Urban Freeways v. Suburban Bypass

Building the final link along Louisiana's Coast

While I’m obviously a firm supporter of a diversified transportation system and feel like the interstate funding has far superseded anything beyond (what I thought) taxpayer reality; I don’t discount interstate development at all. It is an important backbone to our economy. That’s why I fully support the I-49 extension between Baton Rouge and New Orleans (currently I-90). I mean, this should have been the actual route of I-10 because it includes much of Louisiana’s coastal infrastructure. So I see I-49 as a fairly critical link in Louisiana infrastructure. Thus, Lafayette is dealing with the bypass/inner-city freeway predicament.  Which is better?

On one hand, no one has dealt with an inner city freeway very well. Some places try to make parks under or above, some places try to bury the entire length, and some places just don’t care. There isn’t one place in this country where people “enjoy” living near the interstate. All other transportation infrastructure doesn’t really bother residents. Boulevards, Riverways, rail tracks, elevated transit, bike paths, etc. But the constant hum of the freeway is almost imposable. In addition (when above ground) it creates a nasty divide no matter which neighborhood it’s located in (upper/middle/lower class). There are some examples of minor mitigation, but I don’t know of any citywide efforts.

This has started a national trend of highway removal in urban areas (starting with San Francisco then Boston, and now a slew of other cities). But in our day and age, limited access freeways have to go somewhere. There are some great case studies of surface streets handling mass amounts of traffic, but it would be almost impossible to rid of the “interstate” culture.

So where do you direct the traffic? To a bypass/loop/beltway? Time and time again, this has been proven hugely ineffective for urban development. Yes it moves traffic (just) OK, but it also relocates entire sections of the city. Zoning laws and limited access can prevent some of these things. But it still draws away from economic development because people will chose to bypass the city for their destination.

So Lafayette is kind of caught in the middle. Do you mitigate the inner-city freeway? Do you do they bypass the city? Do they try a boulevard pilot project that deviates from Federal Interstate standards? Honestly, Acadian Thruway functions really well. But a bypass might take too much away from economic development inside the city (while also being hugely expensive).

At least Lafayette is being creative; down the road, Baton Rouge has (not) decided to build a multi-hundred (maybe billion) dollar loop. At the end of the day, it’s completely infeasible, and not one study shows how this will assist in traffic, economic development, etc. (Yes, it will be nice that one time traffic sucks so a driver can take the bypass; but is that really worth a billion dollars?)

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I like the idea of beginning an urban greenway in Baton Rouge (a good case study on urban trails), but sometimes I wish priorities were higher for other projects.

The LSU Lakes and City Park. This area has the heaviest concentration of ped/bike recreation in the city. The use of this area is almost mind boggling. Yet nothing has been done to help this area. The "trail" is a mix of concrete, pavement, dirt, and road. Sometimes the path is three feet, six feet, or nothing at all. The signage dedicates the path to bikes sometimes, pedestrians sometimes, sometimes both, and sometimes neither. All while the pedestrian crossings are poorly marked, and never utilized correctly by motorist. Making this area incredibly dangerous.

The Mississippi River Levee Trail. This is the most modern and up kept "trail" in Baton Rouge. The trail itself isn't as heavily used as the "Lakes" trail, but it's a huge asset that is now being expanded to the Parish border. Yet it's hidden and has very little linkages throughout the city. (Heck, it only has two downtown).

So first of all, I'm very weary of the "interstate park". Very few successful examples can be found nationwide. Those few examples usually work because of density. There are far more examples of communities just getting rid of the freeway all together. Lafayette has been planning the urban portion of I-49 for years... and one can argue which is better: bypassing a city, or passing through. But at the end of the day, passing though gives a lot of complications. Creating a park underneath just doesn't 'fix' the overall problem.

Second, is the lack of vision the City of Baton Rouge possesses. In this case it isn't a lack of vision. BREC has identified a corridor plan for the trail system, which is Parish-wide. But with no overall funding plan, it is a piecemeal approach. For example, the parks department identifies the Wards Creek trail as a catalyst project. Yet it is short, has very little adjacent residential, and no short term plans to link the trail to the overall system (and hardly a realistic long term plan). Now they are proposing the downtown trail, which will have adjacent access to residential, but no serious linkages to the overall system (City Park and the river). It's not that I don't trust Baton Rouge... but I've seen projects get dropped time and time again (I've only been here five years). Thus we are left with a lot of 'pieces' to a lot of 'systems'. Given this history, the City needs to focus on important aspects. Right now they are just building links for stakeholders. That is fine for the near future... but if the successful links don't get built, people will view the trail plan as a fail. Again.

At the end of the day, the City needs to seriously invest in entire pedestrian and bike infrastructure. Until then I find it hard to get excited about new projects.


UPDATE - 11/9/2011 (5:00 pm)
http://www.1012corridor.com/archives/1012-corridor-weekly/latest/
In other news, the Mississippi River Trail is slowly coming together.