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Well, yeah … it can attract business, but not necessarily growth in business.Originally Posted by olddog75
A freeway can influence where, within a given community, a business may choose to located. But expanded freeways don't substantially expand a community's capacity to support new businesses.
If a local economy of GDP $X can support Y businesses, then more freeway lanes don't change the equation. They only rearrange the location of those businesses.
I can only speak for Houston, but when people move here from far away hardly anyone wants to live close in. I did live inside the Loop 610 and the house I paid $41K is now valued at $410K ( I sold it many years ago for about $70K). I probably could not afford the taxes on it now. To get affordable housing people have to move further out which increases congestion on the free ways. Retail businesses tend to locate where the people are or to where people can get to them. So it is an endless cycle unless people quit moving here.
Or until decision makers recognize that automobile owners are not entitled to unlimited automobile infrastructure.
That happens in metro areas.
How many times on a rural interstate have you been behind a big rig in the left lane passing a big rig in the right lane going uphill? Takes under a minute of that to back traffic up, and I have been in that kind of backup plenty of times. With 3 lanes that backup gets minimized or eliminated. Much safer all the way around.
The State is going to widen I-10 between Breaux Bridge Exit & Henderson Cecilia Exit to 6 lanes - 3 in each direction http://wwwapps.dotd.la.gov/administr...e.aspx?key=105
You mean the big rigs who refuse to slow down enough for the passing big rig to get around them? It's like they LOVE to back up traffic while going 65 or less. Pretty sure they are on the CBs laughing while scoping cleavage and legs.
They should probably talk to Champ967 first.
In and around highly congested metropolitan areas like the DFW Metroplex, Houston, SA, et al I would agree. But I'm talking about 150 mile section of congested 2-lane Interstate freeway system in mostly rural part of the state that handles a large volume of both commercial and non-commercial traffic between the DFW Metroplex and SBC. I drive that section of I-20 ten to fifteen times per year and have been doing it since 1987 to see family in SBC, attend TECH games, or just to see my daughter that attends TECH. Over the years the amount of traffic that I have seen along that stretch has grown exponentially but the improvements (expansion) on I-20 has not kept up with that growth. The posted speed limit is 75 miles/hour but instead it's white-knuckle 55-65 mile/hour bumper-to-bumper traffic for the most part...especially in and around certain stretches. Much of which is caused by morons that drive in the left passing lane 10 miles under the posted speed limit or that tractor-trailer that's try to pass another tractor-trailer 2-miles/hour faster that the tractor-trailer/RV they're trying to pass. One more lane in either direction would definitely alleviate a lot of the congestion and overcapacity that has been long overdue.
I've seen the difference now that I-35 is mostly 3-lanes on each side. Traffic can still be heavy, but only at really peak times -- like major holiday traffic. Most of the time, you can navigate the traffic pretty easily. And with the 75 speed limit it even seems to spread the traffic out so that it's not so bad in the cities. Heck, even Austin isn't as bad as it used to be.
Might it catch back up some day? Sure, but for now it's much safer than it used to be.
Of course, the 10-15 years it'd take to bring I-20 up to that level would be absolutely awful if you had to drive it much.
Looks like TXDOT has divided the I-20 projects from western Kaufman County where the current 6-lane stretch ends to the Louisiana state line into mid-term (2021-2030) and long-term (2031-2040) projects.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot...lan-update.pdf
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