To create a great city, there must be balance. One of our favorite bloggers comments on the need for both highways and transit.
"I know there are a lot of people out there that are anti-highway. But a lot of the arguments around it relate to local land use and development patterns and ignores freight. Clearly, rail freight and intermodal transport are growing at a rapid clip and need investment. But trucking is always going to be a very important part of our national economy and keeping freight moving on a national and regional level is critical. For a big rig, every hour of delay costs about $67 - that adds up quickly."
[8664 note: Not to mention the air pollution.]
"I support transit development but also believe we need highway investment. With almost every Midwest city and state saying distribution and logistics are going to be a big part of its economy, highway investment is even more critical. If your region has big time congestion and roads with obsolete dimensions, that's dramatically going to hurt your business climate for transport intensive industries. The cities that figure out how to make this investment are going to distinguish themselves.
One of the things I said I was going to do when I started this blog was call them like I see them, and for this I know I part ways with many. We absolutely need major highway investment in our cities. Do we need transit investment as well? Absolutely. I believe they are actually complementary, not substitutes. Transit works well were highways don't and vice versa. We need to complement urbanized cores with transit appropriate development patterns with strong regional and national highway networks. It's a matter of AND not OR."
Read it here (see A Tsunami of Freight). We think the Urbanophile is right and that 8664 is best way to balance the needs of our region. Currently an average of 32,000 trucks drive through Spaghetti Junction every day. The East End Bridge will spread that freight and improve our logistics competitiveness. And removing I-64 from the waterfront will create the type of vibrancy and density that will benefit most by an investment in public transit.
Ironic, in the extreme, that you should support freight trucking, since more than any other force it has prevented the construction of the east end bridge! Wear on roads goes with load to the fifth power - its the big trucks that are wearing out our roads, keeping KYTC from getting the maintenance surpluses needed to do new construction.
Gosh, if only there were an efficient way to move freight without highways. Oh wait - there is! Freight rail moves a ton of cargo 410 miles on just a single gallon of diesel. Because of its awesome efficiency, freight rail serves our national transportation objectives much better than freight trucking. As a nation we need to look more at public-private partnerships with railroads, rather than doubling down on an unsustainable highway system.
It's not that we support freight trucking as much as we support getting freight trucks out of the heart of the city where they don't want to be in the first place. Please explain how freight trucking is more responsible for preventing the East End Bridge than River Fields.
Nitpick: road wear is proportional to the fourth power of axle load, not the fifth power. This article explains the rule as well as other factors impacting road wear, such as tire pressure and whether an axle has single tires or double tires.