen for 2 years and let them live a life where they don't need a car and let them see how much money they could save and how much more pleasant it is to have most people moving by bike. unfortunately, I can't do that, so I have to live in a city where people think arguments like "what about bad weather" are valid at all compared to the lived experience of people around the world.
basically, every day I'm beaten down, between various urban planning, transit, Baltimore, etc. subreddits where I'm to the point that I doubt I can change anyone's mind with real-world cost and ridership data. the logical thing to do seems foreign and wrong, so we keep doing the familiar BS that has turned the city into a less livable place (car centrism).
when I feel like fielding arguments, I'll post about cost/benefit of different modes, but people REALLY don't like honest, objective analyses of transportation because the logical conclusion is that bikes are the most important and should be funded in the tens of millions of dollar per year range (similar budget to our light rail line), and private companies like Uber and Lyft should be contracted by the city and MTA to provide the glue/feeder service into the rail lines, and the rail lines should be automated as soon as possible (currently possible for the metro, and only a couple of years away for the light rail).
so I just post more general "wouldn't it be cool" posts, hoping to convince people that maybe the status quo isn't ideal, rather than actually present them with a real alternative (which they will criticize without knowledge)
physicallyatherapist t1_j6mz91r wrote
I'm not really sure #2 is very common compared to #1. I don't know anyone that wants to bring back all of the streetcars? It may be neat to have one or two for the nostalgia and maybe for tourists but that would be it. But i think the public transportation people are far more open to changing from a subway to a bus route than a car person is to changing anything at all. This isn't a "both sides" argument
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6nco0l wrote
I agree that it isn't an equal "both sides" argument, but it's hard to gain momentum for anything when the people on your side all disagree about what is wanted/needed and I've found very few people have a connection to reality. there are a lot of considerations that need to be made with regard to construction cost of different modes, capacity requirements, M&O cost, the attractiveness of different modes, etc. etc., and I can't even find transit planners who will just follow the numbers. transit planners hate to outsource to private companies and transit unions will resist automation.
basically, I don't see a path for getting people on the same page.
MTA hosted a little conference thing a few years back where transit-minded folks could present. perhaps if they still do that I can present on how to get everyone on the same page and elicit some discussion on the topic.
physicallyatherapist t1_j6ngxqi wrote
Regardless of what is built I think there will be disagreements with the details (what is put where and how often) but I really think transit people will want something built regardless. I'm not picky with public transportation. Tram, trolley, light rail, buses, bikes.. bring it all! The issue I get mad about is that a large majority of car people simply cannot wrap their heads around not driving a car and I get sick of the same excuses "where will I park? It's going to be more congested for cars. It's going to hurt businesses if we can't park right in front". Which is all BS. Hell in my other thread the one guy said I was being "polarizing" because I suggested that cars aren't the only ways to get around. Transit people complain about details while car people try to prevent any of it at all from happening and you're right.. I'm not entirely sure how to get through to many
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6nx5wi wrote
I think that is part of the issue. you have car users who are all unified in what they want, and you have people who want things other than cars who cannot agree on anything. there is no coherent plan to be less car-centric, and I find pro-transit folks to be just as unable to imagine non-standard solutions as pro-car folks are unable to imagine using anything but their car.
one example that is obvious but hard to get anyone to agree on:
scooter subsidy. the bird/link/spin scooter monthly passes are $16-$50, which is a tiny fraction of the unsubsidized cost of a transit pass. people talk about making buses free, but free scooters (at least for a couple of rides per day) would move more people per dollar spent, and would increase demand for bike lanes. it shouldn't be hard to sell that to anyone, but for some reason it is. people complain about scooter parking as if it is a real problem when sidewalk blockage by scooter is a fraction as much as other sources of sidewalk blockage, but those other things, like tree roots, are "normal" to them but scooters are new. and people complain about them being ridden on sidewalks because it feels dangerous to see them going quickly, but the actual damage done is next to nothing, and infinitesimal if you exclude the rider. I don't care if a rider is reckless and hurts themselves. that's on them. if someone jay walks in front of a bus and gets hit, we shouldn't ban buses from streets. the arguments are provably BS as soon as you bring in objective information like actual injury rate and actual sidewalk blockage rate compared to other things, but pro-bike and pro-transit people still complain and create drag on any progress.
physicallyatherapist t1_j6nza2e wrote
>it shouldn't be hard to sell that to anyone, but for some reason it is.
