61–70 of 245 posts
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Yeah it does stump me. mass transit doesn’t cover this case 99% of the time. Sometimes there is a greyhound bus line or Amtrak that will get you where you need to go, but even in the best case driving will usually get you there faster and cheaper.
What does going places hundreds of miles away have to do with car-free streets in cities ?
I've dreamt about this. I would immediately move to the first US city that bans SOV commuters from a significant portion of the city (let's say, a couple square miles), and establishes superblocks where no vehicles are allowed whatsoever, with the old streets converted to green space. Of course, I doubt this will happen in my lifetime.
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Generally it start with charging a high daily congestion fee to drive into the city center. From there you expand the area. An 80k car that costs another 2-3k per year to drive into the city center, and maybe another 2-3k per year to park, at some point most people find it worthwhile to save the car for driving outside the city center.
Can't do that. The low and middle class here are also dependent on their banged up hatckbacks to get to work as they live very far from their jobs. If you make parking super expensive it's gonna hurt the Volkswagen man first and way harder than the Mercedes man.
If parking starts to carry its cost, rather than being subsidized by government regulation, then it quite likely becomes more economical to rely on mass transit than banged-up hatchbacks. But yes, changing from horribly-designed cities spread out over vast areas that depend on cars to navigate to human-oriented cities with effective mass transit is a huge project, and would require thinking about solutions that take into account the currently-hidden costs of the current designs.
I’m guessing so many people on HN are anti-car because they live their lives through their computer and never feel the need to travel outside their immediate area? What are you supposed to do if you like to take trips to places hundreds of miles away? What if your job involves visiting many different locations in your city throughout the day? I have family that lives in the same city as me and the difference between…
Coming from Paris, NYC has pretty terrible transport (and Paris’s isn’t that great either)
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Self-driving cars are going trigger a new wave of automobile growth, at least in the US. They won't be dangerous, will run clean, be super convenient and unbelievably inexpensive to own and operate. They are going to throw gasoline on the sprawl fire. There will certainly be some city centers and other areas closed to car traffic (although probably not most of Manhattan - delivery vehicles are a significant part of t…
> Self-driving cars are going trigger a new wave of automobile growth, at least in the US. They won't be dangerous, will run clean, be super convenient and unbelievably inexpensive to own and operate. My guess is that you are wrong. At least what comes to driving in cities. As the (current) main problem of cars in cities is not accidents, emissions, lack of convenience or even cost. It is the massive amount of space…
And even where there aren't commuting clusters, the fact is that cars will actually obey the laws, meaning pedestrians will finally be free to cross at unmarked intersections, and cyclists will be able to share the lanes with cars.
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Are there good city locations still available? (By water, large enough area available, not actively attempting to kill you)
There's a large, ideally-sited flat area just north of Windsor, Ontario that would be a great location for a large American city. Riverfront access with a navigable waterway, railroad and highway infrastructure, moderate climate. As far as I can tell there is no one actually living there right now.
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If Bogota can do it then rich European cities can do it. Think of it this way: whatever the cost to society of cheap and plentiful public transport it will be a small fraction of the cost of car based transportation. Parking, the cost of producing and maintaining the vehicles themselves, the pollution , the accidents, it all really adds up.
What exactly did Bogota do? Was pretty car-heavy last two times I was there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransMilenio
Every two to five minutes a bus.
Does anyone really think children will play on the streets when buses, trams, bicycles, emergency services, garbage trucks, and delivery vans still need that space? Does anyone really believe the "empty" parking lots will become public space? Consider two things: First, every apartment block in a city needs access by road for the emergency services. Second, a more livable city will attract more citizens. This in turn…
Yes, absolutely -- unless something like fearful parents prevent it. I work close to some of the central pedestrian streets in Copenhagen. If the weather is reasonable, children will play in three places around the building:
- (Mostly) boys around 10-14 years old play with skateboards where the road leads up to the start of the pedestrian street. Naturally, very few vehicles want to go this way during daytime.
- Children (4-8-ish?) with their parents or nursery staff play in the actual play area (swings etc). This area is fenced off.
- Some slightly older children (8-12?), especially with rollerskates or kick scooters, play around the play area, including in the street. This is a through route for cars on one side, and access to the pedestrian streets on the other sides.
The buses are 100m away, people riding bicycles will be particularly careful if children are playing, and people driving will wait until the children move out of the way, then proceed slowly. I can't remember the last time an emergency vehicle needed to go through, I assume all the children would quickly move out of the way. (Far, far more quickly and effectively than a line of cars in traffic would be able to!)
Most other streets in and around the pedestrian area have fewer children playing, but more adults using the street. There are many cafes, bars and restaurants with tables on the street.
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Are there good city locations still available? (By water, large enough area available, not actively attempting to kill you)
There's a large, ideally-sited flat area just north of Windsor, Ontario that would be a great location for a large American city. Riverfront access with a navigable waterway, railroad and highway infrastructure, moderate climate. As far as I can tell there is no one actually living there right now.
Sad to see this article does not mention Pontevedra(Spain), years living without cars in the city center.