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I-70 options actually include transit

January 06th, 2009 | Category: Commuter Rail, Bus/BRT, Missouri

The highway mavens at MoDOT will be gracing KC with their presence today as options for rebuilding a stretch of I-70 through the city get a public review. Let's Go KC has the details.

6 Comments so far

  1. ron mclinden January 6th, 2009 2:25 pm

    the transit-on-shoulder and hov lane concepts are both ideas whose time has passed, in my opinion. we need solutions that encourage less traffic, not ideas that merely try to accommodate it.

    transit on shoulders makes little sense since transit operating speeds during a congested period would likely be as high or higher on nearby us 40.

    hov lanes would involve building extra lanes that would be used only a few hours a week. the added capacity would just promote continued sprawl to the east.

    modot should encourage transit and carpooling by charging an access fee for single-occupant vehicles during peak travel periods.

  2. northlander January 7th, 2009 5:16 am

    Just what we need another tax on the people. Maybe if some business changed the work hours it would help help the traffic problem. Some could go in a 6AM instead of 7AM off at 3PM,others start at 10AM out at 6PM to cut down on rush hour traffic.With people losing jobs and houses we don’t need more taxes.

  3. Jeremiah January 8th, 2009 2:59 pm

    Northlander, who exactly would decide which businesses open at which time? Would it be divided up by industry? Perhaps only retail can be open during the hours of 6am and 4pm, since a vast majority of young people work in this industry and we need to keep them off the roads during peak hours because they are less experienced drivers. Or maybe bankers and government workers only during 9-5, or, or, or…what the hell kind of an idea is that and how exactly does it address the larger problem of more and more people becoming more and more dependent on their individual automobiles rather than mass transit as a primary means of transportation which does nothing but continue to encourage developers to continue to build out rather than up with no care whatsoever to good community design. I wonder, do you actually think about these things before you type it out, or do you have a pet monkey that posts these comments in your stead?
    I agree that more taxes is not the answer. But let’s at least talk about real solutions instead of government controlled work hours for specific industries, genders, age groups, whatever. Sounds a little too much like “Brazil” to me.

  4. ron mclinden January 8th, 2009 9:04 pm

    northlander, an access fee is not a tax. it’s an elegant use of market mechanisms to balance supply (freeway capacity) and demand (traffic). under my concept, you could avoid paying an access fee if you are carpooling or riding transit, if you choose a different route or a different time of travel, or if you wait in a free ramp-metered access lane. with an access fee mechanism we could avoid having to build very expensive additional capacity that would be needed only a few hours a week.

  5. ron mclinden January 11th, 2009 6:57 pm

    modot has an “on-line meeting” going on thru the end of january. view their brief slide show here:
    http://modot.org/kansascity/metroi70/supplementdaldocs/FutureI-70KCMetro_MainShow2.pdf

    you can read comments that have been made — or post your own — here:
    http://metroi70.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome.html#comments

  6. Mark W. Scofield January 29th, 2009 2:00 pm

    Double level freeway. Add a top level to those motorists choosing to go through kc downtown area.

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