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Vote on makeover for Ajijic highway zone Sunday August 27


sm1mex

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Public voting will take place Sunday August 27 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Ajijic Plaza.  There will be 2,000 ballots available.  Any one can vote age 14 and older regardless of place of residence or nationality.  You will need to show a Mexican voter I.D. OR any proof of domicile.  You will be required to write your name and address on the ballot and mark "si" or "no" to indicate if you agree with the government project or not.

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Thanks for the heads up.  With the caveat I think we can mostly agree this proposal will do little to help the auto congestion problem through Ajijic, what do you all think of it otherwise?  Speaking personally I see great merit in connecting the bike lane on both ends although I'm concerned about how safe it would be for the cyclists.  A much better sidewalk at least on one side of the road would be good too.

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1 hour ago, Mainecoons said:

Thanks for the heads up.  With the caveat I think we can mostly agree this proposal will do little to help the auto congestion problem through Ajijic, what do you all think of it otherwise?  Speaking personally I see great merit in connecting the bike lane on both ends although I'm concerned about how safe it would be for the cyclists.  A much better sidewalk at least on one side of the road would be good too.

I think it's a great idea to give cyclists and pedestrians and wheelchairs? a chance to use the roads in relative safety. The traffic is only getting worse and another lane of cars won't do much to alleviate it but it would do a lot to concentrate the pollution in  the air we have to breathe along that stretch. This kind of change is happening all over the world and the cities that implement it have benefitted greatly. 

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Maybe I am the only one, but I believe two more lanes to carry the traffic through town are necessary. The question is where? One bad idea was to place the road along the shoreline, and another idea was to build the additional two lanes above Ajijic. which might not be practical.

I guess the only other place would be to increase the width of the existing carretera which seems the least bad of any of the suggestions.

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No Pete, I think most understand that this proposal won't do much for the auto traffic.  It seems to offer only a better sidewalk on one side and completion of the bike lane through Centro.  The decision is obviously already made about 4 lanes, that was the original proposal and it is dead as a door nail because it is clear the Mexican merchant community in that area wants no part of it.

It seems to me if we have to settle for just a better sidewalk and completion of the bike lane this proposal is about as good as any.  I'm wondering if any of you agree.

 

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But what am I missing here? Putting in a bike lane will remove either the parking, the sidewalks, or both. How does this help anybody? Because there will still have to be people walking on the bike lane. Unless they are proposing to remove a traffic lane...!

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I don't understand how it will help the traffic.  Remove the parking from the north side of the carretera, put in bike and better sidewalk, you still have the same 2 lanes of traffic that is jammed now and also the parking on the south side of the carretera.  How will this improve the traffic flow.?  It seems this makeover will only improve biking and walking but not the traffic.  What is the focus on the makeover, better biking and walking. 

When the snowbirds return, no one will be able to go any where through Ajijic.   

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The plan isn't designed to improve car traffic.  It's designed to:

1. Complete the bike path that ends at Javier Mina and begins again at Juarez so bikes can safely navigate through Ajijic. 

2.  Improve sidewalks on both sides of the street. 

3.  Improve lighting with new street lamps. 

4.  Install ramps for wheelchairs and baby strollers.

 

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Years ago, Dolly Parton had a bra strap break on Johnny Carson.  As she was stuffing things back into place, she said "You just can't put 5 pounds on a 4 pound sack"

The area through Ajijic is a 2 lane road and no matter what you do, it will always be a 2 lane road unless you start wiping out some buildings.

If you add a bike path, it will just become a passing lane like in front of Telmex now.  I pass in that lane especially at the light and so does everyone else.  

21 minutes ago, SunshineyDay said:

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

No Pete, I think most understand that this proposal won't do much for the auto traffic.  It seems to offer only a better sidewalk on one side and completion of the bike lane through Centro.  The decision is obviously already made about 4 lanes, that was the original proposal and it is dead as a door nail because it is clear the Mexican merchant community in that area wants no part of it.

It seems to me if we have to settle for just a better sidewalk and completion of the bike lane this proposal is about as good as any.  I'm wondering if any of you agree.

