JohnG@lt wrote:
Personally, I would go underground with individual tunnels for each lane. I've noticed that most traffic that isn't police activity related stems from people changing lanes erratically. While they themselves might be in full control of their vehicle, they make others around them nervous which leads to traffic slowdowns. Each tunnel would have a traffic lane and a breakdown lane. The breakdown lane would also double as a protected on/off ramp lane for exits and entrances. Lastly, I would have a migrating speed limit based on traffic conditions and a pretty severe speed limit enforcement system where the soft cap would be whatever is listed on the speed limit signs and the hard cap would be five miles above that where they would be fined by camera systems. No cops with flashing lights to stall traffic with rubberneckers.
Pros - Snow, rainy conditions and all other weather effects would be taken out of the equation. No more plowing, no more deicing, no flooding, and because it will be underground, you don't have to worry about freezing conditions either. This would cut down maintenance on the highway by a ridiculous margin.
Cons - High cost and unclear 'mineral rights' laws for any residents home which would be tunneled under.
I drive in several tunnels to and from uni each day. Expanding on your rather impractical solution (tunnel construction of that scale would be prohibitively costly, not to mention the geo-technical issues associated with digging up large amounts of material under highly urbanized areas) I think that it should be mandatory for cars to drive with their headlights on while in a tunnel. Currently we have signs saying to turn headlights on, but a lot of people don't bother - which means you can't see their fucking car.
Also, where would you put the exhaust stacks, as it's often a contentious community issue.
For example, the F3 freeway is the freeway that comes into Sydney from the north. At Hornsby in the city's north, the F3 merges onto a
major (3 lane each way) road. As this is the main trucking route north, the road is packed with trucks from Hornsby until the major road reaches
Sydney's Orbital system some 10km away. To ease congestion and vastly decrease truck travel times in the city, there has been a proposal for a tunnel to go under this main road, connecting the F3 to the orbal system. The idea has been on the shelf for about 5 years - no progress is
ever made due to community resistance towards just 3 exhaust stacks along its length.
