Wind power from highway traffic
1 May 2007 5 Comments
Now this is a cool idea:
Sure, I’d rather see fewer people driving long distances than using a nice high-speed rail system, but knowing Americans are addicted to their vehicles, this makes the most of our stubbornness. I suppose you could even do the same thing with a train, although I’m not sure it would be as cost efficient if only one train went by every half hour.
Even before I was interested in community planning — before I was interested in mass transit and sustainable communities and lifestyles — I dreamt of turning the U.S. interstate system into a mass transit corridor. High speed rail would be put in the median, and an underground tube below for automated shipping containers. These shipping containers would act as trucks carrying goods from one major (a relative term) community to another. Semis or box trucks would still be needed to distribute the products to the city or region, but it seemed to me this would greatly reduce the wear and tear on the interstates (and thus, theoretically, reduce taxes or the need for new taxes).
Of course, such an infrastructure would cost billions to build (thereby likely negating any tax benefits, especially when considering the added maintenance cost of the new rail and tube).
We can dream, can’t we?
I never knew this was your bag, Chashab. I likewise have an interest in civic planing, and I’m merciless when it comes to communities having a lack of sidewalks. (I could almost describe myself as a sidewalk Nazi.)
I’m a “village” person, meaning I like vilages where there’s a classic Main Street with mom&pop store fronts, and then a moderately dense neighborhood of houses nearby, all connected by sidewalks. If there’s a rail system running through or walk-ably near that village, even beter.
The very best village I’ve ever seen in my life is Huntington, New York on Long Island. EVERYTHING is in walking distance. They just lack a nearby train (the enarest commuter rail is an only somewhat walk-able mile-and-a-half away) and a college (there’s a small law school a half mile from the downtown ). But they have EVERYTHING else* concentrated in just a three-quarter-square mile area to allow a person to live their whole life there and not need a car at all. Two years ago, the New York Times named it as one of their Top Ten Coolest Suburban Communties for Hip Manhattan Singles to Consider.
With my amateur interst in structured village lifestyles, I have tried to do internet searches to lead me to web sites or pubications that specialized in the study and perpetutation of village living, but turned up empty.
Would you know of such a village-oriented web site?
THANKS!
–Sheila
*”Everything else” would be: three supermarkets, three movie theatres (one of those theatres is a high-end art house theatre with three screens), a Starbuck’s, a large US post office, loads of mom & pop upscale storefronts on two intersecting streets, a very large and hip independent bookstore where no less than three major book-signings per week take place (Bill Clinton has been there, among others), a large and well-appointed public library, several pizza shops, a very cool sushi place, almost a dozen fine-dining establishments, three diners, five churches, a dozen dry-cleaners, two ice cream shops, a public park (with a massive duck pond, a natural amphitheatre that they equipped with a professional stage for plays and concerts, three fountains, an art museum, two baseball fields, two horse shoe ranges, and two large, fenced-in playgrounds for two different age ranges), a dozen banks, several butcher shops, several farmer’s markets, hair salons, dress shops, sporting goods places, lots of professional establishments (including insurance, medical, dental, optical, chiropractic, legal, interior designers, real estate agencies), toy stores, men’s clothing stores, a skateboarding shop, a wine and spirits shop, a DiY kiln/ceramics place, a few corner variety stores, five pharmacies, a dollar store, jewelry shops, art galleries, and (for those who have cars) several gas stations and a car wash. And ……… parking isn’t a terrible problem either. I have NEVER had difficulty finding a parking space, no mater what time of day I have gone there, day and night weekday and weekend, rush hour and off-hours.
If not for the mile-and-a-half walk to the train (which is a major rail line on the LIRR) it would be Heaven on Earth to me. No need to let me grow old and die, God, just let me stay THERE for all eternity and that would suit me just fine.
Oh yes, very much interested in community planning. See my list of tags in the right-hand column.
I’m not certain, however, about how you’re using the word “village.” I think I am, although if so I don’t really have any websites to direct you to.
http://Cyburbria.org might be one to start with, though.
Hi Chashab,
To me a “village” is the center point of commerce and governemnt for a town (or a neighborhood of a city) and is rimmed by residential zones. The heart of a town will be the town hall, a church, a post office, lots of shops, some eateries, a bank or two, a library, and a public common. All of the above make a “village” in my reckoning. And a TRUE village is concentrated tightly enough into one small geographic area so that a peron needs no car to comfortably navigate the whole zone and get daily life errands done.
You called it “communioty planing?”
I’ll check out your web links and get back to you if I’m still lacking what I wanted.
Thanks!
–Sheila
And ALL villages MUST have sidewalks! (The sidewalk Nazi has spoken!)
Don’t go taking my title now!
Community planning is an overarching term meaning just what it sounds like it means.
What you’re referring to is now commonly called “New Urbanism.” Another website more related to this than the first, or more specifically, is The Congress for New Urbanism. Some have problems with the name, and one poster last year suggested it be called “Old urbanism.” I can agree with him, but this is mainly haggling over semantics as far as I can tell.
So by village you did mean what I thought you meant. And I would add that not only need their be a number of necessary services available in a city center as you suggest, but they need to be within walking distance from all neighborhoods!