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Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

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Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#81

Post by dorchadas »

bllguo wrote: post #33
cletus wrote: post #17

No, they don’t. This is a classic example of listening to what people say vs observing what they do. And it’s a good lesson in product development. Ask your users “do you want X?” And the answer is inevitably “yes”. Ask them “do you want A or B?” And you’ll start to get a better approximation of user behavior. Better yet is observing actual behavior. In this case Americans have chosen the suburbs in droves. Americans…

Agreed. If we truly wanted them we would be willing to give up car ownership, single family homes, and suburban sprawl. I doubt that will ever happen in this hyper-individualistic culture. Hopefully it is uncontroversial by now to say that an enormous swath of American society does not believe in self-sacrifice.

I would love to give all that up. But until change happens, I can't. It's a chicken-and-egg problem. I believe many would give that up if they could, especially younger people, but there's no option to give it up currently.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#82

Post by Gigachad »

brighton36 wrote: post #12
jackson1442 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need more apartments for purchase rather than renting in America. That's practically unheard of in Texas- just about anything in a shared building is only for rent.

I think the problems of governance are non-trivial in tenant-owned apartments. Not that they can't work, obviously. But, I think the ability to 'vote with your feet', is a bit more powerful than the ability to reconcile disagreements between owners.

I think for things to work, we need to seriously cut down the fees for selling a house. The fees and laws are set up for someone who buys/sells once every few decades. So if you move frequently, there is no way you could be a owner without taking serious losses.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#83

Post by lotsofpulp »

foxpurple wrote: post #62
lotsofpulp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Condos have their own problems. See the collapsed building in Miami.

I’m not sure why a freak accident should be used as an example of anything. If anything it stands to show how insanely problem free modern buildings are if one building falling down is shocking news globally and known as one of the worst non malicious building issues in the developed world.

The incentives do not line up since condo owners who will be out before problems affect them will vote to kick the can down the road. Even if other buildings do not collapse, it is common to hear of excessive repair bills because of it being delayed until the last minute.

This happens with cities too, but the tax base is greater to spread the cost over and there is a higher likelihood of more qualified people working, rather than on individual condo boards.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#84

Post by xnyan »

bllguo wrote: post #33
cletus wrote: post #17

No, they don’t. This is a classic example of listening to what people say vs observing what they do. And it’s a good lesson in product development. Ask your users “do you want X?” And the answer is inevitably “yes”. Ask them “do you want A or B?” And you’ll start to get a better approximation of user behavior. Better yet is observing actual behavior. In this case Americans have chosen the suburbs in droves. Americans…

Agreed. If we truly wanted them we would be willing to give up car ownership, single family homes, and suburban sprawl. I doubt that will ever happen in this hyper-individualistic culture. Hopefully it is uncontroversial by now to say that an enormous swath of American society does not believe in self-sacrifice.

I think you are dismissing or not considering a major part of living in a walkable area - the cost of housing at any square footage. I know I did until quite recently.

I really want to live in a walkable city, and would be thrilled not to own a car and live in a smaller space. I'm a remote dev, and as my partner just finished graduate school and is starting their professional career I thought we'd have the perfect opportunity to live the dream and move somewhere where we could use walking/biking as our primary form of transportation.

Turns out, there's a very limited supply of walkable communities in the US and they have a significant premium. We gotta pay off graduate school loans and even with higher salaries, it would be years of additional repayments living in somewhere like Seattle or New York vs a suburb of Raleigh, NC. There are small and more out of the way walkable communities, but not really any with good job prospects. Maybe at some point in the future, but right now I honestly don't think I can afford it.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#85

Post by TulliusCicero »

notJim wrote: post #31
standardUser wrote: post #4

Add up the roads, parking spaces, parking garages, gas stations (not to mention auto shops, drive thrus and car washes) and the total urban footprint is a gargantuan 50-60% by many calculations. That's not automatically a bad thing, especially if you are a car, but all of that space creates massive buffers separating all of the other stuff that humans want to walk to. To make it worse, those buffers are far and away…

Something I only recently learned is that zoning rules generally require housing developments to include a certain amount of parking. This drives up the cost of housing, because of the space required (either up or out.) Many cities are reducing or eliminating these requirements in an effort to make housing more affordable. However, it does mean that parking will become harder, as there will be more competition for st…