But do you think it's a hard sell to the public transportation people or the car people? I feel like public transportation people would be ok with more scooters at a discounted price (they're more expensive than down in DC). I'm not sure why anyone that's for more public transit would be against scooters though and I haven't really seen that personally (though maybe you have). The people complaining about scooters are probably the car people.
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6o4pe3 wrote
generally, what I get most from pro-transit people are
- not everyone can ride it, so it shouldn't be done (ignoring than some of these companies actually offer rentable mobility scooters)
- without bike lanes, it would be a problem for sidewalks
- we shouldn't subsidize a private company
- we should do X instead (where X is running more buses, or building trams, etc. )
the problem is that it's something that pro-transit folks don't necessarily hate, but they will advocate for something else instead.
the result is that you get 100 different ideas that each have a handful of supporters against a unified group of pro-car people that is 100x larger. the result of all of the disparate pro-transit voices is that the city council and mayor just keep doing more of the same.
if we made a decision matrix with factors like door-to-door time, construction cost, operating cost per passenger-mile, speed of implementation, accessibility, reliability, energy usage per passenger-mile, pollution, noise pollution, and any other performance metric of a transit mode, the result would come back scooter/bike subsidy every single time. it wouldn't even be close. it is an issue that anyone who advocates for non-car transportation SHOULD all agree is the top priority... but scooters have been in Baltimore more than a decade and yet they're still not getting any significant support from the city (they are getting SOME support, but a miniscule amount compared to a buses, PPM)
there is another obvious thing we should at least be looking into, but I don't even dare mention it because of its unpopularity in spite of objective evidence that is outperforming our transit by every metric.
physicallyatherapist t1_j6oo787 wrote
I see what you're saying. I've never come across that much animosity towards scooters but I guess I see some of the points. However, that is only solution to the issue. Also, most of those reasons could be removed if we focus on more bike lanes which would free up space for scooters as well. I think most pro-transit people would support that, yeah?
What's the unpopular opinion?
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6ozoi9 wrote
>Also, most of those reasons could be removed if we focus on more bike lanes which would free up space for scooters as well. I think most pro-transit people would support that, yeah?
it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. the opposition to bike lanes comes largely from people thinking they're not worth being built unless they're filled with riders. most people don't think about it long enough to understand network effects, or that restricting car traffic is a good thing for livability and their slightly slower drive due to the driving lane being fully makes the city better and safer. so if you can inflate the number of people biking/scooting, it makes more pro-bike-lane people and reduces opposition.
I was actually saying in another thread a while back that if you took the budget for a single light rail line ($1-$2 billion), you could offer a voucher of $1k to anyone in the city for a bike/trike/ebike/etrike/scooter and still have enough money left over randomly give 1 in 25 people who are riding $1000 each month (each person can't win more than per year), and sustain that random lottery for somewhere between 2 and 10 years, depending on how many people take up biking in order to try to win that lottery. think about that; 1 in 25 people is VERY common. everyone would know at least 1 person who won that lottery and facebook/instagram would be FILLED with people celebrating that they won. you would pretty much entice everyone in the city to at least bike SOME of the time, but the more you bike the more likely you would be to win, so you may as well bike to work, bike to the store, bike when you're bored, etc. etc.. the result would be a MASSIVE demand for bike lanes and on streets without bike lanes, cars would be constantly driving near cyclists, so they would get used to having to watch out for them. by the time the lottery was finished, everyone would be used to riding and bike lanes would already be in place, so continued bike usage would be high. I think it would be absolutely transformative to an entire city, much more so than adding 1 light rail line.
but anyway, that's a pretty radical idea and might be hard to convince people to try. it would also be a massive and sudden change, which people hate. even sudden changes for the better are hated by many people.
edit: oops, hit submit too early, standby for the next paragraph
>What's the unpopular opinion?
