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To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#271

Post by [deleted] »

asdff wrote: post #266
zip1234 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue is that public transportation is rarely point to point. A point to point self-driving transportation capsule could be more efficient and be better utilized than public transportation.

Point to point is by definition wasteful. Look at how goods are moved around the globe: it's always hub and spoke because that's what works best rather than an infinite number of dedicated routes. Walk on foot, bike, skateboard, take a bird or lime to a hub and you remove a ton of engineering headaches. You could have the hub to hub route be completely isolated from traffic and pedestrians and many of the highly publ…

[deleted]

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#272

Post by jimmaswell »

moitoi wrote: post #185
jimmaswell wrote: post #79

I'd hate walking everywhere, having to get tiny amounts of groceries every day instead of stocking up every 2 weeks, etc. Walking/standing all day at conventions feels like death and a half a mile trip to the fast food places around here turns from 2 minutes to 10 minutes if I walk, which I tried when someone from Europe said that's walking distance. Walking such distances just makes me constantly wish I was driving…

It's not real, is it?

What?

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#273

Post by isostatic »

asdff wrote: post #260
isostatic wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to have a shared car pool situation with an automatic driver booked via an app that takes me door to door with say 5 minutes notice for a short trip (say upto 5 miles), and half hour notice for a longer trip (say upto 50 miles), and maybe 5 hours notice for a 500 mile trip. One that's clean, reliable, has appropiate child seats. That's not happening in the next 20 years. My country is still going down the pr…

You can't rent an uber XL?

Not one with two car seats.

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#274

Post by rootusrootus »

asdff wrote: post #270
rootusrootus wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And places that are already dramatically denser than the vast majority of the developed world. Over the weekend I found myself looking for a place in Europe in satellite view, outside of an urban core, and I was struck by how many single-family houses there were, complete with driveways and cars. Here on HN I have been led to believe that Europe is a utopia of forward-thinking people too concerned about the environme…

You know there are cities in Europe as well, right?

Yup. They exist in America, as well.

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#275

Post by rootusrootus »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #237
rootusrootus wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And places that are already dramatically denser than the vast majority of the developed world. Over the weekend I found myself looking for a place in Europe in satellite view, outside of an urban core, and I was struck by how many single-family houses there were, complete with driveways and cars. Here on HN I have been led to believe that Europe is a utopia of forward-thinking people too concerned about the environme…

By definition, places with high population-density are the places where a lot of people live. It is not a "bubble".

The bubble is here on HN where people routinely talk about America as if it is one big suburban hellhole and Europe as if it is one big metropolis paradise.

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#276

Post by asdff »

educationdata wrote: post #98
betandr wrote: post #71

We really do have to radically re-think our cities but the biggest issues aren't going to be practical but emotional. In London parents drive their children around in 4x4s, knowing that their vehicle causes the pollution that is affecting their own children's health. I'm not sure how you even start to get around that but to some extent you will never persuade everybody to reduce their damaging behaviour. You need to…

No. Car is not just the "culture", car serves our need. If you are young without kids, it may not make much difference for you to ride a car, or take a bus, or a train, subway, etc. But if you have a family, it makes a huge pain without your own vehicle. If the city of future requires families to abandon their own vehicle, it is not the correct city of future. Just design a better one.

You see plenty of families with kids making it work on public transportation. I wouldn't have seen very much baseball growing up without the train.

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#277

Post by bpyne »

isostatic wrote: post #101
rfrey wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure 20-somethings are more civic minded. They voted in the last election at participation rates consistent with the last 40 years for that age group. Participation rates will probably increase as they age. Unfortunately priorities tend to change as people age too.

And they'll move out of the cities into suburbia in their 30s, as they always do. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47529562 Over the past decade, about 550,000 more Britons left London than moved to it. This trend is not unique to London; it is seen in many big US cities, including New York, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles. ... People arrive in their 20s looking for jobs, then retreat in their 30s. Although it seems more…

Another issue with living in urban areas, at least in the US, is education. Schools in urban areas deal with more issues around family and poverty. The school buildings themselves are often older and require more maintenance. For young parents who may love urban life, the quality of education becomes a big factor.

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#278

Post by linuxftw »

bluGill wrote: post #246
linuxftw wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Cars are a solution to a (set of) problem. Remove the problem(s), remove the cars. Cars, also, not really that big of a problem in themselves. Commuting is the problem. This is a symptom of depressed wages; people are willing to spend extra time (commute) in place of extra money (rent).

People are willing to spend time on the car commute because zoning won't allow you a good job to exist within walking distance of a house. Shopping isn't allowed within walking distance of either of the above either. We are back to square one: zoning won't allow anything other than car oriented lifestyles. It is a self reinforcing vicious cycle. You can break it anywhere. I recommend started with breaking zoning beca…

I think the system will eventually collapse under it's own weight. When enough people have 'had enough.'

First step is to eliminate eminent domain. More infrastructure only begets more people using said infrastructure. When the many can't take from the few, they might actually have to give up some of their luxuries to have what they want (eg, a place to work).

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#279

Post by 0xffff2 »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #269
0xffff2 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you own your house? I'm curious because you speak as if "where you live" is an immutable fact, whereas my solution would to be to move closer to work.

For some people, moving isn't very easy. If you have kids there's the whole issue with switching schools, etc. If you tend to switch jobs frequently it may be a case of just getting settled and now you're in a new job. Moving is also, for many people, a gigantic pain that they'd rather avoid, even if it means suffering through traffic every day.

The original comment says "it's almost impossible to live close to where you work". None of the things you mention come anywhere near the bar of "nearly impossible" in my book. As far as I can tell, it's completely possible.

Re: To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars

#280

Post by rootusrootus »

adrianN wrote: post #259
rootusrootus wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And places that are already dramatically denser than the vast majority of the developed world. Over the weekend I found myself looking for a place in Europe in satellite view, outside of an urban core, and I was struck by how many single-family houses there were, complete with driveways and cars. Here on HN I have been led to believe that Europe is a utopia of forward-thinking people too concerned about the environme…

Half the people in Berlin don't own a car. 45% of the commutes in Copenhagen happen by bicycle.

Over half the people in NYC don't own a car.
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