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New Cities

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: New Cities

#631

Post by guy_c »

rwhitman wrote: post #357
athenot wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars in tunnels is a great idea, just like the subway: burry it so as to not impact life on the surface. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to operate that way. The easiest tunnels to build are the ones Paris did for their subway a century ago: dig up the soft limestone under the street, lay tracks, close it up. But you still need to deal with ventilation (especially for non-electric cars), fire suppressant, evacuat…

I've thought about this. My thought has been, bump the street level up one story to create a pedestrian / bicycle promenade and move building entrances to the second floor. Keep the existing street below intact, with parallel parking etc. Essentially build a boardwalk above a commercial street, so that traffic can flow below. (Though for ventilation purposes, it would be best if most cars at street level were electri…

Or you have hot humid cities like Fukuoka and Taipei that move a lot of the pedestrian and retail underground. I think the best solutions depend a lot on the local weather conditions.

Re: New Cities

#632

Post by sheriff »

I think one of the big problems with cities is how static their layouts can be. Many years from now, I like to imagine that cities will be made of movable parts that can be rearranged throughout the day to take match the changing needs of the people.

For instance -- there's no need for me to sleep in an expensive part of town, but there's also no need for me to be awake while my bedroom is shifted out into the outskirts. This would be something like Bruce Willis' character's apartment in The Fifth Element, but I don't think we have to wait until we're building cities in space to start working on this.

Similarly, if there's a diner that closes after 3PM, why should I ever have to walk past its empty storefront later in the day? The popularity of food trucks is evidence that there is value in being able to move supply around to find the demand and that we can reorganize our cities on a short time-scale. We don't even need to wait for the parts to be self-driving, as nice as that would be.

Re: New Cities

#633

Post by syrrim »

malyk wrote: post #504
thescriptkiddie wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoy C:S, but even with Traffic++ the traffic simulation is pretty wonky and shouldn't be taken as reflective of reality. But here's some advice if you're having trouble with traffic jams in your grid systems: use more one-way streets. If you've converted your city over to a 100% one-way grid and still have backups, you probably need to work on your mass transit and freight rail systems. I've made functiona…

According to Jeff Speck ( https://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/d... ) 1 way streets have a negative economic impact for the business that line those streets. Which I think makes intuitive sense. Anyway, that doesn't matter in C:S, but it probably matters in the real world.

Is this assuming all streets are one-way? If they are, than I wouldn't expect an economic impact on businesses. Since the amount of products people buy - and the money they are willing to spend - should stay the same, than the total money influx would remain constant. Therefore, the only change would be how this money is distributed. Since all stores would lie on one-way streets, none would be more impacted than the other.

Re: New Cities

#634

Post by apatters »

Why the cheap shot at libertarianism at the end? As if fewer regulations and more personal freedoms are only interesting to "crazy techies?" This throwaway line really damaged the credibility of the post for me because it got me wondering what kind of creepy social engineering project this person may be aspiring towards.

Why did she think that the main criticism she had to get ahead of was that they would make a city where people were too free, as opposed to making an Orwellian surveillance state, or a company town or something?

Re: New Cities

#635

Post by mixmastamyk »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #459
mixmastamyk wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, in Los Angeles at least, outside of rush hour. You moved the goal post also. In the thread above we are talking about a 10-minute walk.

No, we're not talking about a 10-minute walk. You responded to my comment 'It solves the "the store is far away" problem, but it does nothing for the "I need more food than I can personally carry" problem.' A cart is not actually responsive to that, because it reintroduces the other problem.

> There's a bigger issue here. Suppose the grocery store was 10 minutes away. You'd still need to drive there, because how are you going to get the food back to your house?

Re: New Cities

#636

Post by brett40324 »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #69
sgentle wrote: post #56

Understandably, I'm sure there will be a lot of focus on physical and transport infrastructure. I think it would be worth also looking into ways to transform the social infrastructure of a city. I'm sure most people would agree that cities tend to bring a certain degree of isolation. Once upon a time people would know everyone in their town, but in a large city today it's pretty rare to even know your neighbours. Of…

I'm rather dismal on the ability for city planning to positively affect communities - or to even work as planned in the first place. Look at the original grid plan for Philadelphia to see what I mean. I think the "know your neighbors" problem is a lot bigger than city planning. It has a lot to do with our society itself. For example, it is assumed in America that one must eventually own their own home to achieve the…

Yes, thank you. I moved from Chicagoish midwest to central Kentucky two years ago, and everyday I still experience cultural shock at the overall compassion and friendliness of most people here. True community-based values and socioeconomic success start with human goodness toward one another, not statistical or engineering research.

Re: New Cities

#637

Post by _gfrc »

mason240 wrote: post #443
curryst wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the way cars function inside the city is only part of what would need to change. Near me things just aren't laid out well for pedestrians. It would take me about an hour to walk to the nearest grocery store (not counting corner stores, because all they sell is junk food). Biking should be much shorter, though I can't say I've ever tried. We would need to stop the trend of having a small number of large store…

> We would need to stop the trend of having a small number of large stores and move back towards having a large number of smaller stores. This would be highly inefficient and result in higher costs of goods and reduced options for consumers.

Anecdata as a counter example: Germany has a really high density of stores (I am living in Berlin and have ~10 supermarkets within 1km distance) and is also known for its extremely cheap groceries. The margins of the supermarket chains are razor thin, but the high density of stores is one of the reasons why you don't need a car at all in bigger German cities - in addition to good public transport.

Re: New Cities

#638

Post by nulltype »

rsync wrote: post #619
rwhitman wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about this. My thought has been, bump the street level up one story to create a pedestrian / bicycle promenade and move building entrances to the second floor. Keep the existing street below intact, with parallel parking etc. Essentially build a boardwalk above a commercial street, so that traffic can flow below. (Though for ventilation purposes, it would be best if most cars at street level were electri…

"I've thought about this. My thought has been, bump the street level up one story to create a pedestrian / bicycle promenade and move building entrances to the second floor." This (sort of) already exists in Minneapolis (and to a much smaller extent, St. Paul and Duluth) courtesy of the skyway system.[1] It's very well done and has created a completely separate urban ecosystem overlaid on top of the existing, street…

Is it all indoors or is it outside as well?

Re: New Cities

#640

Post by bbcbasic »

sauceweak wrote: post #202

Since the parent felt the need to use an affiliate link, here's a direct link to The Rent Is Too Damn High - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078XGJXO/ An amazon affiliate link to a 2.5 star book doesn't really establish confidence in someone's recommended reading list.

Sneaky!
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