>Greg Brown pictures Carbondale as some sort of minor hell. This is very
>inaccurate. There are a a few chokes points in terms of the traffic
>patterns in that town. But the two main thouroughfares (one N-S the other
>E-W) are almost entirely divided one-way 4 or 6 lane roads now. So
>despite the fact that there is a great deal of traffic through town most
>of it runs fairly smoothly.
A debate on the merits of Carbondale versus Moscow is of little
interest to the vision2020 list. However, I would use part of
Darrell's response to raise an important issue regarding traffic
and quality of life.
I stated that traffic in Carbondale was worse than in Moscow.
When I said worse, I meant *volume*. Darrell chose to evaluate
traffic in terms of *movement*, not volume. This is
an important distinction. Would an individual prefer to live next
to a 4 lane road where traffic moves smoothly (and faster) or
a one lane road where traffic is slower and sometimes bogs
down?
The decibal level in downtown Carbondale from 6 lanes of
heavy traffic is deafening at times. And we have found few places
where one cannot hear the traffic, even miles into the country.
Also, higher volumes of traffic pose a greater safety concern
to both bikers and walkers. It is a simply a question of numbers.
growth = higher traffic volume = higher noise levels =
greater safety hazard =
lower quality of life (at least for those that don't live in a car).
----------
Greg Brown
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Forestry, Southern Illinois University
Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Idaho
gregb@uidaho.edu