Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would picture a Berlin drug dealer as being perfectly comfortable riding a bicycle.
You can carry much less on a bike.
Flip side: if you get caught, it's a lesser crime because you don't have as much on you.
Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
231–240 of 286 posts
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, they do not: https://taxfoundation.org/states-road-funding-2019/ && https://taxfoundation.org/gasoline-taxes-and-user-fees-pay-o... Drivers are heavily subsidized.
Those are pretty interesting links. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if there's any way to come up with a net value overall for those subsidies? For example, pre-K education is fully subsidized in some states and it looks like the total economic results over a long time are very positive. How would you go about figuring out if those road subsidies are too high or too low?
Good question, and a tough one.
You'd want to look at total benefits (easier movement of people and goods) vs total costs (environment, sedentary lifestyle health problems, wasted space in cities).
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
This only works in bigger cities, where there is plenty of heavily subsidized public transport such as Berlin. Most smaller towns that went car free killed their businesses or made them move to shopping districts on the outskirts which are still reachable by car. Leading to "dead" inner parts of town and very unhappy citizens. Oh, and skyrocketing rents in the subsidized cities such as Berlin...
It's funny that you are using "heavily subsidized public transport" while using the entierly subsidized road system...
> entirely
Forgetting fuel taxes?
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. Whenever there is talk about pedestrianizing a street in my town, the usual suspects immediately claim that this will make local businesses go bankrupt since "people can't drive up to them". Never mind that stopping isn't allowed anyway on those streets. I don't understand the logic.
Toronto? We literally had an outspoken opponent of a traffic reduction program (not even totally car-free) build an ice statue that flipped the bird to passers-by in protest. In the end I think he cost himself business because of his attitude. You're not alone in not understanding. The program (called the King St Pilot Project here in TO) has made taking that street as a transit user and pedestrian far more palatable…
Here's what the problem was. The King St Project dramatically improved transit. Tens of thousands of people were getting home earlier.
This was good for riders.
However there were a few nice but not noteworthy restaurants that got a lot of evening customers who were people waiting for King St to get moving and decided to give up and have dinner or a few drinks.
Think of it along the lines of airport restaurants suffering due to reduced flight delays and reliably fast security clearance.
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
The anti-quint/sext/septuplet bias in this comment is astounding.
Chasing a rabbit trail here but how many parents have >4 children in the US?
This is a findable answer[0], though this only shows 3 or more children. Looks like 7,008,000 families have 3 or more children. Looking at the same site[1] for the number of people between, say, 15 and 49 (the thought being anyone less than 15 probably isn't a "parent" and anyone over 49 doesn't have children living at home anymore, or at least not ones they need to transport), we get 150.67 million "parents".
Some quick math gets us about 4.6%. Incidentally, that's similar to the number of LGBTQ persons in the US (4.5%)[2]
[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183790/number-of-familie...
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the...
[2] https://news.gallup.com/poll/234863/estimate-lgbt-population...
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#236Iowa City has a pedestrian mall in the heart of downtown and it's the most charming, lively, interesting place in the city. Not to mention, it's safe, fun, and pleasant for all ages. There's music, dancing, a playground, food, etc.
Iowa City and their pedestrian mall is easily one of the best places to spend a couples days at in the Midwest. Being a college town, it’s a bit of an oasis in the Midwest for all sorts of fantastic local restaurants, arts, and people. Without the pedestrian mall, it wouldn’t be half the city it is today.
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Toronto? We literally had an outspoken opponent of a traffic reduction program (not even totally car-free) build an ice statue that flipped the bird to passers-by in protest. In the end I think he cost himself business because of his attitude. You're not alone in not understanding. The program (called the King St Pilot Project here in TO) has made taking that street as a transit user and pedestrian far more palatable…
Here's what the problem was. The King St Project dramatically improved transit. Tens of thousands of people were getting home earlier. This was good for riders. However there were a few nice but not noteworthy restaurants that got a lot of evening customers who were people waiting for King St to get moving and decided to give up and have dinner or a few drinks. Think of it along the lines of airport restaurants suffe…
That runs counter to the data I’d previously seen. Business owners claimed spending went down when it was reported as going up.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4390635/king-street-pilot-project...
Or see the city’s YoY report, page 16:
https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/8fb5-TS_Ki...
The restaurants that suffered were belonged to the fellow I mentioned and those that aligned themselves with him. He was already a bit of a notorious blowhard.
What you’re describing is what they claimed would happen, but didn’t because more people were encouraged to spend time there.
Even anecdotally I certainly spend more time there after films than I otherwise did because it’s so much better to move through rather than a total blockade of cars every single day rendering it basically a non-consideration—at least on our part.
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would picture a Berlin drug dealer as being perfectly comfortable riding a bicycle.
You can carry much less on a bike.
Which hardly matters if your product has an excellent price/weight ratio.
My understanding (not being involved in the field in any role) is that even car-based street dealers carry far less product than one could comfortably pack on a bike.
And a cargo bike could probably move a quite respectable quantity even by wholesale dealer standards.
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mostly fine, sometimes a problem. It's pretty much like regular bikes (or cars for that matter): some might not work well if there is significant snow/ice, but then you will just need one that is suitable for those sort of conditions. The scooter companies are putting out very low end models that aren't designed for any sort of adverse conditions, and they are scared of lawsuits/blowback from accidents. This sort of…
I hope e-scooters never make it out of infancy. Bikes are infinitely more practical and capable. They are more stable at all speeds. They can have significantly more cargo carrying capacity. Bikes can be fitted (for the most part) with different tires/wheels to handle adverse conditions more easily than a scooter can. I hope for the infanticide of e-scooter transportation. It's a grotesque, subooptimal solution than…
In many cities bikes get stolen within minutes from parking.
Most e-scooters can be folded up and carried into shops, offices and so on.
Re: Car-Free Streets Will Soon Be the Norm
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
The more roadways you build to accommodate cars, the more cars fill up the roadways, as long as more people have cars in the city. [0] On the other hand, public transit can be designed to ease congestion and allow movement between densely populated areas. Moreover, cost of building public transit keeps on increasing [1]. The solution is not more roadways to magically reduce congestion. It's to build public transit to…
I do not disagree with anything you say. If I was in any position of power, getting rid of cars would be a top priority. My personal favorite country in the world is the Netherlands, specifically for its cycling and public transportation. However, as I said, I believe you (and greenonion) are oversimplifying a complex problem. If you've ever been to any US city, you will see just how much influence the car has had in…
I am telling you that the problem in India was just as complex and the political system there is also democratic.
And yes, I have been to US cities multiple times, and I don't see why the challenges there are so very different. New Delhi is denser than New York. Its traffic situation was as bad as New York. I am not saying implementation is easy. I am saying implementation is feasible. It's a matter of public and political will. What's holding it back is not that somehow the problem is so complex that it can't be solved.
Adding to the point of induced demand on traffic, thankfully it works the other way too. The traffic situation does not get significantly worse when roads are reduced. The Alaskan viaduct highway in Seattle is an example of this.
Edit: And I have seen the transformation of Vancouver to accommodate bike lanes too, and while Vancouver is nowhere as dense, my point is that the traffic situation did not actually get worse when bike lanes were introduced.