No More Whinging
Because of a fire, 27th Street was closed this morning just south of South Street. All traffic was rerouted through the neighborhoods. Instead of following the herd, I bailed west on South, to take 13th/14th the rest of the way to work.
The roads were treacherous, polished ice like an expanse of black mirror. Traffic didn't flow; it crawled. Or it skated. Just south of Highway 2 on 14th, an accident backed southbound traffic up nearly to Calvert. I was again able to get in the turn lane, and head back toward 27th to finish my twisty morning commute.
Now I'd just like to say—all that, and I got across town in less than 20 minutes. Reports of Lincoln's traffic problems have been greatly exaggerated. There are some not-so-pretty reasons why 27th Street is such a big deal, few of them having anything to do with traffic volume. There's the sense, for instance, that the south side receives favorable treatment compared to the north. There's a sense of entitlement; that one has the right to go from point A to point B by the most direct route at the greatest possible speed.
Throw asphalt at it!
is an answer that comes too easily when
talking about growth and traffic. Ramming larger and larger roads through
existing residential areas is truly a solution for the fringe at the
expense of the core: it facilitates moving volumes of traffic from edge
to edge while creating a no-man's land in the middle. Lincoln as a
community needs to consider more innovative ways to approach these
issues, such as improving the public transportation system (including
rehabilitating the image of public transportation and its users),
reorient from thinking about traffic
to thinking about
transportation
, increasing integration of land use and transportation
planning, developing a multinodal community concept requiring fewer
cross-town trips, and revitalizing some of the older existing areas, so
they aren't perceived as expendable.
As many have said, there are other ways to go north and south. Try 48th. Try 9th and 10th. Try 77. South 27th Street does not impede traffic as much as some would have you believe, and widening that relatively short stretch between South and Highway 2 is not going to dramatically improve Lincoln's economy. It will (guaranteed) induce decay and decline in a well-functioning neighborhood.
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