to start, we have to understand the real-world costs of transportation modes (I'm using pre pandemic data, bus LRT costs have gone up since)
- taxi/uber/lyft: somewhere around $1.50-$2.50 per vehicle-mile
- DC/WMATA buses, pre pandemic: $1.99 per passenger-mile
- St Louis light rail: $1.01 PPM (unfortunately, I don't have Baltimore data but I think St Louis is going to be similar to Baltimore, based on ridership)
so, how many people do you need in a taxi before the cost is on par with transit? well, in the case of buses, 1-1.25 person in a taxi. what is the average occupancy of a taxi? well, it's 1.3-1.56., so it's actually already cost competitive with the average bus. for light rail, you'd need 1.5-2.5 ppv. cool, so uber-pool would likely be right around the cost of a light rail system on a per-passenger-mile basis.
ok, for the next part, we need to understand the cost to construct different things.
the cost of surface rail in the US is around $125M/mi to $245M/mi. (source1 source2).
the cost of a simple car or utility tunnel is $60M-$88M/mi (source). if the TBM is brought to the surface for each station and a road deck installed instead of train infrastructure, it would be possible to make a tunnel for taxis for less than the cost of a light rail line.
now, the taxis would need to be electric in order to reduce the exhaust requirements (still need a directional vent at each segment for fire safety).
the average vehicle occupancy would need to be 1.5-2.5 in order to be on par or cheaper than a light rail line, so a Ford e-Transit would be an ideal vehicle as it can comfortable seat 4 with bags, and 6-7 in a pinch. so even if the vehicles had low occupancy (1.2-2 ppv) during off-peak hours, peak hours of 3-5 would be able to raise the occupancy enough to be on par or cheaper than a typical light rail line.
so, lower construction cost, much more frequent vehicles (more than one departing per minute at peak, a couple of minutes wait during off-peak).
if Waymo vehicles, which can already operate autonomously and seat 4 comfortably and 6 squeezed, can be used, then theoretically, the cost to operate each vehicle would drop by 30%-50% due to the elimination of the driver.
ohh, and if you're curious, regular roadway vehicle density with 4 ppv would easily cover weekday peak-hour on our light rail, and 6-7 ppv would even handle typical stadium even ridership (would actually handle DC stadium entrants per hour).
the key is for it to either be driverless or to only use regular taxi drivers. if you use buses or trains, then you need expensive drivers and expensive vehicles, which will make it more expensive to operate while also making longer wait times.
this concept would work, but people HATE it because Elon Musk is implementing a project similar to this and that has created a whirlwind of false information about safety, cost, capacity, etc.
ElectricStar87 t1_j6nm7dl wrote
Oof. I’ve been shocked by how many people think throwing down dozens of dedicated right of way trolleys are the answer to the problem. It really is a perspective that pops up here pretty frequently, unfortunately.
Generally I tend to be in agreement with Cunninghams_right in these conversations, but I see a greater relevance for bus transit than perhaps they do, especially for people going back and forth to labor-intensive jobs at odd hours of the day/night. Relatively minor point.
physicallyatherapist t1_j6no282 wrote
I believe you and trust that you have but I just really haven't seen it I guess. Plus, as I've mentioned a few times, I think convincing hard line trolley people to do buses would still be easier than telling car people we're adding a bus lane or more buses
ElectricStar87 t1_j6nvpoi wrote
That sounds like a valid strategy.
[deleted] t1_j6kpvpo wrote
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Fit-Yellow-1875 t1_j6l5rdv wrote
Dating yourself a bit with the Sonar reference
amberthemaker t1_j6lc95v wrote
Came here to say the same! I miss that place!
bookoocash t1_j6osx8z wrote
T-A-X-L-O
Shiny_Deleter t1_j6l7pgh wrote
This has been my dream for years. It would have to involve better public transit, more green space, cleaner water, and I’m here for all of it.
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6luagd wrote
I wish we could convince more people that cars don't make cities better.
cars, all things being equal, make an individual's life a bit easier/better, but each car subtracts from everyone around them. the result is that individuals choosing car-centrism results in an overall massive negative to everyone.
redseapedestrian418 t1_j6lys49 wrote
Especially in a city like Baltimore. It’s not a big city geographically and shouldn’t be this difficult to cover with public transportation. It would be so good for the state in the long run.
