Photo of the Day, Boston Style - Part Deux

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The Prudential Tower's lights are wild tonight. Flickering red, white, blue, and turning back to a steady purple.
 
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Hard to believe that ridiculously wide offramp gently curving through bucolic but pointless "green space" is actually right next to Beacon Hill.
 
This surface freeway through the park is absurd, but that's what the car culture has wrought. I'd scale down the main roadway to two lanes (one in each direction), as well as reduce the off-ramp width.

I know, I know, it would increase congestion, but the car culture is a doomed anyway in the long term.
 
Charlie_mta said:
but the car culture is a doomed anyway in the long term.
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I don't agree with you since people in China and India will be buying more cars in the next 50 years. They'll probably have to expand their highways to meet the extra congestion.
 
That is one reason it's doomed. The resources of the planet simply aren't enough to support the largest nations on earth locked in traffic gridlock. More highways only makes it worse. Los Angeles has one of the most extensive freeway networks, yet has one of the highest congestion rates.
 
^^But what will be the solution for transportation then? Just public transportation and bikes? No, thanks. I want to be able to use a personal vehicle to go wherever I want, whenever I want and do not wish to have to spend an extra hour because someone wants to narrow down a heavily use highway.

Oh and Van can you move this page onto the part three. I accidentally restarted this thread because I mixed up part 2 and 3.
 
Charlie_mta said:
That is one reason it's doomed. The resources of the planet simply aren't enough to support the largest nations on earth locked in traffic gridlock.
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Don't let the propaganda from Greenpeace fool you; we aren't going to run out of raw materials within the next few centuries. You'll be long dead by the time any of this happens and by then the countries on this planet will be taken over by an oligopoly of Corporations that will be fighting each other for the left-overs. Yes, the Earth is doomed, but we can't predict when we will be destroyed. Hopefully we will discover light-speed travel by then and have a few colonies throughout the universe.
 
armpitsOFmight said:
Don't let the propaganda from Greenpeace fool you; we aren't going to run out of raw materials within the next few centuries. You'll be long dead by the time any of this happens and by then the countries on this planet will be taken over by an oligopoly of Corporations that will be fighting each other for the left-overs. Yes, the Earth is doomed, but we can't predict when we will be destroyed. Hopefully we will discover light-speed travel by then and have a few colonies throughout the universe.
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The Earth will probably be alright, during my lifetime. Does that mean I shouldn't give a shit about future generations if there's something I can do about it?
 
KentXie said:
I want to be able to use a personal vehicle to go wherever I want, whenever I want....
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With all due respect, that is not sustainable on a global scale. Nor is it desirable unless we want to have paved over parks, automobile dependant suburban sprawl eating up what's left of the countryside, and a population beset with obesity and diabetes.
 
Well, Charlie, that would be the case if everyone had a personal vehicle. Unfortunately, the wide majority of people can't afford them.

Not to say that we should keep using them to such an absurd extent, but the total elimination of a personal transportation unit will probably never happen. There are alternatives though, and we're making the right steps-smaller, more fuel efficient cars are being built by almost every auto maker, and car sharing programs are gaining popularity.
 
kennedy said:
Well, Charlie, that would be the case if everyone had a personal vehicle. Unfortunately, the wide majority of people can't afford them.

Not to say that we should keep using them to such an absurd extent, but the total elimination of a personal transportation unit will probably never happen. There are alternatives though, and we're making the right steps-smaller, more fuel efficient cars are being built by almost every auto maker, and car sharing programs are gaining popularity.
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The scary thing is that with growing middle classes in the world's largest countries like China and India, more and more people can afford cars. If those countries even approach automobile usage to the degree that we use them here, we're all in trouble.
 
Good point. From an environmental point of view, we'll have to hope they adopt fuel efficient, electric, and other alternative energy sources for the time being. Americans need to set an example for these developing countries, though. Buicks are some of the most popular luxury cars in China, because the connotation they hold has to do with western prosperity. If the new image of western prosperity becomes small, environmentally responsible vehicles, the people and industry of developing countries will emulate this precedent.

Hopefully, we see some new standards come out of Copenhagen. On the news, some guy with a European name said that one of the most important things is to make Americans realize the Chinese are making progress, and make the Chinese realize the Americans are making progress. He's got a very good point.
 
Buicks are some of the most popular luxury cars in China, because the connotation they hold has to do with western prosperity.
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I noticed the prevalence of Buicks in China! Whoever gave them the idea that Buicks connote prosperity, though? To me they only connote old people.

Hopefully, we see some new standards come out of Copenhagen.
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The EPA announcement yesterday that it was going over Congress' head to impose really strict new emissions standards will completely trump any agreement that manages to come out of Copenhagen. There's already grumbling that the agency stole the thunder of the diplomats at the conference (not that the climate activists are complaining).
 
czsz said:
I noticed the prevalence of Buicks in China! Whoever gave them the idea that Buicks connote prosperity, though? To me they only connote old people.
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I agree, but it was on an episode of 60 Minutes (I think) back at the start of the recession, talking about how US automakers are actually popular in other countries. Maybe just the fact that it is American?

czsz said:
The EPA announcement yesterday that it was going over Congress' head to impose really strict new emissions standards will completely trump any agreement that manages to come out of Copenhagen. There's already grumbling that the agency stole the thunder of the diplomats at the conference (not that the climate activists are complaining).
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I hope so, but that really only affects us. I'd like to see broader restrictions, standards that every country has to adhere to. That way, multinationals don't just up and leave what little manufacturing they have here and go to another country that is more lenient.
 
czsz said:
I noticed the prevalence of Buicks in China! Whoever gave them the idea that Buicks connote prosperity, though? To me they only connote old people.
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And it's because of Buick's popularity in China that GM's keeping the brand alive here as they dump almost everything else, which leaves Buick to play the completely superfluous middleman between Chevy and Cadillac.
 
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