[Updated] We renew our series, The Road To Sprawlville, noting in this the 57th chapter that it was a road to nowhere these last 36 hours in the greater Atlanta area due to snow and treacherous ice in a relatively warm winter southern climate with poor experience in these matters.
But worse: The snow and ice fell on an already clogged system of 'freeways' without complementary and coordinated transit, thus attracting at once a big cross-suburban emergency commute into a network filling up with cars that had no route of escape.
And if you are caught in that kind of congestion on a traditional city arterial?
Just work your way to the next intersection on the grid and turn to find an alternative.
But a 'freeway' where the next exit is three-to-five miles ahead, with snow and ice, to boot?
Forget it.
Welcome to Atlanta, Capital of Sprawlville, where the planners, so to speak, laid the groundwork for this historic road-building gridlock.
Drawing attention in The Washington Post for its sprawl-induced dangerous summer weather too.
And though Wisconsin is better prepared to handle winter conditions, we should not be so smug to assume it couldn't happen here.
Think about the $1.7 billion Zoo Interchange expansion and 'upgrade' surrounded by malls, hospitals, office buildings, and schools.
And it is being built without a single rail connection, and with only minimal bus service in a region already short of connections, especially further out to Waukesha County - - though a federal judge has ordered some transit added to this eight-year boondoggle in a state so strapped for transportation dollars through over-building that its pot-holed roads are crumbling at a rapid pace.
And gaining national media for it.
Some 'planning.'
But worse: The snow and ice fell on an already clogged system of 'freeways' without complementary and coordinated transit, thus attracting at once a big cross-suburban emergency commute into a network filling up with cars that had no route of escape.
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| Credit:ABC7 photo |
Just work your way to the next intersection on the grid and turn to find an alternative.
But a 'freeway' where the next exit is three-to-five miles ahead, with snow and ice, to boot?
Forget it.
Welcome to Atlanta, Capital of Sprawlville, where the planners, so to speak, laid the groundwork for this historic road-building gridlock.
Drawing attention in The Washington Post for its sprawl-induced dangerous summer weather too.
And though Wisconsin is better prepared to handle winter conditions, we should not be so smug to assume it couldn't happen here.
Think about the $1.7 billion Zoo Interchange expansion and 'upgrade' surrounded by malls, hospitals, office buildings, and schools.
And it is being built without a single rail connection, and with only minimal bus service in a region already short of connections, especially further out to Waukesha County - - though a federal judge has ordered some transit added to this eight-year boondoggle in a state so strapped for transportation dollars through over-building that its pot-holed roads are crumbling at a rapid pace.
And gaining national media for it.
Some 'planning.'
From the pictures, the congested traffic consists of 80% trucks and only 20% cars. Just sayin'
ReplyDeletelooks like the wrath of chris christie.
ReplyDeleteI saw on a TV news report yesterday that the Whitefish Bay High School marching band was stranded in Atlanta on their way back from EPCOT/Disneyworld.
ReplyDelete