Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrea
I don't think it can be seriously argued that a good, well-designed network of surface streets would not be totally adequate to handle intown traffic.
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"Adequate" for whom? And by whose definition -- a core dweller with little need to move around, or others in the region who require frequent mobility throughout the area? In the late 1950s, Birmingham's airport was adequate, while Atlanta's was superior. Atlanta also built a superior freeway system which took advantage of its intersection of three major interstates, and which accomodated its incredible growth. "Adequate" did not build the greater city.
Only superhighways can provide the kind of mobility needed to allow easy mobility to everyone throughout the Atlanta region. Good, well-planned surface streets are vitally important, both by themselves and to complement freeway traffic. But for a city this large and populous, freeways are superior to to surface streets for traversing the entire city.
If you're really agruing that the Downtown Connector should have been built a mile to the east or west of where it sits, that is another matter altogether. But Atlanta would not have grown to the point it has without its incredible hub-and-spoke freeway system.