But Sprawl is Good!

Robert Bruegmann: What a wanker

Practically every paragraph is more ridiculous then the one that preceded it. I think this is the highlight though:

A good example is the din of complaints about traffic in Los Angeles. From one perspective, this reaction is bizarre. Even when speeds on the freeway decline to 20 mph, drivers move more quickly than they do at the center of almost any large, older city in Europe or the United States.

I can not even believe this guy’s column is getting published in respectable newspapers.

And I have to point out something is totally false at least as far as NY goes.

When it comes to automobile travel, Los Angeles, perhaps more than almost any other large city in the world, suffers from deflation of raised expectations. The residents of Paris, New York or Tokyo never entertained the possibility that they could drive through the center of the city at 60 mph.

Ok. If we area only talking about Manhattan here and not the outer boroughs, he would still be wrong. Moses tried to have a highway built going straight across the island connecting long island with NJ. So, yes, it was considered.

Secondly, he is still wrong. The Island on Manhattan is only a few miles wide and there are in fact two highways on the island of Manhattan that run lengthwise on its edges: JFK on the east side and the West Side Highway. Now, if we are talking about the entire city of New York then we have the BQE, cross Bronx, so many parkways I can’t even count them, route 87, The Taconic – Spran – Bronx river artery… and I could go on and on.