Urban vs. Suburban
June 16, 2010 - 12:26pm
Saint John politicians are ramping up their opposition to the expansion of the Mackay Highway, saying better traffic may encourage people to leave the city.
For thousands of Kennebecasis Valley residents the morning rush-hour is almost always accompanied by a traffic jam.
The New Brunswick government has announced that it will expand the Mackay Highway to six lanes, an upgrade that would lessen the daily congestion between Saint John and Rothesay
The planned widening of the Mackay Highway is shaping up to be an election issue, with two Conservatives from the eastern side of Greater Saint John saying the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Conservative MLA for Rothesay Margaret-Ann Blaney and Saint John East candidate Glen Tait both say the plan to expand the highway that connects Saint John with Rothesay and Quispamsis might be too much.
Blaney said the tens of millions likely needed for an expansion might be better spent getting children in her riding out of portable classrooms.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/08/10/mackay-highway-expansion-conservatives.html#ixzz0wDlqWuuz
Two other options might be:
- to build rapid-transit and/or subsidize a car-pooling scheme, instead of more lanes of highway
- to improve residential areas of the city, so that people don't want to leave.
No good? Not wanted? Not possible?
Can anyone point to a highway expansion that has reduced congestion for anything more than a short time? What expanded highways due is open more of the hinterland to developers. It is a stupid, shortsighted by people whose thinking is locked in the 70s.
New Brunswick cities aren't exactly hotbeds of development, though.
Perhaps they aren't, but re-development does lead to a lot of private wealth being created by the developers who build the suburban housing tracts associated with suburbanization. This, along with a selfish desire on the part of suburban municipalities to draw tax revenue and population to them, which tends to be at the expense of the central city if things that are attractive to auto-oriented development like freeways are built are clear monetary indications that development will follow increased freeway capacity.
Besides, I don't mean to sound dismissive, but it isn't as if Saint John is a metropolis. Do they really even need freeways? Let alone more of them, to handle the daily commute?
That would make the quality of life in and economic competitiveness of Saint John worse if this encourages suburbanization. Eg: many American cities in the rust belt haven't had any population increases post-World War II, yet their metropolitan areas have physically increased substantially. This has robbed the central city of vitality at best, and often turned it into a blighted area at worst. At the same time increased costs associated with municipal amenities have sky rocketed, as less dense areas cost more to provide roads, sidewalks, sewage, let alone parks, community centres and other services.
The new Progressive Conservative government is reopening the decision to spend $20 million on expanding the Mackay Highway between Saint John and Rothesay.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/11/08/nb-mackay-highway-higgs-532.html#ixzz14hgG1mwd