The Cure for Congestion
Feeling stuffy? It is allergy season…and it’s also road trip season and outdoor concert season and picnic season…
Your sinuses are not the only things that are congested. Our roadways are filled to the brim with cars.
More traffic lanes are not the solution. Unbelievable as it sounds, more lanes equals more traffic. It’s called Induced Traffic Demand.
A robust public transportation system, including intentional areas for pedestrians and bicycles, can lessen congestion and make cities much more pleasant places to live, not to mention help spur economic development (turning parking lots into businesses and residences).
For Omaha, the streetcar is the first step in re-prioritizing jobs and people over parking and cars.
What is Economic Development and Why Should We Care?
Broadly defined, economic development is the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people.
For cities, this means growth: increases in per capita income, better standards of living for residents, and more opportunities. This is measured through things like improved literacy rates, decreased poverty rates, and longer life expectancies.
How do we do this? Jobs. In Omaha, we need to start prioritizing people over parking. The streetcar will allow our urban core to become more dense with businesses, entertainment options and places for more people to live.
A streetcar supercharges economic development. It brings in new development and spurs existing development to be bigger and better.
Bottom line: fixed, high-capacity transit remains the key to a prosperous, dense city.
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