Interesting that Minneapolis at least was talking about taking the skyways out. Why? Well it reduced the foot traffic for the stores on the street and of course reduced the city “experience”. Not to mention homeless folks going to sleep in them and scaring people. Ever try to lift a dead drunk homeless person that rolled off the bench onto the ground? I tried but just had to leave him.
My wife has a problem with heights. In Mexico City there are a lot of pedestrian bridges over major streets. If she can walk a block and find a pedestrian light at a stop light, she will do that. If there is no choice I have to physically help her up and across the bridge.
In Cordoba, Vera Cruz there is an excellent pedestrian bridge over the multiple rail railroad tracks. When our nieces were little they really enjoyed crossing on the ped bridge. My wife would stand and wait until we went over and came back.
If the suit increases the aversion we will have less incidents. Driverless cars will result in fewer fatalities; I prefer that even if it means more suits.
I was barreling down a shared-use trail (on my bike) late one night, nearly hit a guy sprawled across the trail.
“I was barreling down a shared-use trail (on my bike) late one night, nearly hit a guy sprawled across the trail.”
Did you try to pick him up?
And how would we handicapped get across?
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Elevators would be needed.
Whoa, THAT’s workout for the crutch or wheelchair crowd!
I never said it would be practical or popular, but it would be supported by powerful and wealthy lobbying interests, and therefore it’s likely to happen whether we the people want it or not.
I’m skeptical. What downtown street could support a structure like that?
Oh boy. Now back down to earth.
What town budget could support a structure like that?
Who’d clear the snow in the winter?
One more question: how far would I and other handicapped people have to walk to get to the structure? Would we have to walk three blocks, or would there be a structure on every corner?
The structure looks nice on paper, but is totally impractical.
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As I said, putting in overpasses for every block in a city is just impossible. Boston, for example, would need thousands of these, perhaps tens of thousands. and a block long overpass every block means continuous ramps and overpasses.
And, big factor, you have to narrow the sidewalk or the roadway to get space for the stairs or ramp. There usually is not the space for that.
And, the neighborhood would be totally ruined, and, the historic commissions would sh*t bricks.
Hey, they could build the pedestrian bridge with all the bricks produced.
The two in Baltimore are attached to the second floor of the buildings on at least one side of the road.
Underpasses can flood…possibly more of that in future???
Some university students showed that a couple strips of tape on a stop sign prevented an autonomous car from stopping. I think we are much further from self-driving cars than some would like us to believe.
In a city like Boston it would be tens of Billions of dollars. A few years ago Salem NH did a Trails to Rails project. One intersection near the Rockingham Mall they proposed to build a bridge over the traffic. Potentially very dangerous intersection. The proposed cost for that ONE bridge was over $2,000,000.
Uber has had Autonomous cars in Pittsburg PA for over a year. No one injured and no major accidents. And so far all the accidents were attributed to the other drivers.
The technology is still in it’s infancy…Many years still ahead before it’ll be prime time. The technology is evolving extremely fast.