Transportation

Every Exit on I-84 in Hudson Valley To Get New Exit Number

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Every Exit on I-84 in Hudson Valley To Get New Exit Number

New York is finally embracing mile based exit numbers. The Taconic Parkway now uses mile based exits, as does Interstate 890 in Schenectady (because there is an exit nearly every mile).

MUTC 2009 Edition required all states to use mile-based exits on roads built after that year, but they did not include a set year for changing over existing highways, although the draft document called for a deadline of 2019, but now that's just the preference. Compliance with MUTC is required for federal highway funding. Virtually all states outside of New England switched over to mile-based exits in 1970s and 1980s.

The moral of the story: Expect to see a lot of New York highways with changing exit numbers in coming years, and "Old Exit XXX" signs.

GM-Ford Merger? Rnything’s Possible

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GM-Ford Merger? Rnything’s Possible

I have my doubts that regulators would ever allow GM and Ford to merge, just because it would lead to consolidation of 3/4rd ton and 1 ton pickups down to two brands -- Ram and Ford-GM. There really isn't a lot of competition left for the big trucks, and they are some of the most profitable vehicles for the automobile industry.

SCDOT doesn’t know who created new turn lane in SC town

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SCDOT doesn’t know who created new turn lane in SC town

BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - Traffic can be a hassle, but it appears at least one person decided to take issues into their own hands.

In the town of Batesburg-Leesville, which sits west of Columbia, somebody decided to turn a thru lane into a left turn only lane. The only problem? It wasn’t the South Carolina Department of Transportation, but SCDOT officials aren’t sure who did it either.

How Cars Divide America – CityLab – Pocket

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How Cars Divide America – CityLab – Pocket

Urbanists have long looked at cars as the scourge of great places. Jane Jacobs identified the automobile as the “chief destroyer of American communities.” Cars not only clog our roads and cost billions of dollars in time wasted commuting, they are a terrible killer. They caused more than 40,000 deaths in 2017, including of some 6,000 pedestrians and cyclists.

But in the United States, the car plays a fundamental role in structuring the economy, our daily lives, and the political and social differences that separate us.

Advantages to Kicking the Motoring Habit

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Last week, I posted an article about some of the disadvantages of going car less. Here are some of advantages to kicking the motoring habit.

  1. Save over $10,000 a year in automobile expenses — insurance, fuel, purchase of a vehicle, repairs, etc. This would mean I could grow my savings quicker, be closer to being able to afford to move out of New York and buy my own land.
  2. Avoid spending money on a new automobile that within 15 years is going to be crushed, with all but the steel going to the landfill as automobile fluff — over a ton of waste for many vehicles.
  3. Dramatically reduce my carbon footprint, make a vote with my pocketbook against new wider roads, especially in our our urban areas.
  4. Not have the worries surrounding motoring — expensive breakdowns and crashes, getting stranded somewhere far in the wilderness — what’s that mystery noise or that wobble I feel? I spend too much time worrying about breaking down, even if that’s not fully rational.
  5. Protect myself from the risks of motoring — serious crashes, injuries, fines, arrests, jail and even prison for the increasing violations and criminal penalties surrounding owning a car and choosing to motor in modern day New York.
  6. Not having to find time out of my busy schedule to find a shop to repair and preform routine maintenance on my truck.
  7. More physical exercise biking and walking. Right now, I walk a lot, but I haven’t bothered to fix my bicycle as between walking and public transit, along with an occasional trip in my truck, I can get around just fine.
  8. Learn more about my community, see more local parks, find more things to take in and enjoy locally, while getting there by healthy means — bicycling or walking. Imagine how nice going down to the river after work to fish would be if I bicycled there? When your not motoring, place has more meaning.

Packed Parking Lot at Noontime