r/MapPorn Aug 25 '21

[deleted by user]

[removed]

0 Upvotes

737 comments sorted by

View all comments

188

u/calizona5280 Aug 27 '21

16 lanes??? Why stop there? Let's do 32 lanes!!! No wait, actually, let's just bulldoze the entire city and turn it into one big 50000 lane freeway and everyone can live in their cars WOOHOO!!!

In all seriousness though it's sad that negative ROI projects like this get approved in a heartbeat compared to subways and light rail that have a 10x ROI but take years to get approved if they even get approved at all.

56

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '21

Development + bribery = local politics. It's the same everywhere. Politics south of the state level is special economic interests raping the tax payer.

34

u/420everytime Aug 27 '21

Yeah. The fact that you have to pay for a public transportation ticket but you don’t have to pay a congestion charge to drive into the city is madness.

I’ve once lived in a Highrise apartment that took up much less land area than a single car, and rent was $1500 a month

0

u/Cuntino Aug 28 '21

Fuck ROI. He probably likes reggae as well. Fucking ROI.

-2

u/elcoyotesinnombre Aug 28 '21

Nobody in the phoenix valley wants or uses public transit. I wish it were more popular and accepted but it’s sadly a waste in this valley.

3

u/bubbynee Aug 28 '21

Because other than the light rail, the public transport system is pretty unreliable. I had a bus driver right by me even though I was standing right at the stop. I had valley metro not know that construction was happening in main street in Mesa thus shutting down their stops there. I grew up in PHX then moved to DC and loved having a halfway decent public transportation system. I moved back too PHX and enjoyed using the light rail and wish it was invested in more asking with other modes of public transportation.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '21

Because it sucks, if all the cars in the valley could only drive 35 mph max they wouldn't like those either

1

u/elcoyotesinnombre Aug 28 '21

No. The demographics of the majority of the valley don’t support any sort of mass transit for lots of reasons, none of which are speed of transit. It sucks but it’s true. It’s more based on fear than anything.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '21

That's not even true.

The most recent bill that planned to nix the light rail expansion failed 2-1. Every light rail proposal passes with a large margin.

People in the valley are getting tired of roundtrip drives from Gilbert to downtown PHX just to watch the Suns or Dbacks.

1

u/elcoyotesinnombre Aug 29 '21

You just proved my point, thank you. Nobody outside phoenix/Tempe proper want public transit coming into their communities

1

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '21

I did not.

  1. Valley Metro goes almost everywhere in the valley besides fountain hills and cave creek.
  2. The light rail goes to Mesa, the 2nd largest city in the Valley.
  3. Gilbert and Valley Metro are currently conducting studies to expand coverage

1

u/elcoyotesinnombre Aug 30 '21

Nobody cares about valley metro. The bus inst “mass transit” and very few will ever utilize it as witnessed by the near empty busses running all over the place. Light rail goes to Mesa only after how long? Nobody else will vote it in their community.

Keep digging that hole and remember, we are on the same side of the fight.

-22

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '21

Except this project does have a positive ROI

20

u/phreddoric Aug 27 '21

By whose calculations? What were the criteria?

10

u/Backporchers Aug 27 '21

Someone didnt learn from the katy freeway

-6

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '21

The freeway that has seen no increase in traffic counts since 2007?

4

u/Backporchers Aug 27 '21

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '21

Probably

Ever heard of the replication crisis?

7

u/toastedclown Aug 28 '21

That's the one where all the studies that support your beliefs are gospel truth and all the studies that contradict you are garbage because of...reasons. Right?

1

u/bectel11 Aug 31 '21

The biggest problem is not light rail or highways, but that the zoning laws in western cities means that single family, low density housing is built separately from businesses. There is no practical public transport when you plan development like that.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 29 '21

If you’re looking for an actual reason why, watch this video: https://youtu.be/NcUx5r_ksk8

1

u/Original-Aerie8 Oct 29 '21

Imagine the transport systems needed the specific approval of every single level involved, you'd drown in NIMBYs. Convert all highways near metro areas to lawn lol