Comments on: You can’t pave your way out of congestion, Stupid. http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/ Life, Dogs, Kids and Politics through the eyes of a blonde... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:40:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Badrose http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/comment-page-1/#comment-1584 Badrose Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:05:21 +0000 http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/#comment-1584 Thanks to both of you for helping me realize that I'm not completely alone on this. Junius: I saw where Alice took you to task for your astute observations regarding Yankees but you're on the mark. At least Richmond was warned when they torched it during the War of Northern Aggression. Goochland didn't receive the same courtesy - they ascended on jobs at Capital One, CarMax, Dominion, etc. (West Creek) like vultures at the landfill, then set about wrecking our county. (New Jersification) Before you know it, Richmond and C-ville will be one large metropolitan area. Oh, and I tried the rusty appliances in the front yard. Yankees think it's folk art. Thanks to both of you for helping me realize that I’m not completely alone on this.

Junius: I saw where Alice took you to task for your astute observations regarding Yankees but you’re on the mark. At least Richmond was warned when they torched it during the War of Northern Aggression. Goochland didn’t receive the same courtesy - they ascended on jobs at Capital One, CarMax, Dominion, etc. (West Creek) like vultures at the landfill, then set about wrecking our county. (New Jersification)

Before you know it, Richmond and C-ville will be one large metropolitan area.

Oh, and I tried the rusty appliances in the front yard. Yankees think it’s folk art.

]]> By: Junius http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/comment-page-1/#comment-1539 Junius Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:26:56 +0000 http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/#comment-1539 You're absolutely right. You can't pave your way out of congestion. Just drive out of it. Preferably about 100 miles to the South West. Traffic comes from too many people in one place. Building more and bigger roads means that more people will show up and make the problem worse. I don't understand why this is so hard for most people to grasp. Sadly, I have yet to see any community in America ever succeed in getting this through their collective thick skulls. Looking at Goochland County, it's hard to imagine that it won't end up just like Henrico. Good for you for fighting the good fight, but if it were me I'd get as far away as possible and buy the biggest piece of land you can afford as a buffer against the eventual arrival of the developer barbarians at the gate. Myself, I just try to keep up a pretty good volley of gun fire every couple of days to keep property values down. If that doesn't work then perhaps the odd rusted appliance tossed in the front yard will keep the yuppie developers at bay. You’re absolutely right. You can’t pave your way out of congestion. Just drive out of it. Preferably about 100 miles to the South West. Traffic comes from too many people in one place. Building more and bigger roads means that more people will show up and make the problem worse. I don’t understand why this is so hard for most people to grasp.

Sadly, I have yet to see any community in America ever succeed in getting this through their collective thick skulls. Looking at Goochland County, it’s hard to imagine that it won’t end up just like Henrico. Good for you for fighting the good fight, but if it were me I’d get as far away as possible and buy the biggest piece of land you can afford as a buffer against the eventual arrival of the developer barbarians at the gate.

Myself, I just try to keep up a pretty good volley of gun fire every couple of days to keep property values down. If that doesn’t work then perhaps the odd rusted appliance tossed in the front yard will keep the yuppie developers at bay.

]]> By: Brian L. http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/comment-page-1/#comment-1524 Brian L. Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:40:57 +0000 http://www.badroseblog.com/2007/03/26/you-cant-pave-your-way-out-of-congestion-stupid/#comment-1524 Badrose, I couldn't agree with your analysis more if I tried. From a NOVAer's perspective (lifelong Virginian over here), I ran into a similar issue: I live in Alexandria and had a job commuting to Reston. Initially, the drive was nice, and took 40 minutes, due mostly to the sudden dotcom implosion killing off much of the employment out in Reston, but as new employers moved in, my drive quickly grew to over an hour each way. After putting up with it for three years, I finally found the perfect solution: Commute AGAINST traffic. My drive now is roughly the same distance as it was before, but because I'm going _south_ on 95, instead of out west on the poorly-planned Fairfax County Parkway, it takes me less than 25 minutes to get to work. If only more citizens of this Commonwealth would spend as much time being self-reliant as you are, instead of whining and pointing their fingers at each other. Richmond can't solve *all* of our problems, folks. We're responsible for fixing our *own* messes, too. Regards, Brian Badrose,

I couldn’t agree with your analysis more if I tried. From a NOVAer’s perspective (lifelong Virginian over here), I ran into a similar issue: I live in Alexandria and had a job commuting to Reston. Initially, the drive was nice, and took 40 minutes, due mostly to the sudden dotcom implosion killing off much of the employment out in Reston, but as new employers moved in, my drive quickly grew to over an hour each way.

After putting up with it for three years, I finally found the perfect solution: Commute AGAINST traffic. My drive now is roughly the same distance as it was before, but because I’m going _south_ on 95, instead of out west on the poorly-planned Fairfax County Parkway, it takes me less than 25 minutes to get to work.

If only more citizens of this Commonwealth would spend as much time being self-reliant as you are, instead of whining and pointing their fingers at each other. Richmond can’t solve *all* of our problems, folks. We’re responsible for fixing our *own* messes, too.

Regards,
Brian

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