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Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

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Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#101

Post by bcrosby95 »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #95
WalterBright wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the area where I live, the schools are in easy walking distance. I never see kids walk or bike to school.

Maybe because you're not out right before or after school? I know that at least where I live in Ontario, if you live within 3 km (elementary) or 5 km (secondary) of the school you are not entitled to bus pick-up. Maybe some parents drive their kids, but most kids walk, and a few bike. Also, if you live farther away than that, the bus stop could be as far away as 0.5 km where the bus picks up a lot of kids at one time…

In my experience, a lot of these people (mayor's, etc) are huge transit nerds. The problem is getting the citizens and budget behind it.

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#102

Post by robocat »

jmyeet wrote: post #7

The real lesson of mall walking is that it came about because in many places there's literally nowhere else you can walk. Non-Americans may be vaguely aware that America has a sickness of car dependency but may be unaware of the extent of it. I present to you the 26 lane Katy Freeway in Houston, Texas [1]. Non-Americans may not realize just how large these cities are geographically. I believe one end of the Houston m…

FYI: that “highway” is a photoshop fake.

Note the pattern of dark heavily driven lanes - that is the most used slow lane copied again and again. See other comment pointing to reddit discussion.

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#103

Post by niftich »

jjav wrote: post #100
niftich wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norfolk / Virginia Beach, VA: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.7727569,-76.0409875/Harri... https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.7651538,-75.9875131/ALDI,... https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.695792,-76.2014209/Harris... Charlotte, NC: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/35.1699757,-80.7776553/Publi... https://www.google.com/maps/dir/35.3178445,-80.8026925/Food+... https://www.google.com/maps/dir/35.1256141,-80.764483/H…

Great links, thanks! The North Carolina ones I wouldn't quite consider a suburb, given the large forested areas and huge lots, that's pretty rural already. The VA and OK ones are good examples! At least the roads seem nice for cycling. Las Vegas seems particularly hellish, with the heat probably wouldn't even cycle these routes.

Perhaps it's a terminology issue. No one in the visible map frames of the Charlotte links would consider themselves to live in a 'rural' area. Sure, their neighborhood might be pleasant and quiet, and there's abundant tree cover, but the mapped path is alongside houses the entire time. The linear density is high. In a rural area, there exist lots with generous road frontage that interrupt the linear sea of homes.

This is a nearby area that those residents would agree is rural: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3612637,-80.3818699,5696m/da...

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#104

Post by jjav »

niftich wrote: post #103
jjav wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great links, thanks! The North Carolina ones I wouldn't quite consider a suburb, given the large forested areas and huge lots, that's pretty rural already. The VA and OK ones are good examples! At least the roads seem nice for cycling. Las Vegas seems particularly hellish, with the heat probably wouldn't even cycle these routes.

Perhaps it's a terminology issue. No one in the visible map frames of the Charlotte links would consider themselves to live in a 'rural' area. Sure, their neighborhood might be pleasant and quiet, and there's abundant tree cover, but the mapped path is alongside houses the entire time. The linear density is high. In a rural area, there exist lots with generous road frontage that interrupt the linear sea of homes. Thi…

Yes, there is certainly terminology ambiguity on what "suburb" is.

To me the huge lots, big setbacks of houses away from street and major forest cover, isn't a suburb. The new link you posted seem more like farmland, not rural housing.

To me a suburb is where houses or townhouses (but no highrises) are packed next to each other in small lots.

But yes, it would be useful to have more specific definitions of housing densities instead of dumping everything that's not farmland or Manhattan into "suburb".

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#105

Post by micromacrofoot »

starkd wrote: post #66
phil21 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very mixed feelings about this sort of thing. On one hand, it's practical and seems to immediately offer a minor amount of relief for a very small number of people. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good and all that. On the other hand, the urban design that caused the social fabric of the country to fall apart will remain, causing the problem to continue unabated. You need to fix this before the people get old to ha…

Building up lasting institutions is only going to happen from the ground up, starting at the local level. I tend to doubt it can successfully be imposed from the top down - especially not by the government.

maybe not the federal government, but states could do it - eliminating single-family zoning, for example

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#106

Post by WalterBright »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #95
WalterBright wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the area where I live, the schools are in easy walking distance. I never see kids walk or bike to school.

Maybe because you're not out right before or after school? I know that at least where I live in Ontario, if you live within 3 km (elementary) or 5 km (secondary) of the school you are not entitled to bus pick-up. Maybe some parents drive their kids, but most kids walk, and a few bike. Also, if you live farther away than that, the bus stop could be as far away as 0.5 km where the bus picks up a lot of kids at one time…

> Maybe because you're not out right before or after school?

Given that I get stuck behind the school bus a lot, that's not it.

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#107

Post by tomcam »

throwawayForMe2 wrote: post #62
tomcam wrote: post #31

> Anderson, sitting in for a day, observes the largely male population commenting on ladies’ dress and appearance, reading the paper, and, in one case, getting served coffee by a woman acting as mall “wife.” Wut Couldn’t find references on the Web… what is a mall wife?

Have you heard of a “work wife”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_spouse

Yeah that was my best guess too… so maybe the mall wife was someone they walked with?

Re: Lessons from the golden age of the mall walkers

#108

Post by pnutjam »

jjav wrote: post #93
coastflow wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There might be two separate assertions under discussion. One is that it is typically difficult in a suburb to get to a landmark destination (e.g. to the grocery store, to the gym, to a coffee shop, and to work) just by walking, without a car. This is true. At the same time, suburbs with low rates of crime are typically nicer to walk around without a destination in mind. It’s typically easier to go outside for a jog o…

> One is that it is typically difficult in a suburb to get to a landmark destination (e.g. to the grocery store, to the gym, to a coffee shop, and to work) just by walking, without a car. > This is true. Could you post a few map links to suburbs (not rural) where you can't walk to, say, a grocery store or a coffee shop?

https://goo.gl/maps/fzso3eAFVVKKtsZb7

Scroll all over the east side of Indianapolis. This is near where I grew up.

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