muncien wrote:I love how this thread never dies... lol
I get that it's very clunky in the way that it's designed... But up until KWP was built, this was actually the least obstructive side of the mix master. I35E and I30 are easily more detrimental than I345 is. If they can't do a cut/cap option, than I think the best approach is to simplify the obnoxious ramps alongside this thing and call it a day. But simply removing the freeway and expecting traffic to 'go away' is overly optimistic. A 'boulivard' to absorb this traffic makes it more HOSTILE to pedestrians, not better. I don't see what a suspension bridge really accomplishes. My two cents anyway.
The expectation isn't that the traffic just "goes away." Depending on the origin/destination, some trips would get diverted to local streets, some would get diverted to 635, some would get diverted to 35/Woodall, and some would not get made (either mode shift to transit, time shift outside of peak, shifting destination, or just not making the trip).
The expectation is that redistributing that traffic will not increase *congestion* too much.
Sure, if all 13,000 peak hour drivers just shifted to Woodall, as most opposition seems to think, that would increase congestion very much! But as it is, for all traffic traveling between south of 20 and north of 635, taking 635 is *already* a time-competitive option during the peak even with 345, it's just 7 miles longer. It's a pretty solid bet that most of that traffic will shift. This can actually reduce congestion because it reduces traffic on the highly-congested US-75, benefiting all of those travelers.
As for the shift to local roads, we focus on the boulevard, but it's about more than that. For example, I do/did a lot of traveling between north and east Dallas, and the travel time is the same whether I take I-30 to I-345 to 75 or local roads to 75. I usually take I-345 because I like going through downtown and prefer the highway. If I-345 was removed, I'd just take local roads to 75. On a broader scale, getting to/from I-45 via local roads at peak is already nearly time competitive even to/from close to 75 as far north as Mockingbird, and you'd see many of those trips shift to local roads instead of Woodall.
There are, of course, some O/D pairs where it would make sense to switch to Woodall, and that would certainly increase congestion there. The point is, though, that there are quite a bit fewer of those than you might think, and some of that increased congestion would likely be mitigated by reduced congestion on 75.