ElectricStar87 t1_j6m4et3 wrote
The issue is less one of absolute size and more an issue that Baltimore’s population isn’t very dense, complicating some more expensive public transportation options.
pathofwrath t1_j6muyqt wrote
Baltimore is built for decent density. Unfortunately, the high number of vacants means the actual density falls short.
ElectricStar87 t1_j6nk615 wrote
Yeah I agree — we’re built to support a close to necessary density, but we need hundreds of thousands more people to approach what’s likely needed. It unfortunately becomes a chicken/egg problem with density and infrastructure investment. It’s not an easy problem to solve, sadly.
pathofwrath t1_j6nvyet wrote
We need infra for the people who are already here. New and updated infra is important to help draw more people in too. But infra alone doesn't do it. Has to be paired with decent policy. People have to see and believe that the city and state are actually addressing infra here. A bike master plan, for example, doesn't mean much if you don't have a good track record of installing, maintaining, and enforcing the bike facilities.
For the sake of completeness, crime is also an issue that creates challenges to increasing density.
YoYoMoMa t1_j6mihjx wrote
One issue is we have so few viable alternatives to driving right now.
inohavename t1_j6nof9w wrote
Which is sad, because it's self perpetuating. People drive because it's more convenient, ridership goes down, and then service gets cut. It's a prisoners dilemma.
And those who have no choice but to take transit get less frequent and less reliable service.
YoYoMoMa t1_j6noqoc wrote
Yup. Transit investment needs to be long term and not looking to make money.
ScootyHoofdorp t1_j6nb1ce wrote
I like it. All we need is a competent government, millions and millions of investment, political will, residents and public officials who actually care about the city, corporate buy-in, neighborhood support, and about 20 years.
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6ncx6e wrote
so simple!
advptr t1_j6kt1kn wrote
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t we reroute falls to accommodate 83?
Helikeon t1_j6kuw9g wrote
It was buried in 1915 to accommodate Penn Station
shaneknu t1_j6l0i7d wrote
Would you happen to have any more information on that? Looking around, I'm seeing these two photos.
From 1917:
https://www.shorpy.com/node/10986
and From 1977:
https://ghostsofbaltimore.org/2014/03/03/1977-aerial-photos-baltimore-penn-station/
This post claims 1915: https://blogs.ubalt.edu/skemp/history-of-the-jones-falls/
"The Jones Falls from just upstream of Penn Station to the Inner Harbor at the location of the present National Aquarium was placed in three massive tunnels and is still there today. Dedicated in 1915, the Jones Falls Conduit solved the problems of flooding for the downtown area and removed what had been a polluted cesspool from view."
advptr t1_j6l0ac9 wrote
Way before my time 😅 but that river has a super interesting history, all the mills and such it’s honestly my favorite part of Baltimore, even thought the water is disgusting lol
Longey13 t1_j6kzjru wrote
It is still mostly under the JFX from cold spring onwards, in an ugly concrete viaduct with the massive structure of the highway above it. It's rerouted around Penn station I believe and then buried until it gets near the piers.
advptr t1_j6l036c wrote
I’ve explored those tunnels you can get pretty far but eventually it gets to a point where you either gotta tube it or something, and we didn’t have the balls when faced with the possibility of getting stuck at the halfway point with zero possibility of going back the way you came
tacsatduck t1_j6n4ar4 wrote
Yeah, would be a bad way to go out, getting stuck in a pipe under Baltimore.
advptr t1_j6l0l0a wrote
“Those tunnels” referring to the ones at Lafayette and maryland
raisin-cane t1_j6lxzu9 wrote
In case you haven't seen Marc Szarkowski's 2011 proposal...
gervinho90 t1_j6ota7t wrote
That’s amazing. One can dream
TheSpektrModule t1_j6mv7hv wrote
If the bottom picture were Baltimore the stream and the grass next to it would be choked with garbage and litter.
