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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dramatically reduce my carbon footprint, make a vote with my pocketbook against new wider roads, especially in our our urban areas.
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.
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.
Not having to find time out of my busy schedule to find a shop to repair and preform routine maintenance on my truck.
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.
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.
People living in the city’s low-income neighborhoods are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change including extreme heat and rising sea levels because of aging infrastructure, and that includes diesel buses, the Regional Plan Association said in a report released on Wednesday.
The report, dubbed “Equitable Adaptation,” was produced in conjunction with nonprofit immigration group Make the Road New York and lays out 13 ways local officials could quickly shore up infrastructure. Critical among them is banning diesel buses in the city.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates 5,700 buses, and all but 10 are powered by diesel or hybrid-diesel. The agency plans to purchase 1,700 new buses over the next five years, and early proposals show some 1,300 will run on diesel fuel.
In some ways, the story of American transit is not so unique. Europeans and Canadians also like to drive. Their countries have also built big expressway networks. The difference is more basic, yet profound: When transit service isn’t good, few will choose to use it.
Fortunately, improving American transit doesn’t necessarily demand multi-decade, hundred-billion-dollar infrastructure projects: It can be done by better advantage of existing space and existing vehicles, and then deploying them in ways that encourage people to actually use them.
In 1945, designer Norman Bel Geddes created Toledo Tomorrow, an exhibit that imagined a bold new direction for his Ohio hometown. At least part of it came true.
