Boston, whose metrolpolitan area admittedly contain less people than
London (~2m I think) has undertaken a project locally called the Big
Dig to create a set of road tunnels under part of the city.
(www.bigdig.com). Apparently its going to be very good but has caused
them no end of chaos for the last few years and in terms of cost to
the public purse its second only to a big big dam project in China on
a global basis - would you be willing to foot a similar bill in London
?



On Thu, 9 Oct 2003 20:49:56 +0000 (UTC), "Oliver Keating"
wrote:


"Jeff Lewis UK" wrote in message
. com...
How about spending some of the money that is currently being extorted
from car drivers on something completely radical like building new
underground roads similar to the ones in Bruges Belgium.

We are constantly being stuffed for more any more cash to subsidize
harebrained council schemes none of which improve our lives at all.

Surely if engineers 120 years ago can build the London underground
railway system, we in the 21st century can build
an underground road system.

For those that have not visited Bruges, let me describe a car journey
to that city.

We arrived on the Sea Cat (The Vomit Comet) at Ostend and drive 13
miles to Bruges where you are directed down a tunnel some miles out
of the city. After driving some distance underground, you are directed
into giant car parks and take the lift back to daylight, where you
arrive in the middle of a huge town square with Bars and restaurants
around the edge, and the latest shops within a short walk.
No Stress at all.

Compare this with a trip to London where parking meters earn more that
a worker's minimum hourly wage and everything is designed to give the
maximum stress and the minimum value.

We need some new thinking on this. Public transport is not the answer,
and not everyone can cycle to work.

No you are wrong. Bruges definately cannot be compared to London.

The problem is that even if we did want to build an underground motorway
network for London, we would have to build so many roads to satisfy demand
that they would basically have to be everywhere at extreme cost (probably
over £100 billion).

Undergound roads are dangerous, difficult to ventilate and have much lower
capacity than a tube line, and besides, London is far too big to have just
one central car park - that only works in cities where everything is within
walking distance of each other.

The tube is the only viable transport option for a large city. Even the
car-loving Americans know this - New York city has no underground motorways
in the centre, but does have an extensive subway system.

There are possible options to help with congestion such as overpasses or
underpasses at critical junctions (like on the A40), but a new road building
scheme would be very expensive and in the long run wouldn't really help, as
people just adapt their commuting patterns.

Jeff