The recent I-26 decisions by the City Council and county commissioners are both shortsighted and stupid. The fact is, the I-26 connector has absolutely no reason to exist.
Have you ever been on the north leg of I-26? There’s rarely another car in sight. Some people point to the traffic jam that occurs at the Smoky Park Bridge as a valid reason to build this “bridge to nowhere.” If people think we need to tear down a bunch of homes and spend hundreds of millions of dollars so they don’t have to sit in traffic on their commute, then they need to reevaluate their lifestyles.
Sitting in a 3,000-pound steel box powered by a black fluid made from million-year-old decayed plant matter (that happens to be killing us all) for a few extra minutes is really not that much of a hardship to go through on a daily basis.
Isn’t this the time when we’re supposed to wake up and realize that we’ve been seriously messing up these past hundred years or so? Why can’t [local] elected officials tell the state that we would rather have the money to increase local mass transit, or to pay for that Amtrak line we were supposed to get five years ago? It’s been sad to see all this energy wasted on coming up with alternatives for something that we just did not need in the first place. No eight lanes? How about no lanes?
— Joseph Crawley
Asheville
I love this insight, can’t we as a nation get it that fossil fuels era is coming to a close?? The Amtrak (or any other alternative) would be a great plan. Maybe fix the bridge better and get folks away from the idea of one person -one gas guzzler. It should be a new era dawning.
I am guessing the writer walks everywhere or rides a bicycle?
I’m guessing travelah makes snide comments that aren’t actually applicable in reality.
Nothing snide about it. If he is pushing the pedal on a carbon powered vehicle, he is a hypocrite to complain about burning carbon fuels(not to mention ignorant of transportation logistics and needs).
Travelah, what I am guessing the writer means is that we need to put money into an alternative, where the roads already exist and serve their purpose. No need to waste more money into a system that will be of less importance as time passes. Instigate a new paradigm, and give people alternatives to cars and maybe they will use it. The road will be there for you and me when needed.
Crawley operates the Asheville (bike) ReCyclery. Here’s an intro to that organization:
http://www.mountainx.com/outdoors/2007/041807pedal
I don’t really know enough about the I-26 connector to know whether it is or good or bad, but one thing needs to be pointed out… Traffic jams are an extreme waste of fossil fuels and need to be taken seriously. Sitting in a traffic jam it is not a harmless waste of time, it is a very serious problem for the environment.