Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars • Hacker News Board

Re: Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars

#241

Post by PeterisP » Fri, Aug 12, 2016, 1:12 PM UTC

grok2 wrote: post #214

superuser2 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a reasonable other side to this: when developers don't build parking but people still feel a need to have cars, tenants end up parking on the street. At any reasonable level of density there are more cars associated with a building than the curb space it occupies, so parking spills over all around the neighborhood. Removing minimum parking requirements is reasonable, but it should be done in such a way that…

In addition to making surrounding streets no-parking perhaps there should be some assurance of public transit nearby? If not, no one is going to rent or buy in that location -- if they can't have cars and they can't use transit easily, then the location becomes unattractive. Question is -- can the local government ensure that? I think one thing everyone is missing is that having the freedom to have cars has an econom…

There are cities where the main differences in housing price (the three main factors usually being location, location and location) is not as "expensive districts" vs "cheap districts" but according to "minutes to subway" metric, with a 10-minute-walk home in an otherwise more expensive district is cheaper than a 3-minute-walk home somewhere else.

Re: Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars

#242

Post by PeterisP » Fri, Aug 12, 2016, 1:20 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #191

ethanbond wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cities can, have, and do function with fewer cars than most American cities. Reducing parking is the fairest way to reduce the usage and eventually necessity of cars. And again, it's far more realistic than hoping that a transit authority is going to find a buried treasure chest to invest in infrastructure while the public is investing more and more into cars.

Let's eliminate cars. How does one transport a week's worth of groceries for a family of 5 on public transport? Transportation is more than moving a person from A to B. If you want a real solution, provide tax incentives for companies to work remotely. If you eliminate commuters in those types of jobs that can work remotely, you solve almost all traffic problems. Does an insurance salesman really need to travel to an…

Why would you transport a week's worth of groceries in the first place? In cities designed not for cars, most people generally don't "transport" groceries at all, since everybody generally buys groceries very close to home (often on the same block), and the natural time to do it is on the way back from work/studies/whatever, so instead of having an explicit weekly trip, you just buy whatever you need now or for tomorrow, not a week's supply - and that is easily carried (not transported) for that short distance even for a family of 6+.

If you buy something that can't be carried, like a refrigerator, well, then you get it delivered.

Re: Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars

#243

Post by tucosan » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 2:45 PM UTC

TillE wrote: post #205

robk wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're trying to go somewhere important like say TXL airport. Sorry! That'll take an hour since you have to go train to train to bus!

TXL is a really quick bus trip from Jakob-Kaiser-Platz (U7). It's SXF where the bus takes forever. Eventually this will be solved when the new airport opens along with its own S-Bahn station. Any year now...

SXF also has it's own S-Bahn station.