 

Probably the best solution would be to pave to the sidewalks, put in real parallel parking and improve the sidewalks so people like myself can hobble down them.  

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17 minutes ago, gringal said:

...with a plethora of water pumps?  Could work, but soo expensive.  Guanajuato dosn't have a lake.

The city center of Guanajuato is the low point of the valley. Prior to bring traffic tunnels, they were underground rivers. In thd 60's, drainage was buried and roadways built over them. About a month ago, they had about 2 feet of water in them with a fairly fast rain .

You could probably build cut and cover tunnels and reroute traffic while building. Still expensive. 

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10 hours ago, johanson said:

Maybe I am the only one, but I believe two more lanes to carry the traffic through town are necessary. The question is where? One bad idea was to place the road along the shoreline, and another idea was to build the additional two lanes above Ajijic. which might not be practical.

I guess the only other place would be to increase the width of the existing carretera which seems the least bad of any of the suggestions.

If you build it they will come!!!

Can I ask why you feel extra traffic lanes are benificial?

I have lived in two different cities and seen two different approaches to heavy traffic. The one who kept widening/adding lanes is the hands down traffic loser. 

While I was in Portland, OR, a large influx of people from CA made for a large amount of congestion. Portlands solution? Rip out the interstate going though downtown and make it a waterfront park. This forced the newcomers into learning to use mass transit, bike, or carpool. 

The second place I then lived was Houston. Houston can now brag that it has the widest interstate in the WORLD. And yet Houston still gets the honors of second worse traffic in the US. People still haul their breifcase in their huge SUV's to work every day because the government keeps trying to facilitate their behavior. 

I love it when I see people saying, "take the bus because there is no place to park." It bests hearing, "they should add parking lots." Because we all know how lovely parking lots are. And I feel the same about widening roads. 

I know we are all in a hurry to get to Wal-mart to see if they finally have what we need but I'm with bikers/pedestrians one this one. 

I'm open minded to hearing your alternat reasoning. The after all, I haven't lived in every city in the world. It may work in other places. 

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5 hours ago, Ajijic_hiker said:

No great loss if they tore down those crummy looking shops on either side of the road, then rebuilt them with 'charming' store fronts...I hate the new pawn shop structure, (mostly because it IS a pawn shop)  but at least it doesn't look like it will fall down anytime soon.  And there's plenty of space in front of it for a decent sidewalk and bike path. The down town strip COULD look attractive...if it wanted to.

Right now it looks like a main road through a Mexican village. And I for one moved to Mexico because it looked like Mexico - eclectic, individualized, and full of mom and pop places. I believe it is beautiful because it is authentic!  To me ugly is what I have linked. 

 

Viva la Mexico!!!!

IMG_4521.JPG

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3 hours ago, Al Berca said:

According to this week's Reporter El Presidente "has pledged" that work will begin on August 29. Oh, don't forget to vote. LOL!

Yeah that does seem a bit futile.  However, I would vote yes.  I really think connecting the two ends of the bike lane is good for the area.  I just hope no one gets run over there.

While in general I agree that it is futile to build ever larger roads to accommodate cars, remember the buses are also getting stuck in this congestion through Ajijic.

The one that irritates me is the government-created and totally unnecessary congestion in San Antonio which causes backups all the way to the libremiento intersection and to Mirasol from the opposite direction.  Those two lights are set up about as wrong as possible.

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Well here is the question---Where is the real boundary of the road's right of way?  Are we all so hung up on getting a bike path that we are willing to overlook years and years of citizens infringing on land they do not own to create businesses we may or may not patronize but hamper the improvement of the village?

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11 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

The one that irritates me is the government-created and totally unnecessary congestion in San Antonio which causes backups all the way to the libremiento intersection and to Mirasol from the opposite direction.  Those two lights are set up about as wrong as possible.

There is not one traffic light in all of San Miguel and rarely an accident at cross streets. The rule is one car goes and then the next one coming to the side goes. We have enough congestion in centro esp that no one wants traffic lights. And the first rule here is pedestrians first. It surprisingly works well for a city of 90,000 and 180,000 in the total municipality. And never an issue of traffic lights not working.

SMA also now closes some streets to traffic around the jardine giving pedestrians priority.

 

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