We were in the Twin Cities this weekend to visit our daughter and son and their families. We were almost overwhelmed by the amount of highway construction under way or completed.
The completed I-694/I-35E interchange must occupy the equivalent of a quarter-township. The standard township is 36 square miles. The various up and over bridges, ramps, and the multi-multi-lane highways must be at least three miles across. And guess what, the traffic was often going at slower than the posted speed.
The Crosstown interchange of I-35W and Hwy. 62 is under a massive amount of construction. The resulting land use may be twice the design of the 60s.
There were assorted projects along I-494, mostly of interchanges being redesigned.
I just kept thinking of all the tax base that was taken out for more and more cars. The bigger and faster the highways; the more people will drive them. The more people drive the highways; the sooner that even bigger and faster highways will have to be built. Before we know it, the Twin Cities may just be one massive highway.
Now maybe the corporate headquarters and the shopping centers and major and mega malls lining these highways will more than make up the tax base of the houses and small shops that were demolished. But what happens when one of these big properties has to be taken to make an ever bigger highway?
But the people who work in these headquarters and shop in these malls will have to live somewhere. But the somewhere will be increasingly farther out. More people farther out will mean more and bigger highways farther out.
What if instead of highways we had built a network of train tracks? The number of people who could be transported per acre of land would far greater than the mobile parking lots some of these highways become. It is much easier to add cars to a train or increase the number of trains than add more lanes.
I keep thinking of the line from "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" - "When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?"
