[Tagging] Paper streets?

[john at jfeldredge.com]

I was responding to the argument that there was no point in mapping any paper streets because no paper street will ever become a physical street.  I agree that you eventually reach a point at which a street is unlikely to be built, but, if a developer has just announced the proposed layout for a new subdivision, and only some of the streets have actually been put in, saying that there is no hope that the rest of the subdivision will ever be built is a bit premature.

-------Original Email-------
Subject :Re: [Tagging] Paper streets?
From  :mailto:baloo at ursamundi.org
Date  :Tue Oct 19 20:17:09 America/Chicago 2010


On 10/19/2010 03:15 PM, John F. Eldredge wrote:
> Unless you can foresee the future, you can't say for sure whether or not a given paper street will be built.  All you can say for sure is that a street has been planned and hasn't been built_yet_.

Sure you can, the Portland area is a wonderful example.  The Fremont
Freeway got canceled after it was started, and many people living in the
middle of that paper freeway are blissfully unaware.  The existing stub
isn't much more than neighborhood access given the point at which it was
canceled (leading to some awkward lane shifts as most lanes continue to
I5 instead of more closely following the 50/50 split at the north end of
the Fremont Bridge).

Interstate 505 was dead on arrival, and the interchange constructed for
it ended up getting connected to US-30 instead.

The Mount Hood Freeway is another paper freeway that will never be built
due to popular opposition that killed it decisively; ramp stubs for this
paper freeway exist at the present day interchange of I5 and I84 (and I5
Northbound's Oregon exit 300 connecting I5 North to I84 East is actually
using the ramp stub originally intended for the Mount Hood Freeway,
which is why that ramp follows immediately next to I5 for almost a mile
before passing I84's MP0).

The West Side Bypass (in it's various incarnations) is another such
example, a freeway directly connecting Beaverton to Vancouver,
Washington has been drafted several times with several alignments, but
won't ever happen because you would have to condemn rich people's homes,
a swath of the world's largest city park (Forest Park), a nature
preserve and popular summer hot spot (Sauvie Island), and build a new
bridge Oregon doesn't need and Vancouver/Washington won't pay for (pick
any combination of three reasons and you'll accurately describe at least
one draft's cancellation).

And let's not forget MacQuarie's offer to build a privately-owned
turnpike from I5 to OR99W that would have effectively wiped the town of
Donald off the map and bulldoze a swath of the same wine country such a
turnpike would connect...

Sure, western Oregon is fairly granola, but something tells me that
western Oregon is hardly unique as an example of paper highways that
won't ever exist as a viable way.


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