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6ncu6r wrote
it would definitely need community groups to regularly do trash pickups.
EweJustGotJammed t1_j6lodng wrote
River of poop
dudical_dude t1_j6n8iwv wrote
Little known fact: That was the working title of Billy Joel's 1993 album 'River of Dreams'.
SkyeMreddit t1_j6nbeed wrote
It would be nice if the before and after photos were taken from the same bridge
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6nd5jf wrote
they probably removed the bridge in the process. but you can see from the church and other buildings that it's roughly the same spot.
SkyeMreddit t1_j6niav6 wrote
The after photo is taken from that bridge (or it’s replacement to maintain the cross street) seen in the middle of the before photo. You can see the same buildings in the background. This makes the rounds on historical building subs making people think that they got rid of the modernist buildings on the left. So it would send the wrong message
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6nzg1c wrote
yeah, you can see that they cut off the photo right at those buildings to make it look nicer. not a big deal either way, in my opinion.
Informal-Economy-464 t1_j6nfi02 wrote
So remove a whole road for wypipo to kayak a river smh
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6nhnp9 wrote
the purpose isn't to just kayak. the purpose is to make the city a nicer place to live, work, and visit. this adds generational wealth to homeowners and adds tax revenue that can be used for a variety of purposes.
jjfo13 t1_j6nv0vg wrote
Tearing the JFX down aside, New Orleans offers a potential idea for mitigating the effects of the JFX. The city is creating the "Claiborne Innovation District" (CID) which is meant to reconnect historically black communities that were disconnected by I-10, which rips through the heart of New Orleans. The highway is 6 lanes and elevated much like the JFX, and the project would essentially reclaim the space underneath the highway and turn it into a large arts/community space.
https://colloqate.org/claiborne-innovation-district
Given how lively the area underneath the JFX gets with the Baltimore Farmer's Market, I don't see why an idea like this doesn't have potential in Baltimore. I also work in transportation policy in DC and it is my understanding that the project has local and State buy-in/funding, and is now seeking federal funding. Point is, the project hasn't died in during the planning process and has real support.
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6o1g02 wrote
I'm not sure how you'd keep the homeless folks out, and if it's full of homeless folks, it's unlikely to be useful as a community space.
moderndukes t1_j6o0xv2 wrote
Utrecht was one of the greatest places I’ve ever been. From the proposals I’ve seen to truncate the JFX around 41st Street and convert the portion south to being a split-boulevard, the height of the promenade down to the river quay would be quite magnificent and beautiful.
Delicious_Chance9119 t1_j6od7sj wrote
Am I too cynical thinking about how it would get so filthy quickly 😂
foodude84 t1_j6lrqui wrote
We could always put the JFX underground like they did in Boston with The Big Dig
Cunninghams_right OP t1_j6lue1u wrote
I'd rather elevate or burry the transportation and let the river flow where people can enjoy it.
MazelTough t1_j6m3wos wrote
As a whitewater kayaker I’m all for freeing the Jones Falls
SilverProduce0 t1_j6na4l5 wrote
I want it to be a log flume like at the waterpark
MazelTough t1_j6o0spe wrote
I want it to have engineered waves so it can be a whitewater destination
SilverProduce0 t1_j6o1bbr wrote
I want it to have a splashdown zone on a bridge where we can watch riders come over the crest and then get taken out by the ensuing wave.
MazelTough t1_j6o1ill wrote
Awesome place for people to watch/record carnage of beginning paddlers a la Gnarivores. With it.
Particular_Base_4456 t1_j6mf0af wrote
More than for human usage, the ecological damage of burying a river, destruction of habitat, other plant, animal, bird, fungal, etc species is MASSIVE.
redseapedestrian418 t1_j6lymat wrote
GAHD this would be so much nicer.
