Boy from what I have seen in small ruel communities in the Mid-west (I am
assuming that Fincastle is a small ruel community). The creation of
by-passess has traditionally been the begining of the end for small towns.
Once the traffic is gone, so goes the small businness, next wal mart opens
along the by-pass at the outskirt of town and the historic buildings die
from demolition by neglect. But maybe I am missing someting in the Fincastle
story.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Kestenbaum [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 4:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: Information re: High Vehicle Traffic Impact on
Historic Structures


> > My name is Peggy Crosson and I am co-chairing an initiative to save the
> > historic district of Fincastle, Virginia (Botetourt County) by proposing
> > a bypass around the town. This action would eliminate up to 2000
> > vehicles per day from traveling through the town which currently is the
> > only travel path from the northwest section of the county to U.S. 220, a
> > feeder thoroughfare to the Roanoke Valley.

With all due respect, urban historic districts in places like Ann Arbor
would be much more appealing places to live if automobile and truck
traffic on major thoroughfares could be drastically reduced to a low level
like 2000 vehicles per day.

Of course, that would require either a massive shift in transportation
habits, or the total shutdown of the University of Michigan.  Short of
that level of trauma, we live with numbers like 10,000 or 20,000 vehicles
per day.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com