I couldn’t agree more with the article. Unfortunately as for America I think people wouldn’t be very happy with turning their stroads into streets. There is a very toxic self centered car culture here; any impediment to it real or imaginary will make people very angry.
The Stroad
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Re: The Stroad
#22This feels like saying that we should only have supercomputers and low-power embedded devices, and nothing in between such as regular desktop computers.
It's saying that currently only desktop computers are being built, and they're being shoehorned into both supercomputer applications (modelling weather) and embedded areas (controlling a lightbulb via a Dell OptiPlex).
Having two classes of devices would be an improvement of the current situation.
Re: The Stroad
#23I couldn’t agree more with the article. Unfortunately as for America I think people wouldn’t be very happy with turning their stroads into streets. There is a very toxic self centered car culture here; any impediment to it real or imaginary will make people very angry.
The cognitive dissonance is wild.
The busiest and most economically vibrant areas in the US are the ones that deprioritize cars (main streets, downtowns, outdoor malls, bar districts).
But if you try to change an existing area into a less car friendly area people absolutely lose their heads
Re: The Stroad
#24Anytime I leave the city and spend a few days getting around by car I’m amazed at just how completely exhausting it is to go shopping or run errands in suburbia. I am not sure why exactly, after all I’m just sitting there, but I think all the stop-and-go and waiting 10 minutes at lights trying to get across a stroad intersection to a shop I can see the whole time is a big contributor.
In a proper (that is, probably not North-American) suburb you can do errands walking or cycling.
Re: The Stroad
#25I couldn’t agree more with the article. Unfortunately as for America I think people wouldn’t be very happy with turning their stroads into streets. There is a very toxic self centered car culture here; any impediment to it real or imaginary will make people very angry.
My favorite example of this is something I saw in a local bicycle planning study. A 4 lane stretch about 6 blocks long was converted to 2 lanes with parking and wider sidewalks (with the idea that people will naturally drive a bit slower with less of the street devoted to traffic). Someone was livid that it had happened, ranting about delays at the light on one end of the stretch. At busy times, the typical wait at the light is for the green (so not even a full cycle). Very occasionally a couple of cars don't make the busiest left on the first green.
Re: The Stroad
#26I don't think this article is making the point veey clearly, but it is a very important point: roads are for long distance connections at speed, streets are for local traffic: reaching houses, shops, people. These stroads try to do both and fail at both because the goals are contradictory; you can't have high speed traffic with lots of side streets and crossing traffic, bikes and pedestrians. It will be too slow for…
We have lots of slow and calm streets in American suburbia, and we love them that way. We value this calm so much that we refuse to admit shopping or even multi-family housing to them, for fear of disturbing it. These uses have to go somewhere, so they go where there is no presumption of an entitlement to low traffic, and that’s the road.
The businesses hardly complain; they love to be where the greatest numbers of eyeballs and potential impulse shoppers are going by.
Maybe you could start with a strong street vs. road discipline, but I would predict that within 40 years any American polity will surely break it, and the stroad will re-emerge.
Re: The Stroad
#27This feels like saying that we should only have supercomputers and low-power embedded devices, and nothing in between such as regular desktop computers.
No, its like saying that a kitchen surface should have clear femarcation between a stove for cooking and a prep surface, and wen you mix them you get molten chopping board and house fires
Re: The Stroad
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't live on a road, you either live on a street or stroad. A road by definition does not have building access. Maybe your backyard faces a road, but you couldn't drive onto it with a car from there.
That isn't the popular definition of a road, at least not in the US.
That is the definition used by the article being commented on.
Re: The Stroad
#2914 third party scripts and images don't render properly without them.
Re: The Stroad
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
That isn't the popular definition of a road, at least not in the US.
That is the definition used by the article being commented on.
Barely (it doesn't say anything about no building access).
In any case, if that is the point, it's better to say it that way, to talk about the distinction the article is making (like the sibling comment to the one I replied to) rather than saying "by definition" with some expectation that the conversation is being carried out with whatever precise set of definitions you've chosen.