88 was originally built to be half of a 4-lane highway to Horseneck. The other half never was built. That's why it's so straight. It was actually a very dangerous road until some modifications were made a little more than 15 years ago, including the jersey barriers on the beginning stretch. In fact, it was notorious for head-on high speed collisions until those modifications. Found you through Strong Towns awhile back. Southeastern Mass. native, but live in Maine now.
I dunno, I think 6 should be made a street 100% of its length to the Cape. While I understand your reasoning here, the thing that flips it for me is taking a slight wider angle view in the fact that we went through all the effort and money to build interstate 195 that parallels US 6. That should be - and is - the road as it was intended. As such, 6 should be all street. If you want to get somewhere fast, it will be by car so just take the extra few minutes to go to 195 unfettered. In fact we stopped taking 6 from New Bedford to Marion immediately when 19 was opened. The problem with route 6 is that it could be better developed into more intense areas in a traditional way as much of the land along it is very underutilized. But it would take some careful planning to keep it from being yet another strip mall hell like in Fairhaven but it might be much better from a Strong Towns standpoint.
Yeah-- I could see this. It's true that 195 is certainly the true highway here. I guess I'm agnostic as to which way it goes, provided it doesn't continue to stroadify. And yeah, having a legit street going further out means so many more opportunities for housing. And then a dedicated center lane for rapid bus service E-W. And then light rail mwa-ha-ha-ha!!
88 was originally built to be half of a 4-lane highway to Horseneck. The other half never was built. That's why it's so straight. It was actually a very dangerous road until some modifications were made a little more than 15 years ago, including the jersey barriers on the beginning stretch. In fact, it was notorious for head-on high speed collisions until those modifications. Found you through Strong Towns awhile back. Southeastern Mass. native, but live in Maine now.
I dunno, I think 6 should be made a street 100% of its length to the Cape. While I understand your reasoning here, the thing that flips it for me is taking a slight wider angle view in the fact that we went through all the effort and money to build interstate 195 that parallels US 6. That should be - and is - the road as it was intended. As such, 6 should be all street. If you want to get somewhere fast, it will be by car so just take the extra few minutes to go to 195 unfettered. In fact we stopped taking 6 from New Bedford to Marion immediately when 19 was opened. The problem with route 6 is that it could be better developed into more intense areas in a traditional way as much of the land along it is very underutilized. But it would take some careful planning to keep it from being yet another strip mall hell like in Fairhaven but it might be much better from a Strong Towns standpoint.
Yeah-- I could see this. It's true that 195 is certainly the true highway here. I guess I'm agnostic as to which way it goes, provided it doesn't continue to stroadify. And yeah, having a legit street going further out means so many more opportunities for housing. And then a dedicated center lane for rapid bus service E-W. And then light rail mwa-ha-ha-ha!!