MapleCityTrafficConcerns
MISSION STATEMENT
These pages are
posted for the purpose of advocating better quality of life and
less traffic
congestion, noise, hazards, and pollution through the center of
Goshen, Indiana,
by constructing a limited
access bypass around the city.
Trucks and manufactured
houses should no longer be permitted
to pass through
the center of Goshen.
Main Street, Goshen, Indiana,
June - 1999
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NEW Link - goshenvoice.com
is here
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Text
only Home
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NEW Link - Results
of the Goshen Truck Survey conducted April 24, 2000
Press
Conference, May 8, 2000
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NEW Link - Buggy
Safety is overlooked in INDOT's Road Design
Remember the Pinto fire killing three
just north of Goshen
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NEW Link - South
Bend Tribune Editorial,
May 16, 2000
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NEW Link - Ball
State University Student Reports
Second Year Urban
Planning Studio Class
Student Assignment:
Goshen
US 33 Study
presented on April
12, 2000 at the Goshen Public Library
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May, 2000, NEW Link
- In 1998 a computer simulation was done
to compare Goshen
traffic in the year
2015 if a bypass is built with traffic resulting from
the plan to widen
Madison
Street and US 33 Southeast.
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May, 2000, NEW Link
- Letter
from the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation
It says they are
not against a bypass for Goshen
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NEW Link - Lots
of Goshen Streets will be negatively impacted if a bypass is not built.
See why widening
streets is worse.
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Check out Goshen's Old Town Neighborhood
Association
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Pros and Cons of the Northern
Connector Route
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NIMBYS
vs PIMFYS (please in my front yard) text version
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NIMBYS
vs PIMFYS (please in my front yard) graphic version (includes photos)
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2-98 Letter to
The
Goshen News
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Letter
State Senator Riegsecker
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NEW
Link - 2-2000 Letter to
The
Goshen News An 18 wheeler truck ends
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up in front yard of a home at
5th and Madison on Februay 2, 2000
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10-99 Letter
to Goshen News
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9-98 Letter
to Goshen News
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Letter
to MACOG
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Letter
to INDOT Diesel
Smoke
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Links to government representativesOther
Links
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addresses and phone numbers to
write and call
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Goshen, Indiana
is the probably the most likely city for you to be killed
by a house as
you cross Main Street right in the historic
district.
mb
addresses and phone numbers to write and
call
Links
to more pictures, essays, about the traffic problems and solutions in Goshen,
IN
Click the item you
want to see.
"Enthusiasts of traffic calming
point to places like Winter Park, near Orlando in Florida, where traffic
moves very slowly through narrow, tree-lined streets, with plenty of parking
and the kind of lively retail scene that seems to be deserting other US
cities." http://www.globalideasbank.org/crespec/CS-134.HTML
In
Goshen, a very small percentage of the trucks are making downtown deliveries,
and they can do it during off peak hours and at night. NOT ONE of the double-wide
houses is making a downtown delivery. The so-called
"local truck traffic" is, for the most part,
being generated by commerce and industry on the edges of Goshen and nearby
towns.
Do
you know that if a trucker wants to drive to or from a southeast plant
near US33 and CR38 or CR40, they are required to first go to downtown Goshen
before they can go to or from New Paris, Warsaw, Nappanee, or Milford south
of Goshen? This is their shortest route. They actually are forced by current
truck route rules to detour to downtown Goshen. Many companies have several
plants and they move lots of inventory from plant to plant. This so-called
local traffic could move around Goshen on a bypass rather than first going
downtown to get on another highway.
A properly
designed limited access bypass accommodates industry and commerce on the
edges of the city. It allows the trucks servicing the edges of the city
to exit the city, no matter which way they are headed. The
center of the city becomes off limits to through trucks and once again
becomes a friendly and inviting place for people.
This Traffic
Congestion theory from a Wall Street Journal
article
also
states that we should not
widen the streets to facilitate faster traffic
flow. This link is a summary from the article in Wall Street Journal
(Aug.
7, '96).See
this link for more on this theory.
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NIMBYS
vs PIMFYS: An illustrated essay from a Not-In-My-Backyard
person about the Please-In-My-Front-Yard people who are responsible for
much of Goshen's traffic problems.
