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Among other things, it mentions how Seattle is experimenting with this "active traffic managment signs" that are posted above each lane on the freeway and guide the drivers on how fast they should be going or whether there are lane closures ahead -- all in an effort to give drivers more information to process in advance to avoid hasty decisions and keep traffic flow smooth.
My question is whether this type of system would work in America's "I'm free to do what I want" kind of populace? I mean they have this in Seattle and Minneapolis now, and I can see most of the commuters in those two cities mostly adhering to the signs, but I personally can't see something like this working in more aggressive cities such as Chicago, Philly, Miami or Boston.
Among other things, it mentions how Seattle is experimenting with this "active traffic managment signs" that are posted above each lane on the freeway and guide the drivers on how fast they should be going or whether there are lane closures ahead -- all in an effort to give drivers more information to process in advance to avoid hasty decisions and keep traffic flow smooth.
My question is whether this type of system would work in America's "I'm free to do what I want" kind of populace? I mean they have this in Seattle and Minneapolis now, and I can see most of the commuters in those two cities mostly adhering to the signs, but I personally can't see something like this working in more aggressive cities such as Chicago, Philly, Miami or Boston.
Thoughts?
Well it implies a populace that can read so that rules out Chicago, Miami, and LA right there.
There was just an article here how views are not oppisite of a few decades ago about mass transit in the suburbs. Chicago is lucky that it has Metra, with 240 train stations on 11 lines that spread out over the entire suburban area.
As far as people slowing down on purpose because a sign told them to? I don't see that happening here.
Quote:
Suburban residents now favor more transit spending, poll shows
Results defy yearslong trend
Reflecting the increasing strain of gridlocked traffic, a majority of Chicago-area residents think improving bus and train service is so important to the region that repairing and expanding expressways and toll roads should take a back seat, a Tribune/WGN poll shows.
Most suburbanites support investing more in mass transit than roads, sharing the long-held stance of a large majority of city residents, the poll found. Suburban residents also said they are driving less and taking more advantage of expanded suburban train and bus service in communities where the automobile has been king.
Drivers who said they would back spending more on mass transit cited the growing stress associated with congestion; high gasoline prices; and, to a lesser degree, the environmental and financial benefits of riding transit instead of inhaling belching emissions from cars.
Jim Ceithaml, a semiretired teacher from Elgin, said he has given up driving.
"I wish the mass-transit system were expanded a lot," he said, particularly suburb-to-suburb service that has been promised for years.
"The problem with Metra is that it is a spoke system without a wheel," Ceithaml said, noting that the only way to get from one suburb to another on a different Metra line is to travel to downtown Chicago, switch trains and head back out. "Why don't we have an around-Chicago rail line?"
Fifty-two percent of suburbanites said they agree with investing more of limited government resources in public transit, versus 32 percent who chose improvements to highways and toll roads. In a 1999 Tribune poll, 34 percent of suburban residents said more money should be spent on mass transit than on roads.
Even in the collar counties, half said public transit deserves a higher priority in spending decisions.
The director of a Chicagoland civic organization called the poll results "phenomenal.''
"People are seeing that a car-oriented culture is limiting economic development and quality of life in the region,'' said Frank Beal, executive director of Chicago Metropolis 2020, which promotes social and economic ideas for the 21st century. "There is a general recognition that friends, neighbors and family see what is happening around the country but not here. Phoenix, Arizona, has a light-rail system.''
The opinions represented in the poll mark a reversal from the prevailing attitude dating to the 1970s in the suburbs. Back then, residents and their elected officials complained that there wasn't enough transit service to justify the amount of taxes collected outside Chicago to subsidize mass transit. They opposed seeing any of their tax dollars going to the Chicago Transit Authority.
But worsening traffic congestion — the Chicago area is one of the three most-gridlocked regions of the U.S. — may have a lot to do with the shift in public opinion.
Drivers using the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate Highway 290) since the spring have suffered through some of the longest travel times in memory when some lanes were closed for a resurfacing project. It got so bad that even some of the most die-hard motorists parked their cars and rode the train, boosting Metra ridership on several rail lines.
Traffic congestion is worse than it was five years ago, according to 45 percent of suburban residents in the Tribune/WGN poll, conducted July 8-14, and a slightly smaller percentage of Chicagoans who were polled. Only 13 percent of city and suburban residents — men and women equally — said the stress caused by traffic congestion is not as high as it seemed a few years ago.
Overall, 33 percent said they haven't noticed a change.
About half the drivers polled said they have changed their driving habits because of rising gas prices. Environmental concerns motivated four in 10 drivers to drive less.
Rebecca Davies said she considers herself "a big greenie. I try to do my bit." But it's more difficult to get around in La Grange compared with years ago, when she lived in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and rode the "L" to work in the Loop.
Davies is a stay-at-home mom now, hauling around her 8-year-old twins in a hybrid SUV. She takes Metra whenever she goes downtown because traffic congestion "can be pretty awful" and parking is expensive and hard to find, she said. Otherwise, she and the kids walk to a lot of places in La Grange, although she confesses that "I drive more than I would probably like to.''
Pace buses passing through Davies' neighborhood "zip through on their way to someplace else," she said. "They are not local buses that can take you to the grocery store."
It remains to be seen whether the pro-transit consensus that appears to be forming across the region will prompt elected officials to shift more money to mass transit. For decades, 80 percent of federal money or ground transportation has typically been allocated to roads and 20 percent to mass transit.
"As is so often the case, the public often shifts before our political leadership senses the shift,'' said Beal, of Chicago Metropolis 2020. "I would hope the poll results will be trumpeted far and wide and change policies in Springfield.''
He said state lawmakers have "clearly been biased in favor of the automobile and starved the transit sector throughout the state.''
But numerous factors could limit any efforts to spend more money on mass transit. The inconsistency of CTA service and the widespread perception that the transit agency wastes money and serves as a job-creating patronage haven for Mayor Richard Daley's administration will provide fodder to deny the CTA a windfall, at least until it can improve its performance.
Metra, meanwhile, is mired in scandal over the corruption of its former executive director, Phil Pagano, who committed suicide in May after he was found to have enriched himself and top aides with illegal payouts from the commuter railroad.
The Pace suburban bus system has struggled with only partial success to reinvent itself and provide an attractive alternative to driving in the suburbs.
People here in DC can't read the ITS (changeable message) signs without slowing down 20mph and causing massive backups, so they leave them off most of the time. Not sure how something even more complicated will work.
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