[deleted] t1_j6maurr wrote
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S-Kunst t1_j6meign wrote
Our mode of planning does not follow with great civic ideas or input. Its all commercially driven. A conversion like this was possible 40-50 yrs ago, when what we see now was hatched. Charles Center & State Center example of this bad thinking. In those days there was an excitement, by city planners to wipe out all of the historical fabric and build "modern" I think they realized that the Baltimore suburbs were not going to be building large urban landscapes, but continue to be flat and spread out, so they allowed bland flavor of the day buildings to dominate Baltimore. No real attempt was to make it a town for people. After all the people who mattered (to them) had left for the county. They thought they could mimic NYC. It was a false idea and one which ruined a large amount of what would have been a people city, with a natural flow of newer architectural ideas, as one went from the old city center to the outer edges. Today, basic services are impossible to get right, so mega ideas are just a pipe dream. Add to this, I have not seen a single city official who has shown any knowledge of architecture or city planning skills. For them, its all about hiring outside visionaries as a quick fix. Remember the Car race idea for downtown?
Unable-Garden-4824 t1_j6mm7x2 wrote
Berlin vibes !!!
Ndysmth t1_j6mtc9g wrote
There was a really great plan posted here a couple months back. It was an urban planner I believe
ElectricStar87 t1_j6nnbso wrote
I think you’re referring to what raisin-cane posted here.
sicknutz t1_j6m5owj wrote
Wouldn’t that be NIMBYs dream scenario? Making it difficult for city residents to access the county while adding another route along which to run and bike for exercise?
These urban transformations are awesome but American cities (all of them) are entering a period of rapid decline and it’s hard to imagine this being viable here.
BJJBean t1_j6nrgva wrote
My first thought was that by making it more difficult to enter the city you don't actually encourage people to move to the city but rather to get a remote work job so they never have to go to the city again. Which in turn speeds up the decay of the city by killing restaurants and all the other businesses these people used to go to.
Like you said, we're already seeing large cities lose population as people get "work from home" jobs and move to less dense areas.
Overall I don't think people are not living in cities because there aren't enough green spaces. I'd assume that if you polled people on why they don't want to live in Baltimore the top reasons would be taxes and crime with green spaces not even breaking the top 5.
physicallyatherapist t1_j6n5ogh wrote
NIMBYs usually don't want additional housing near them and it looks like housing is pretty similar in both. I don't see how this is a dream scenario or how it makes traveling more difficult but i might be missing something
bwoods43 t1_j6mrs2q wrote
That's what I don't understand as well. How are people getting to and from the city from the north in this scenario? Sure, it would be great to have more greenspace and fewer roads everywhere, but does that mean we will also close the light rail and businesses, too?
tacsatduck t1_j6n3r6h wrote
I mean the case for the city to make it harder to commute into the city by car could help it in a number of ways, while hurting it in others. These roads where put in to help build suburbia, and have been used to siphon money and population away. If the city is going to focus more on residents, it makes sense to make the city more attractive to live in.
moderndukes t1_j6o0cdc wrote
Most proposals call for the JFX to be converted around the Pepsi Sign and the Light Rail for that portion would have dedicated lanes. It isn’t a total removal of the JFX, it’s truncating it.
engin__r t1_j6myvck wrote
I'm sure it's more complicated than this, but what if we kept the light rail and ended the highway at Northern Parkway? We could put in a park-and-ride for people to get downtown.
z3mcs t1_j6ku4ys wrote
In all seriousness. I repeat, in all seriousness. I think I've seen you post thing after thing that originates overseas in like the Netherlands. Have you thought about contacting some envoy or someone over there who would come to Maryland and talk to people here in power? Put on a presentation at Hopkins? Give a press conference? Something? Because if you're taking so many ideas from over there the best folks to explain how things function, demonstrate how problems are solved, answer questions about execution and implementation, and sell the stuff, would be those folks. Even if you didn't think the city proper would be receptive, get em over here to start making waves. Submit it to the new governor's office or whatever relevant picks for whatever office is appropriate.
I think I've seen you on here for like 5 or 6 solid years and you're so focused on transforming Baltimore, I just feel like you could actually make headway on some of these thoughts and ideas if you move in the right ways. If you're not interested and would rather just post stuff on here in hopes of getting a groundswell that will lead to action, that's cool. I just hate to see someone so clearly focused on a futuristic society that maybe never thought about just how to actually get things moving. I'm not trying to make it sound easy, it'll definitely be hard, but you just seem really really dedicated.