Most of you have seen by now that Lincoln's beltways are dead, at least over the course of the next 30 years. That's right: according to the latest plans, we're going to be stuck with our current crappy methods of getting across the south and east sides of the city until at least 2040. And all those truck drivers? Yep, we get to continue to torture them by making them drive through town with the rest of us suckers.
Regular readers know that I've been a huge fan of the South and East Beltways since ... well, shoot, I don't know. It's been at least a decade, hasn't it? And no, my fandom isn't derived from some sort of allegiance to the road construction industry. The beltways are a genuinely good idea. Lincoln needs new and better transportation options, and completing a loop around the city -- Highway 77 and I-80 make up the west and north components -- is one of those options.
It's not just about getting where we're going more quickly. There are oodles of other facets to this discussion. Safety, for example. Wouldn't it be fantastic to get truck traffic off of Highway 2 and 84th Street? I live right next to Highway 2 so I'm very familiar with the frustration we put truck drivers through. There are two inevitable results: trucks clog up local traffic; and annoyed truck drivers give the finger to red lights as they cruise on through the intersection. There are financial implications as well. The beltways would open tons of land to development, and adjacent land would be perfect for use by many industries.
That's all I'm going to say about this for now. There's no point in getting too worked up over the death of the South and East Beltways because there are myriad budgetary fish to fry first. But don't forget about these roads. They are extremely important to Lincoln's future. We can't afford to ignore them for 30 years.
Comments
See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.
That really pissed me off. It’s like they’ve just given up trying. To paraphrase, “in the past, the Comp Plan was like a wish list, and now it will only include things we can really afford.” What a load of crap. And the idea that the current amount of money allocated to roads will be frozen, as-is, for 30 years? Foolish.
This is one of those cases where a city needs to work with a state and with the Feds to come up with a solution. Ever drive west on I-80? You encounter tiny little cities all the way to California that have “Interstate Loops” circling around them. Maybe we forego the idea of our quaint bypasses, change the name, and do something. The Feds are still building roads.
Aaargh. This whole thing makes my blood boil. And no widening of 27th Street in those 30 years? At the rate we’re going, we’ll have flying cars a la the Jetsons before we see a solid roads plan in this city.
I also regret we will not see an east or south beltway anytime in the foreseeable future.
I travel Highway 2 almost everyday and there is no doubt in my mind it is badly needed to reduce truck traffic through central Lincoln. When Highway 2 was built, it was on the far south side of Lincoln. Now, it crosses through residential, business and shopping districts and is used by local commuters daily, not just motorists passing through town.
I guess Lincoln voters ultimately have to decide if they are willing to fund large road construction projects through bond issues, raising development impact fees or tax increases. It is unrealistic to think the State or the Federal governments are going to fund our road projects given the pressure we put on state and federal leaders to reduce government spending. We cannot tell our government leaders to stop spending tax money and then in the next breath ask for beltway construction money. I am curious if Linconite readers would be willing to invest their money in a beltway project. If so, how much are you willing to pay? If Lincoln asked you for an extra $50.00 or $100.00 per year, would you agree? Our willingness to pay for the projects is a good way to measure the level of support.
No, I would not be willing to pay for a beltway.
I don’t think that it’s unrealistic to think that the Feds will fund our roads projects. I’ll believe they’re cutting spending when I actually see them cut spending, and then I’ll suspect they’re just playing funny money. I think the stimulus package was completely foolish, but the beltways were perfect examples of the types of projects those stimulus dollars allegedly were to toward. Why didn’t we get our share?
Probably because they were not “shovel ready.”
I’m on the fence about this. On the one hand, I wish we could just reduce car traffic (by, say, having a usable bus system, higher population density and smart development) so the beltway isn’t needed. On the other hand, population will continue to grow, and cars will continue to increase, and traffic could become a nightmare.
As much as I have been annoyed by toll roads in other communities, I wonder if that would work here. The people for whom driving somewhere quickly is important would be the ones who pay for the roads. I have a feeling not enough people in Lincoln care that much about shaving ten minutes off their commute, though.
I don’t love the idea of looking for Fed handouts, but a major roads project of this type is what I think some of those funds should be used for.
In terms of us paying, I would absolutely be willing to pay. I use Highway 2 and cross it on a daily basis. It’s not a safe mix of cars, intersections, and truck traffic. My household has lost one vehicle to an accident on that highway, and I am thankful no one was hurt. When you see the trucks with the blatent disregard for yellow and red lights, it amazes me we don’t have fatalities on that road on a monthly basis.
In a Utopian world, we’d all ride busses and monorails to and from downtown, but that’s not really how it works.
Further, large trucks are one of the main ways that goods get from point A to point B in this country. When you are so near one of the best East-West corridors in the US, and not from from a good North-South corridor, trucks will continue to use them. Even if we froze car traffic at today’s numbers, the number of semi trucks on the road will increase dramatically in the next 30 years.
A beltway would be nice to loop around the city to get to I-80 for people in cars, but it’s a huge thing for the traffic that is just going through.
Your comment reminded me of this, and I’m thankful that Neal has it posted. It’s one of my favorite Neal O cartoons of all time.
http://nealo.com/2007/08/15/in-the-year-2525-aug-15-2007/
Share your thoughts with the community.
Commenting is no longer permitted on this post.