The people who acquired the land for the Merritt Parkway may have been
living in the 1930s, but they anticipated well and wisely that things might not
always be as they were then.
They designed a road that would be mostly straightaways, connected by relatively gentle curves (with the exception of the Greenwich portion, which, if you draw a straight line across the portion which we all drive a couple of extra miles to protect, turns out to be the Round Hill Club and surrounding estates). This made for safer driving, and also was sound design from another point of view.
They wisely acquired a right of way wide enough to accommodate not just the two pairs of lanes initially needed, but wide enough to accommodate four pairs of lanes.
When they placed the first two pairs of lanes on that right of way, they did it in such a way that the two additional pairs of lanes could be placed next to them, without moving the initial pairs (though of course interchanges would need to be reconfigured). The first two pairs of lanes sit in the northern half of the right of way.
They knew that, sooner or later, the capacity of the initial four lanes would be exceeded, and that the option to add more capacity would be a fine thing, and they designed accordingly.
They designed a road that would be mostly straightaways, connected by relatively gentle curves (with the exception of the Greenwich portion, which, if you draw a straight line across the portion which we all drive a couple of extra miles to protect, turns out to be the Round Hill Club and surrounding estates). This made for safer driving, and also was sound design from another point of view.
They wisely acquired a right of way wide enough to accommodate not just the two pairs of lanes initially needed, but wide enough to accommodate four pairs of lanes.
When they placed the first two pairs of lanes on that right of way, they did it in such a way that the two additional pairs of lanes could be placed next to them, without moving the initial pairs (though of course interchanges would need to be reconfigured). The first two pairs of lanes sit in the northern half of the right of way.
They knew that, sooner or later, the capacity of the initial four lanes would be exceeded, and that the option to add more capacity would be a fine thing, and they designed accordingly.
Continue reading "The Merritt: Conserve it, or utilize it fully?" »