I'm conflicted on this because I'm all for density, but how can you dsitinguish between legitimate growth requiring additional services, and unintended growth you think might come about as a result of the services offered? Can you justify building highways to areas where there is limited development today in order to foster development tomorrow?
I'm just rambling...
That is a good question, but I can answer that with an anecdote. Two similar questions that have very different answers. In Texas we ask "How are we going to efficiently move all these cars?" A similar question, which is asked outside of the Sunbelt is "How are we going to efficiently move all these people?" In Manhattan (1.6 million people on 23 square miles), there is zero expressways within the borough. Only the FDR on its border.
Having a hostipal next to an expressway doesn't increase safety. What happens when congestion sets in and it is bumber-to-bumper. Plus there are greater safety concerns with increased auto use (more people die in car accident every year then the entire 15-year Vietman conflict). In fact, a gridded street pattern with no major streets (because maybe they all are major streets) is more safe for emergency vehicles since traffic is spread out over the grid and there are near infinite route possibilities.
For the second point, "Can you justify building highways to areas where there is limited development today in order to foster development tomorrow?", yes, Fort Worth has instituted impact fees, which require developments to pay a fee to help cover infrastructure costs to the development. This is one way to make it a bit more sustainable. However, like most everything else, development in the inner city areas, like downtown, which already have most of the infrastructure in place, help subsidize growth in greenfield developments, which have little infrastructure in place.
You missed mine. The growth is happening ANYWAYS, without a freeway or tollway!
Then in that case you missed the point about the shape that growth will take. You put a freeway down and growth will be auto-oriented. You don't, you have a chance to make it walkable. Either way, this is still a bad idea from a city and region that is trying to make the area more sustainable.
In the 30 years afterwards, Hood County's population has nearly tripled again, from 17,714 to over 49,170. I remember when there were no traffic signals on the highway between Benbrook and Granbury. Today, there's at least a dozen or more along the highway. Per TXDOT, without increasing the capacity of the highway, from 2010 to 2030, average daily traffic on US 377 from SH 144 to Acton Highway can be expected to increase from 54,400 vehicles to 81,600 vehicles.
Interesting fact about these numbers most overlook, there's more vehicles than people in Hood County using that highway.
And? going back to Manhattan, there are more people that in Hood County, should they bulldoze Central Park, everything between 70 and 72nd St, and everything between Park and Madison Ave. so the suburbanites in Yonkers or Nassau County get to the Midtown easier. For a pro-rail guy, you seem to be a growth at all costs guy too, which helps to cripple rail service and capability.
Then widen the road (even though Laten Demand still kicks in, and we will be back to square one, with you argueing for more roadway capacity) or run a rail line. Running another expressway has predictable results.
None what-so-ever! No county road, no Farm to Market road, no State Highway, and no transit system. I'll add there's no commuter/regional rail plan by NCTCOG either. There are no alternates.
Much of this road will bulldoze existing areas in Fort Worth. You can preach all you want that Granbury needs this, but Fort Worth needs it a lot less.
Downtown Fort Worth and the surrounding area will suffer more that Granbury will benefit. Sorry, this causes all sorts of chaos for the urban environment. And Latent Demand still exists in rural settings, too.
I should also point out that studies show that the more "unsafe" a roadway is, the less actual accidents happen. Researchers attribute this to drivers paying more attention in conditions that feel unsafe.
Would ya? I feel this is an important topic for discussion.