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The Goshen News Online: These
pages may include something about this topic, depending on what the editors
decide to put online. Here are the lyrics
of the "Land of Goshen" song written by third graders at Chandler Elementary
School. Chandler has the school crossing doomed to become more hazardous
by the INDOT's street widening proposal for Madison Street. INDOT and local
city officials want to accommodate the 18 wheelers and the double-wide
houses passing the school. Chandler Elementary is also on Eighth Street,
as is Parkside Elementary School. MACOG's traffic projections predict
much heavier traffic on Eighth Street with this Thoroughfare Project than
with a Bypass Project for Goshen. Also see Diesel
Smoke and consider its effect on the our children.
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See
a photograph of what a well planned roadway should look like. "Most
Frederictorians commute to work in less than ten minutes. Traffic jams
are unheard of . . . . City Planning authorities have provided Frederictorians
with an environment second to none."
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Here is a
site that helps ordinary citizens with good ideas face the power of City
Hall.
It is called, "THE
CONTROL GAME" It is a guide for recognizing political control
used by corporations, consultant firms, and government entities. Yes, we
can resist bad ideas from City Hall, INDOT, and their consultants. This
site helps us recognize the strategies they can use against us.
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What
is Quality of Life in a Neighborhood? This site lists what is
important to people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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See a referendum
ballot initiative from the League of Women Voters of El Dorado
County, California, that would charge developers for the cost of roadways
needed as the result of their development. In Indiana, we all pay for roads
even though we have no profits from the developments. Furthermore, homeowners
and landowners are forced to submit to eminent domain appraisals which
may not fairly compensate for the losses suffered, particularly when family
homesteads are destroyed or when beautiful front yards are mutilated. Who
should be paying these costs when large corporate developers benefit at
the expense of the average taxpayer and property owner? Is eminent domain
actually the best way to deal with the powerless homeowner when the need
for the road improvements is clearly the result of new development?
"Never doubt that a small group
of dedicate citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only
thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
Links to government
agencies, representatives, and candidates your can write, e-mail, or phone
with your questions, opinions, and ideas.
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The INDOT home page
| E-mail to INDOT
The Goshen
Chamber of Commerce
Government
and community representatives and agencies your can e-mail, write, or phone
with your questions, opinions, and ideas. If you find a web site for them,
please e-mail: Marvin Bartel
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Mayor Allan J. Kauffman Phone 219-533-8621, or write to Mayor,
City of Goshen,
111 E. Jefferson St., Goshen, IN 46526. E-mail
: Mayor Allen Kauffman
allankauffman@goshencity.com
"If somebody wants put nuclear
waste in your backyard,
you don't have to understand the half-life of radioactivity in order to
have an opinion."
James Burke, author of The Knowledge Web,
Simon and Shuster ©1999
This quote was from James Burke on National Public Radio, June 29, 1999
This doesn't mean that traffic is similar to nuclear waste. It means
that we have a responsibility speak up when we are concerned by government
proposals that may effect our neighborhoods. If we don't, who will?
mb
Government
and community representatives and agencies your can write, or phone with
your questions, opinions, and ideas. They don't seem to have Internet access.
If you find any, please e-mail: marvinpb@goshen.edu
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John Carr, Division of Historic
Preservation and Architecture, 402 West Washington St., Room W274,
Indianapolis, IN 46204 -or- phone 317-232-1646 - See
"Historic Dwellings Slated for Demolition" by Carol Summy. Goshen News,
page 1, August 15, 1999.
Thanks for your visit.
Your responses to these pages are invited.
E-mail to: Marvin Bartel
or Marvin@Bartel.com
Please send ideas you'd add to these pages.
Please indicate if you are giving permission to publish your name and
contributions.
Editorial control is reserved by Marvin Bartel. |
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Text
only Home Letter
to MACOG Letter
to INDOT Diesel
Smoke
NEW
Link - Truck Survey,
April 24, 2000
Check out Goshen's Old
Town Neighborhood Association
Pros and Cons of the Northern
Connector Route
NIMBYS
vs PIMFYS (please in my front yard) text version
NIMBYS
vs PIMFYS (please in my front yard) graphic version (includes photos)
NEW
Link - 2-2000 Letter to
The
Goshen News An 18 wheeler truck ends
up in front yard of a home
at 5th and Madison on Februay 2, 2000
2-98 Letter to
The
Goshen News
Letter
State Senator Riegsecker
10-99 Letter
to Goshen News
9-98 Letter
to Goshen News
Links
to government representatives Other Links
addresses and phone numbers
to write and call
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