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What do you call a highway program that just keeps going long after its original goals were achieved? A zombie highway. Blueprint America — with The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer — goes to Birmingham, Alabama, to look into the Northern Beltline, a road that will cost more than $3 billion, most of which will be paid for by taxpayers nationwide.
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David, I have never heard you come up with the term “Zombie Highway” before. Even though we have worked on smaller scale highway and transit systems on and off for several decades. Portland, Oregon where I have worked, and observed, for years actually made mayny of these changes beginning with citizen objections to an inner city freeway, The Mount Hood, which was transferred financially into the first leg of a light rail system which provided the model for many others in the West. It was begun with political risk, as were several of the others analyzed in this television coverage. But the three state urbanizing region has had great success, and will open yet another light rail line in September 2009. Local political leaders actually fight to take credit for this transit success. And few anymore complain of the “loss” of Interstate Highway capacity.
Robert A. Burco, former Director of Transportation, State of Oregon
Highways aren’t built to “handle traffic”; they’re built to stimulate development, and only encourage sprawl and congestion. The future is walkable, bike-friendly and transit-oriented neighborhoods. The American auto-dependency habit was propelled by cheap gas and easy credit, which will both be in very short supply in coming decades. We need high-speed rail, transit, sidewalks, and bike paths. Transportation spending should reflect need, not developer greed.
How true that transportation spending should reflect need, not greed. Unfortunately, many transportation projects are pushed through by politicians influenced by large corporate donors. Such is the case of the Birmingham Northern Beltline. Elected officials have been influenced by a coalition of large corporate landholders, developers and other businesses that gain from road construction and subsequent development.
Sustainable spending is the responsible and timely planning approach for the future of US Cities, and you do not have to be Regional planner to recognize that. This is particularly true in transportation decision-making where public transit is both a key economic stimulus in providing access and impacting land value, and all of this at lower initial capital costs than the $3 billion quoted for the belt line. There are the added benefits of congestion relief and less of an
environmental impact that comes with a mass transit. On a final note, the region already has an interstate “by-pass component” – its called I-459, and it serves the purpose of moving the through-routed vehicular traffic very well without incurring the congestion levels experienced by other medium-sized city regions. Time for the region and the city of Birmingham to think more about what already exists and translate the infrastructure into more liveable communities where the emphasis is on mixed land-use, higher densities and development centered around transit centers, corridors and stations -Light rail, Commuter rail or Bus Rapid Transit. Smart Growth is about encouraging, planning and leveraging for Transit Oriented Development (TOD).
[...] Monday’s Blueprint America story on the proposed Northern Beltline, you can watch it online here. The follow-up story on Birmingham’s underfunded public transit system did not air as [...]
Apparently, those who produced this show did not look at the topography of Birmingham and the Greater Metropolitan Area surrounding the city. Birmingham is not the population center of the Birmingham-Hoover GMSA. As the name suggests. Birmingham has mountains and its population center spreads for 45 miles around the city. Most of these areas could not be adequately served by mass transit. Everyone would still need a car and roads to get to the train station. THe northern beltline serves a function of allowin those who live North and West of the city to come to town and work. The beltline also allows commerce and defense transportion to travel through Alabama without the need to add to the congestion of our “Malfunction Junction” downtown. We have had two major steel coil accidents downtown that caused great traffic problems because they occurred downtown. Once the beltway is finalized, through commercial traffic can be required to avoid the downtown area.
Could the beltway have been done better? Of course it could have been done better, faster and sooner. Will it benefit the nation, Alabama, and Birmingham when it is finished? Of course it will.
Do we want more people to live in the city center? Yes, that would be great. Birmingham needs revitalization. Bring your child to a dozen of the Birmingham City schools for a day, let me know if you would send them back. Drive around some of our urban neighborhoods after dark or safer, just read the crime statistics in the paper and let me know which urban areas you want your children to play in. I have to fence my air conditioner in in Birmingham. I routinely have to clean graffitti off of my building. I have used needles, beer cans, wine bottles, and liter thrown in front of my building every night. Homeless people use my hose as their shower. Then people wonder why families decide to live outside of the downtown area.
Ben Hayley, I disagree. I work in the field of planning and development and this project is so not needed at this point and time. If it was originally constructed in the 1970s there might have been more of a purpose for the roadway. However, now it is just an overgrown sprawl inducing project that goes through some of the most environmentally sensitive parts of our region. Also the excuse that people use about Birmingham’s terrain can be applied to Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Denver, and the San Francisco bay area. However, all these areas have successfully began to implement a mass transit system for their region. The reason why there is no major movement towards mass transit in Greater Birmingham has all to do with the fact that there is no political will at the state or local level. Many talk about how much it is needed, but most doesn’t care enough to try to implement it.
Same slothful practice occurs in Northern California. No wonder the economy of the country is in the dumper.
The Northern Beltway will stimulate economic development for the greater metropolitan area of Birmingham many times more than a domed (doomed)stadium that will only be used a few times a year by less than a capacity crowd with no place to park. Seriously, the influx of business generated by new commerce attracted to the area by new roadways will produce tremendous benefits for all of Birmingham area.
Look at who owns the land (who stands to gain the most) if this monstrosity is built. This rural area is home to many folks who work in the city and want to live outside of the city. We do not need all of this development around us. There was a reason why we came out here to live. One developer once told me that I would pay for my peace and quiet. We need to do what we can to prove him wrong. We have an abundance of wildlife that we live with and enjoy. It also sustains us so we do not have to go to the store and buy radiated and steroid-filled meat. This gift will be lost in the name of “Progress”…Spare me! Leave us alone!
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Major Support for Blueprint America is provided by the Rockefeller Foundation.
08/10/2009 :: 01:32:09 PM
Birmingham Featured on PBS Blueprint America « Birmingham Blues Says:
[...] your DVRs, or your eyeballs, to watch Blueprint America on The NewsHour tonight and tomorrow night, 6 PM CDT on Alabama Public [...]