Evidence that the Gainesville City Commission Seeks to Make Driving Difficult
I have a suspicion that the Gainesville City Commission hates cars and wants to do everything in its power to discourage people from driving. The way the traffic lights in this city are set up is miserable. It is impossible to go more than a block without hitting a red light. The powers that be have made no effort to fix this problem (or if they have, it has failed so miserably as to not have made any difference). Neal Boortz addressed this problem on national radio a few months ago commenting that Gainesville traffic was worse than Atlanta traffic at rush hour -- he claims that Atlanta traffic slows to a crawl... which is better than Gainesville traffic which comes to a dead stop.
Ever go to the Royal Park complex on a Friday evening? Ever notice that there is not nearly enough parking, and that fistfights break out over parking spaces from time to time? I have been told that this is because there is a minimum range of parking spaces that a municipality has to authorize for a new development, and that Gainesville only authorizes the bare minimum of parking spaces that it can get away with. The reason for this, I am told, is so that people will be encouraged to ride public transportation.
Their solution to traffic problems on University Avenue? Shrink it from 4 to 2 lanes and make it one way. I'm not kidding. This is a real proposal that is brought up from time to time. There is also talk, I hear, about revitalizing the downtown by shrinking Main Street to only two lanes. I don't know about you, but I avoid places where traffic is bad... if that plan for Main Street were realized, I would be avoiding the downtown area unless absolutely necessary.
The current problem is roadwork. That's a responsible thing, right? Well, the City of Gainesville has figured out a way to make it as annoying as possible to the drivers. Now, say you have to do work on several major roadways at the same time. It would make sense to fix them one at a time right? Concentrate your resources on fixing one road and finishing the job before moving on to another one. Good idea, right? Well, apparently, it's too good for the City of Gainesville. The idiots in the city commission have figured out yet another way to make driving in Gainesville a major pain. The roadwork is proceeding in such a way as to hinder as much traffic as possible. A few months ago, they started tearing up 13th Street. Then they stopped, leaving the roadwork unfinished and going over to 2nd Avenue next to the Creekside mall and tearing up the bridge, completely blocking off that road. Concurrently, they also move from time to time over to Williston Road and work on that. They have three, and who knows how many more, concurrent projects going on. Yesterday, they were working on 13th Street and Williston Road at the same time. These are major roadways and they intersect each other. Not good. Stopped traffic on 13th Street and Williston Road during rush hour.
I believe if someone ran for the Gainesville City Commission on a traffic and parking platform, they would win. We need to start complaining loudly. Our government has no business trying to discourage us from driving. They job is to accommodate us. That's why we elect them. If they aren't doing this on purpose, then they're just incompetent. In any case, they need to go.
Ever go to the Royal Park complex on a Friday evening? Ever notice that there is not nearly enough parking, and that fistfights break out over parking spaces from time to time? I have been told that this is because there is a minimum range of parking spaces that a municipality has to authorize for a new development, and that Gainesville only authorizes the bare minimum of parking spaces that it can get away with. The reason for this, I am told, is so that people will be encouraged to ride public transportation.
Their solution to traffic problems on University Avenue? Shrink it from 4 to 2 lanes and make it one way. I'm not kidding. This is a real proposal that is brought up from time to time. There is also talk, I hear, about revitalizing the downtown by shrinking Main Street to only two lanes. I don't know about you, but I avoid places where traffic is bad... if that plan for Main Street were realized, I would be avoiding the downtown area unless absolutely necessary.
The current problem is roadwork. That's a responsible thing, right? Well, the City of Gainesville has figured out a way to make it as annoying as possible to the drivers. Now, say you have to do work on several major roadways at the same time. It would make sense to fix them one at a time right? Concentrate your resources on fixing one road and finishing the job before moving on to another one. Good idea, right? Well, apparently, it's too good for the City of Gainesville. The idiots in the city commission have figured out yet another way to make driving in Gainesville a major pain. The roadwork is proceeding in such a way as to hinder as much traffic as possible. A few months ago, they started tearing up 13th Street. Then they stopped, leaving the roadwork unfinished and going over to 2nd Avenue next to the Creekside mall and tearing up the bridge, completely blocking off that road. Concurrently, they also move from time to time over to Williston Road and work on that. They have three, and who knows how many more, concurrent projects going on. Yesterday, they were working on 13th Street and Williston Road at the same time. These are major roadways and they intersect each other. Not good. Stopped traffic on 13th Street and Williston Road during rush hour.
I believe if someone ran for the Gainesville City Commission on a traffic and parking platform, they would win. We need to start complaining loudly. Our government has no business trying to discourage us from driving. They job is to accommodate us. That's why we elect them. If they aren't doing this on purpose, then they're just incompetent. In any case, they need to go.
posted by AC Sentinel at 10:19 AM
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