Uncategorized
Growthophobe View Of Traffic
July 1, 2007 
Feel free to share this aspect of growth recorded Friday, June 29 looking east from Five Mile overpass. Perhaps Boise City and the Chamber of Commerce people would be honest enough to post this image on their websites. The GUARDIAN authorizes use of this image to any website wishing to illustrate traffic conditions in Boise.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
© 2007 Boise Guardian. 
Jul 2, 2007, 8:13 pm
This is a great, sad picture.
This too is sickening: [url]http://www.city-data.com/forum/idaho/[/url]
There happens to be a few local real estate agents who troll the site trying to sell people on the idea of moving into Idaho, Boise, etc. While they are not allowed to solicit business explicitly, they certainly do it in more understated, wink-wink ways.
The sale of Idaho can be found everywhere, which is why what you do with the Guardian is so important.
Thank you.
Jul 3, 2007, 9:56 am
OK, Guardian, let’s be “honest”. You say this was taken on Friday the 29th? On Friday the 29th during rush hour there was a massive accident at Ten Mile that backed traffic up for over a hour and pushed congestion as far back as St. Al’s.
I’m not saying that this traffic isn’t bad, and that normal I-84 traffic isn’t very frustrating to me. However, in interest in fairness, this is not exactly representative of everyday traffic on the freeway.
Do we need to start asking “Who is guarding the Guardian?”
EDITOR NOTE–We make no apologies. There is a ton of traffic, “massive accidents” backing up traffic for miles on a regular basis. We will bet you a year’s GUARDIAN salary against yours there are more than 365 accidents a year between Boise and Nampa on I-84, including off ramps. It’s a mess with or without the wrecks!
Jul 3, 2007, 1:37 pm
Note to Jon:
Go to the ACHD Traffic Cam website:
on the GUARDIAN link list
… on ANY weekday at 7:45am, or 5:15pm. You’ll see the congestion spots marked in red. You can check the cameras yourself. I’d suggest the I-84/EagleRoad camera at 5:15, Five Mile (Dave’s vantage point) or Eagle / Fairview. Obviously the photos aren’t as high-resolution as Dave’s, but the queues of cars go for as far as the eye can see.
It’s getting steadily worse. Maybe $5 gas will stem the tide, at least temporarily. I don’t see anything else on the horizon to be optimistic about (regarding Boise-area traffic).
Jul 7, 2007, 9:37 am
Bikeboy: Re “Maybe $5 gas will stem the tide, at least temporarily” — probably not.
What are the choices?
Yep, you live near your work; you good guy.
Unfortunarely, most cannot live near their work even if they want to. Don’t forget, Boise (like most cities) spent years driving residents out of downtown by zoning it for business only, before recently deciding work/live places were good.
Many, many years ago, it was common for folks who owned a business to live upstairs, with the business downstairs. Zoning and other laws pretty much wiped out that possibility.
Plus huge stores like Albertson’s replaced the mom-and-pop stores, meaning they have way too many employes to fit in the upstairs if they had one. Same with many of the other businesses.
So $5 a gallon or $50 a gallon, most people have two choices — drive a car or quit working and go on welfare (dunno who would put up the money for that, though). Face it, the bus system is a joke — doesn’t go enough places, doesn’t run early enough or late enough, etc.
As for biking — many of us aren’t physically able to bike 10 or 20 or more miles each way, and some of us are just too chicken to ride on most of the Boise streets anyway.
Besides, you need to quit riding and get out and run — for mayor, or at least City Council or ACHD board or something, where you might have a chance to start getting some of your good ideas headed toward reality.
Jul 9, 2007, 9:03 am
Note to Bikeboy:
I have seen the cameras and in fact do drive I-84 often during rush hour. As I noted in my first post, it is not that I’m not frustrated by the traffic (any sane person driving in it would be), it is that I didn’t feel the picture that he posted was a true representation of general or average traffic flow. The picture posted was during a day that had a “worst case” event. While these “worst case” events do happen more often than we would all like, they don’t happen every day.
The Guardian was using the picture in a way that I felt didn’t tell the entire story and I just wanted to point that out.
Jul 11, 2007, 12:57 pm
A few ideas:
1) Carpool to work.
2) Employers could offer incentives to employees to bike or walk to work.
3) Instead of making 3-5 mile trips in your car, walk or bike. Cars = instant self-gratification. You may reconsider pointless trips to Target and save a few dollars by eliminating them.
4) Live closer to work.
5) A buyback program to keep older vehicles off the road.
6) Divorce your car.
May 1, 2008, 10:20 am
to Josh… what good is a buyback program? what do you think happens to all those cars? did you know a buyback program has been history for a long time
Some of those old cars if maintained correctly get the same gas mileage, and are less expensive to keep on the road.
its such an inconvenient truth to actually have to change petrol habits…