Okay, so your metric is the total number of roads vs. canals? I thought we were discussing if "Venice is clogged with boats." Clogged is a density. Fewer people, more streets => not as clogged.
I pulled up a section of Harrisonburg's Main street, at some arbitrary time during the day:
I counted 54 cars in use in that 1.5 miles/2.4km stretch.
The main road through town is US-19. In the section where it meets S-Main to N-Main I counted another 31 cars, though I think a few of them are parked. Almost all of these are private vehicles, and I presume with 1-2 people in the car.
That's about 85 cars per 1.5 miles, and probably around 100 people using the roads.
In Venice, I started with Ponte Scalzi, by the train station. There were 45 boats in use by the Ponte de Rialto and about 81 boats in total by the time I got to the end of 1.5 miles (by Ai Leoncini). This puts the traffic density at about the same. Boats are both bigger, slower, and don't have brakes, so this isn't a great comparison, but we're using your metric.
Of these 81 boats, at least 10 were vaporetti. There's easily 4 times as many people on the Grand Canal as there are on Main St. and US-19 combined. If they each used a 1-2 person boat then the boat traffic and corresponding need to dock a boat would be that much higher.
Take a look at Harrisonburg's downtown. See how much of it is dedicated to parking? I reckon it's over 1/2 of the city center! Now, look at Venice. There's places for boats to park, but nowhere near as much space dedicated for that. That's because many people in Venice walk to work or ride the vaporetti.
I contend that the boat traffic in Venice is high. The damage from ship wakes and propellers is well known. The problem is that it's so convenient to be able to go more than 5kt, and hard to say no to the 2 million cruise ship tourists who come in ships whose wake and pollution affect the lagoon and air, when the damage is slow to become apparent.
I pulled up a section of Harrisonburg's Main street, at some arbitrary time during the day:
http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=S+Main+St&daddr=N+Main...
I counted 54 cars in use in that 1.5 miles/2.4km stretch.
The main road through town is US-19. In the section where it meets S-Main to N-Main I counted another 31 cars, though I think a few of them are parked. Almost all of these are private vehicles, and I presume with 1-2 people in the car.
That's about 85 cars per 1.5 miles, and probably around 100 people using the roads.
In Venice, I started with Ponte Scalzi, by the train station. There were 45 boats in use by the Ponte de Rialto and about 81 boats in total by the time I got to the end of 1.5 miles (by Ai Leoncini). This puts the traffic density at about the same. Boats are both bigger, slower, and don't have brakes, so this isn't a great comparison, but we're using your metric.
Of these 81 boats, at least 10 were vaporetti. There's easily 4 times as many people on the Grand Canal as there are on Main St. and US-19 combined. If they each used a 1-2 person boat then the boat traffic and corresponding need to dock a boat would be that much higher.
Take a look at Harrisonburg's downtown. See how much of it is dedicated to parking? I reckon it's over 1/2 of the city center! Now, look at Venice. There's places for boats to park, but nowhere near as much space dedicated for that. That's because many people in Venice walk to work or ride the vaporetti.
I contend that the boat traffic in Venice is high. The damage from ship wakes and propellers is well known. The problem is that it's so convenient to be able to go more than 5kt, and hard to say no to the 2 million cruise ship tourists who come in ships whose wake and pollution affect the lagoon and air, when the damage is slow to become apparent.