Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.You can use your Twitter or Facebook account to sign up, or register directly.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="FerretAfros" data-source="post: 9499780" data-attributes="member: 93758">And yet there was such a so much pushback when it was suggested that some sort of traffic calming could be installed along Harbor Blvd, because allegedly it's such a major thoroughfare for local traffic crisscrossing the Resort District. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />In reality, locals (aka, people proximate to these theme parks) have long since learned to avoid that stretch of road due to the congestion and slow travel times. Sure, there may be a couple very specific examples where that's the preferred route for someone with neither an origin nor destination in the immediate vicinity, but by and large the traffic along Harbor Blvd is there to serve the Resort District itself. Even when the tourists (aka, people from around the world who descend) and the traffic they create are gone, locals continue to avoid that particular stretch of roadway.More than ever, it's clear that Harbor Blvd primarily serves the Resort District, and the businesses and customers in it. It's a transfer point where people continue their journey on foot, not a super-highway for through-traffic to distant destinations. As such, the road should be reconfigured with a focus on pedestrians first, deliveries (whether people or goods) second, and passersby a distant third. The city dodged a bullet when the original Eastern Gateway design was cancelled over disagreements on aesthetics of the bridge. The layout was fundamentally incompatible with the surrounding land uses, treating Harbor Blvd more as a treacherous obstacle that must be crossed, rather than a permeable stream providing life to the neighborhood. Instead of creating a walled-off fortress, a holistic solution needs to continue the area's (unfortunately slow) steady progress toward approachability, walkability, and accessibility for its primary users (in this case, tourists at the start/end of their trip).If ever there was a good time to undertake a major road construction project with minimal impacts, this would be it, while the Resort District is nearly abandoned. Unfortunately, major infrastructure improvements (whether public or private) seem highly unlikely for the foreseeable future, given the economic impacts of everything going on.</blockquote>

Verification