Not just housing developments. Virtually all development tends to be mandated to provide large amounts of car parking.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#86

Post by worik »

throw0101a wrote: post #49
jackson1442 wrote: post #5

I like my car and I like driving. That said, I don't like driving _everywhere_. When I moved to university, it was incredibly freeing to just be able to walk somewhere I wanted to go rather than getting in my car and driving miles to get anywhere. I grew up in a suburb in Texas so walking anywhere except _maybe_ a friend's house was entirely out of the question. I visited Portland recently and it was lovely to be abl…

> I like my car and I like driving. There's a difference between having a car as an option as a form of transportation versus having it be a necessity .

Which is the whole point of designing cities so cars are not needed

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#87

Post by TulliusCicero »

throw0101a wrote: post #49
jackson1442 wrote: post #5

I like my car and I like driving. That said, I don't like driving _everywhere_. When I moved to university, it was incredibly freeing to just be able to walk somewhere I wanted to go rather than getting in my car and driving miles to get anywhere. I grew up in a suburb in Texas so walking anywhere except _maybe_ a friend's house was entirely out of the question. I visited Portland recently and it was lovely to be abl…

> I like my car and I like driving. There's a difference between having a car as an option as a form of transportation versus having it be a necessity .

Yes, though a lot of Americans don't see it that way. People I talk to think I must hate driving, because I think we should have effective options for walking, biking, and public transit.

I don't hate driving. I hate being forced to drive.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#88

Post by xputer »

iammisc wrote: post #6
foxpurple wrote: post #2

I recently moved from a house in the suburbs in Australia to an apartment in the city. Got rid of my car and now I just walk to everything I need. I couldn’t be happier. Driving was such a huge stress on my life that is now gone. I can get anything I need within a 10 minute walk. The thing is it just doesn’t seem like the average person is willing to give up single family houses to gain walkability. For me, I would n…

Or... hear me out. You could just build walkable suburbs. Why there is a distinction between 'suburb' and 'smaller city' is beyond me, but there really is. A small city still has a walkable downtown core with apartments around which there is a small area of single family homes within walking distance to the downtown area. A suburb is just tracts of single family homes and nothing else for miles on end. No real 'busin…

Amen to that. Actually getting it done is a big hairy problem I'm afraid though :(

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#89

Post by dghlsakjg »

foxpurple wrote: post #61
notJim wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I only recently learned is that zoning rules generally require housing developments to include a certain amount of parking. This drives up the cost of housing, because of the space required (either up or out.) Many cities are reducing or eliminating these requirements in an effort to make housing more affordable. However, it does mean that parking will become harder, as there will be more competition for st…

You can reset your costs by renting out the car park. I make $50 AUD/week renting out my city car park to someone who works near by.

In many places outside urban cores in the US, the rules are such that the amount of parking created is far in excess of demand. You could try and rent your spot, but it would be pointless. Inside urban cores the parking is frequently underground and gated off so that it makes it hard to rent out without breaking the security rules for your building.

At the last place I lived in Vancouver, BC there was 2 levels of underground parking for 3 stories of living space. It is absolutely wild to think that a building along a major transit corridor was required to reserve 2/5 of their building for private vehicles in a city that is famously progressive with transit (for north america)

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#90

Post by dghlsakjg »

MarkLowenstein wrote: post #55
version_five wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's hardest to find, and what I prefer, is somewhere it's easy to walk and drive. I've lived in walkable places where if you do have to drive, traffic is a nightmare. And then of course there are places where you can drive without traffic but there is nowhere to walk to. I think I prefer the latter with my lifestyle, though it becomes more frustrating for meeting friends, going our for dinner + drinks, etc. For sp…

I've never run into a walkable city center where there was one super-obvious and convenient place to park--maybe a gigantic underground garage--and then you walk everywhere from there. Feels like that might work. The attractive city centers have nice stuff, but too few people who live within walking distance to keep them in business and in good shape. They need a way to bring in suburbanites and visitors to supplemen…

Amsterdam has big parking lots outside the city center. If you park there you get a free transit pass into the city I believe.

Makes a lot of sense really

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