Looking at the numbers – are we past “Peak Car”?

I’ve been looking at statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation and it appears that we may have passed the point of peak automobile use in this country. [to read more, click on the header]

Concerning I-26

I believe the NCDOT has purposefully contorted the plan suggested by the Asheville Design Center in order to make it unattractive. Exactly who is driving the politics behind it is not all that clear, but I do know that the original ADC design used far less pavement and land than any of the DOT’s preferred options. DOT has long been in cahoots with the materials and construction industry. (Governor Beverly Perdue has promised to “de-politicize” DOT, and we can hope that she is successful.)

DOT’s 4-B, which purports to be modeled on the ADC design, is bloated. Partly it’s because the planners decided that someone on the west side of the river would need to get on I-240 to go downtown (on the east side of the river)—even though Patton Ave. would be local traffic only and a direct shot across the Smoky Park Bridges. No sane driver would do that. But it adds unnecessary on- and off-ramps and therefore widens the highway.

DOT also ran I-26 OVER Patton Ave. instead of under it per the ADC plan. This lifts the whole bridge and highway up into clearer view from Montford Hills, and destroys the attractive Patton Ave. urban boulevard design that ADC aimed to achieve. Instead of a lovely urban corridor it would be another dumb road dodging through a maze of columns. [... click on header for more]

Buncombe Commissioners vote on I-26

This seems like a good moment to note that if I hadn’t lost my primary race last May (I finished .8 percent behind Bill Stanley) I would very likely have been part of the Democratic sweep in November. I would have been sitting in Bill Stanley’s chair on Tuesday and I would have voted for [...]