Submitted by Appropriate-Algae-82 t3_ztx9qe in baltimore
TerranceBaggz t1_j1g9uid wrote
Reply to comment by Appropriate-Algae-82 in Where to live in DC to commute to Baltimore? by Appropriate-Algae-82
Both Laurel and Columbia car-centric stroad infested towns. Particularly Laurel.
moderndukes t1_j1gk5wg wrote
Columbia isn’t stroady at all. Columbia has very good road hierarchy.
TerranceBaggz t1_j1oumsp wrote
Little pawtuxent parkway, broken land parkway, governor warfield parkway, Snowden river parkway… you can’t get from one development to another without crossing a winding stroad with no sidewalks. It’s not a walkable town. It wasn’t designed to be one. It was built when car centric design was king. Sure is has meandering walking paths, but they don’t get you from point a to point b without winding around a neighborhood and tripling the distance a pedestrian would have to walk.
moderndukes t1_j1qsepw wrote
None of those are stroads. A stroad would have sidewalks, constant businesses directly off it, billboards, etc. All of those are roads.
TerranceBaggz t1_j204a8t wrote
I don’t think you understand what constitutes a stroad. Stroads definitely don’t have sidewalks off of them in many cases, including in MD. Houston and FLA are notorious for this type of stroad. The only thing most of the Stroads in Columbia don’t have is constant driveways intercepting the roadway. Everything else they have. They have high speeds, the areas around them aren’t accessible via anything but a car, wide,highway sized lanes, long turn lanes, large signs meant to be seen from speeding cars, constant traffic lights, and even destinations just off of them with massive parking lots between. All of these are “features” of stroads and all of them are things found in the major thruways in Columbia. It’s a suburb built around cars and Stroads. Sorry.
moderndukes t1_j20eq0c wrote
Yes, I watch a number of urbanist channels on YouTube too. (I prefer City Nerd’s video more though.) Columbia does not have stroads.
> They have high speeds, the areas around them aren’t accessible via anything but a car, wide,highway sized lanes, long turn lanes, large signs meant to be seen from speeding cars
You’ve described a road or a highway - and in the video you linked to, those are the descriptors has had for roads and highways. It’s in the first like two minutes.
> constant traffic lights
Debatable for Columbia’s distances, and for the purpose of those lights primarily being for collectors intersections.
> and even destinations just off of them with massive parking lots between.
They don’t directly load onto the main parkways of Columbia, though. Nearly every one of the big box strip malls loads onto a side-road which then meets up with the parkways. Thus, that’s proper traffic hierarchy and not a stroad. If it was a stroad, all of the big boxes would load directly onto the parkways. See: your video.
Like really, the video you linked to has footage from undeniable stroads and nothing in and around Columbia looks like them. The closest is Town Center around the Mall, but that’s not even as clear cut as being “stroady.” Columbia could be called auto-oriented (although that does a slight disservice to the model for the villages being walkable), but it’s not stroady like Laurel, Silver Spring, College Park, Towson, etc.
TerranceBaggz t1_j24im31 wrote
The side roads are Stroads. Keep watching the video, not just the first 2 minutes. You chop up my reply to try to fit your narrative, high speed roads with traffic lights is stroad. Highways and roads don’t have traffic lights. I don’t know why you defend Columbia to a fault, but one trip to it will show you’re wrong.
moderndukes t1_j24slk9 wrote
You know what, after you’ve now changed what you were even calling a stroad from the beginning and ignored me saying I watched the entire video (even referring to such to say the sorts of things featured in the latter half don’t look anything like Columbia) just to quip that I’m defending “Columbia to a fault” (never was) - I really don’t have any more spoons for you.
TerranceBaggz t1_j25wdqi wrote
Dude, Columbia is Stroads all over the place. If you watched that entire video and still think you’re right, I suggest you read Strong Towns’ book because you’re wrong.
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