If you squint you can make out that clear implication in the latest news for I-485 improvements. Of course, common sense tells you that if you take stagnant, stacked up traffic, snaking miles out of its way and replace it with freer-moving traffic taking more direct routes, emissions have to go down. It is just that anti-car propaganda so often makes it seem like building roads guarantees that air quality will go down as a result.
Anyway, the money quote running down start dates on 485 projects:
? 2009 on the Weddington Road interchange, a move up in schedule that Charlotte transportation director Jim Humphrey says is vital if the city is to meet federal air quality rules. That interchange earlier had been delayed until an indefinite date after 2012 because of the transportation department’s financial squeeze.
But building the interchange sooner is crucial, because it would reduce miles traveled. If the region does not meet air quality standards, Charlotte and its neighbors could lose all federal construction money for roads and transit, worth $6 billion over 20 years.
I’m biased as the proposed Weddington Rd. exit is about a mile from my house and would unquestionably improve our quality of life many times over, but I really do not know of more important local road project in terms of adding road capacity at a crucial area. All the new construction in close-by Union County needs another way on and off the Beltway, ASAP.
Besides, we have to do it. For the future.
