Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

governing.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 370 posts

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#151

Post by readflaggedcomm »

megablast wrote: post #137
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…

You like pollution? You like polluting waterways with micro plastics from your tires? You don't care about the 40k killed every year in the USA? You don't care about the destruction of countryside with roads???

Love it. Enormous benefits.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#152

Post by throw0101a »

cletus wrote: post #147
throw0101a wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In this case Americans have chosen the [car-centric] suburbs in droves. What alternative do they have if that is all that is being built?

For the record, I'm not defending car-dependent living. I wish there were more walkable options in the US for people to live in (myself included). But there's an awful lot of copium in these kinds of threads that shallowly blame the lack of choice as to why American life is so car-dependent. Housing markets are extremely good at responding to consumer demand. Here's a good quantitative data point of people expressing…

> But there's an awful lot of copium in these kinds of threads that shallowly blame the lack of choice as to why American life is so car-dependent. Housing markets are extremely good at responding to consumer demand.

With-in the limits allowed by zoning policy. I'm not entirely laissez-faire but I think a lot of NIMBYism and just plain old inertial has been baked into by-laws and such.

Certain mandates can do good (tighter building envelopes, better insulation), while other mandates can do bad (minimum lot sizes).

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#153

Post by sologoub »

kumarsw wrote: post #138
nomel wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, it does mean that parking will become harder In the city I'm near, using public parking lots means a 20 minute walk to your destination, with a $10 fee from all the time walking (or uber), with private parking costing around $15, and no meters in sight. This creates an isolated area that people never go to for a bite to eat, coffee, window shopping, or anything really, since it's a > $10 fee just to step o…

The solution to this is plentiful, well-placed municipal parking garages priced cheaper than street parking. Santa Monica does this where they have about 6-7 city-run garages spaced throughout the city with easily visible electronic signage indicating the amount of available spaces. Street parking is much more spare and priced higher. It's an enlightened alternative to tearing down buildings for more single-level lot…

I wouldn’t cite SM as the model of municipal parking. Especially in conjunction with how poorly these support the expo light rail line - it’s not really feasible to drive in and get on the train to go to work for a day.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#154

Post by occz »

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…

>The thing is it just doesn’t seem like the average person is willing to give up single family houses to gain walkability.

As other comments have mentioned, you can have both. In addition to that, the reason that people choose single family-houses is not necessarily entirely by preference: almost all of the land zoned for housing in the U.S is zoned for single family-homes. Add onto that some arcane rules about minimum parking amounts, minimum setbacks from the street, and the fully absurd standard to which suburban streets are created (too wide, essentially mini-highways), and you get the mess that exists right now.

By addressing these problems, you'll go a long way to improve walkability.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#155

Post by NumberWangMan »

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…

In a lot of areas, street parking is actually a really good way to provide a barrier between the sidewalk and traffic. This physical safety provides psychological safety, so people feel a lot more comfortable with sidewalk dining, etc. A lane of parking can also separate car traffic from a bi-directional pair of bike lanes.

Also, a lot of cities have too many and/or too wide lanes, which makes drivers feel too safe driving unsafe speeds. You can use parking to "eat up" the extra space and make the street feel more crowded, which will make drivers slow down and drive a lot more carefully.

So street parking should absolutely not be seen as just a negative thing, it can serve a very useful function in the layout of a street.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#158

Post by nomel »

mrgordon wrote: post #139
nomel wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there is public transportation, but this is $6 and 20 minutes to the closest light rail stop. I never tried a bus. My point is that this area is almost only served by foot traffic, but getting your feet on the sidewalk has a pretty significant cost. I don't think this is odd though, since it's been the experience I've had getting to any downtown area. Visiting downtown San Fransisco costs around $10 to actually…

Lyft Line and Uber Pool were usually $4-5 around San Francisco before COVID and you can use electric bikes through the bike share for $15 for the entire month. Obviously it’s easier if you live near the walkable area, but it doesn’t need to be as expensive as you claim and SF is one of the more expensive cities.

> Lyft Line and Uber Pool were usually $4-5

Two way is $10.

> you can use electric bikes through the bike share for $15 for the entire month

That 20 minutes is back.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#159

Post by jandrese »

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…

Kids are a problem. Areas in the city with good walkability often have horrific school districts. You also get trapped renting.

Re: Surveys show Americans want more walkable cities

#160

Post by 55555 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #114
foxpurple wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I’m not sure why a freak accident should be used as an example of anything. Maybe follow the news a little more. Several MSM outlets over the last month have done in-depth stories about the fundamental problems with the condo model of ownership and maintainance. It has nothing inherently to do with construction methods; the evidence is that what happened in FL is a risk in an awful lot of condos all over the US.

Would you mind sharing a link?
Post reply on HN