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The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

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Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#121

Post by catgary »

UtopiaPunk wrote: post #30

There's an interesting interview with a designer of SimCity, where he discusses parking: Geoff Manaugh: While you were making those measurements of different real-world cities, did you discover any surprising patterns or spatial relationships Librande: Yes, definitely. I think the biggest one was the parking lots. When I started measuring out our local grocery store, which I don’t think of as being that big, I was bl…

I think anti-car activists would do great to mod SimCity to have realistic parking lots.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#122

Post by everdrive »

abraxas wrote: post #102
singleshot_ wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you propose convincing people to live four inches from their neighbor? This seems like somewhat of a challenging sale. I cannot speak for everyone, but I have lived this way and it is not good.

Don't build with shitty materials. There are ways to sound proof apartments to the degree that it's a non issue. Adding a facility in the vicinity for parties solves the issue of neighbours wanting to blast loud music (unless they are really obnoxious neighbours but in that case building management can take care of that).

Loud bass carries through pretty much any material. You’re going to need a cultural change where people in dense environments don’t play loud music, and watch their behavior after 8pm.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#123

Post by jltsiren »

falcolas wrote: post #75
MezzoDelCammin wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this topic is a bit of a rabbit hole. Yes, roads have always been there. Massive car infrastructure and parking has not. Looking back in time, most people would actually walk for most of their daily life. That reflected in how cities and villages were built. This layout has only changed after we started adopting cars as default mean of transportation (mostly 1930s and later, with some exceptions).

This may be an artifact of where I live, but most rural areas have always had a centralized city (post office, bar, church), and the vast majority of folks who called that village/city their home lived miles away from it on their farms. Horses and carriages were a practical requirement, since walking all day one way to visit the grocer was unrealistic.

Rural living traditionally meant living in dense villages surrounded by farmland. Lonely farms were more common in the frontier. There was safety in numbers, and living next to other households allowed sharing things that were too expensive for most households.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#125

Post by Cockbrand »

david2ndaccount wrote: post #109
damnesian wrote: post #23

>You could imagine a world in which streets were pedestrianized and where we planted trees and gardens and in what is currently space reserved for parking, and closed streets, outside schools, so kids can have places to play. I would love to see a LOT more of this in urban centers. I live in a college town that is about the same size as Iowa City. Iowa City has taken the step of closing off their downtown and making…

Part of the problem is you can’t just convert an area to a pedestrian area as people still need to be able to get there. You need to construct low cost parking garages around the area so people can still get there.

Comments like this make me appreciate living in a city that has a pretty comprehensive public transport coverage, and where bicycling is at least tolerable. The city you describe seems to be only usable by car.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#126

Post by pavel_lishin »

nradov wrote: post #105
elijaht wrote: post #51

I live car-free in NYC. A large appeal of NYC to me was not having to park. I don't ~mind~ driving, but I absolutely hated having to deal with finding parking when I lived in other cities. Parking generally makes me feel stressed (competition for free spots), or makes me pay (using something like SpotHero makes it easy to find a spot, but costs me). It's not even just major cities either- I'm frequently in a college…

I travel around the USA a fair amount. In the vast majority of cities, parking just isn't a problem. I drive my car where I want to go and park. Sometimes I have to pay. But the places where no parking is available are very rare. I am fully in favor of walkable neighborhoods and reducing the need to drive. But lack of parking is just not a stressor that most Americans worry about.

> I am fully in favor of walkable neighborhoods and reducing the need to drive. But lack of parking is just not a stressor that most Americans worry about.

Tell that to my local Facebook & Nextdoor groups.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#127

Post by mlyle »

dopidopHN wrote: post #100
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A college town's context is very different than that of the central business district and inner city of a large metropolitan area. Context doesn't just matter, it's one of, if not the most, important aspects to consider when selecting a development pattern. You can't turn downtown St. Lous into downtown Iowa City or even 'downtown' Seoul, South Korea. Dreamers hate this reality and will contort their assertions every…

Paris is closing the already pretty closed downtown ( along the Seine ). Does that qualify as large metro area? What are the actual piece of reality that makes it impossible in US cities?

It's totally possible, but not as a step change.

Heavy car traffic is a stable system that's actively unfriendly to pedestrian and bicycle uses. You need to slowly claw away space for bicycles and increase ridership; and then work to densify and intermix commercial and residential for things to work well.

It takes decades, and the initial steps make things worse even if the new equilibrium is better.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#128

Post by ghaff »

kibwen wrote: post #106
elijaht wrote: post #51

I live car-free in NYC. A large appeal of NYC to me was not having to park. I don't ~mind~ driving, but I absolutely hated having to deal with finding parking when I lived in other cities. Parking generally makes me feel stressed (competition for free spots), or makes me pay (using something like SpotHero makes it easy to find a spot, but costs me). It's not even just major cities either- I'm frequently in a college…

Sold my car years ago and moved to Boston. I'll never go back to live anywhere that requires me to own a car. I bike or walk everywhere, and what makes me hopeful is that biking infrastructure in Boston (and neighboring cities like Cambridge) has improved dramatically in the years since I've been here and just keeps getting better. Google tells me that the average TCO of car ownership in the US was $10,728 in 2022. B…

Although I think everyone I know who lives in Boston/Cambridge owns a car because they either commute/visit to friends out to the suburbs or do regular weekend activities like hiking or canoeing out in the suburbs/mountains--which can also involve specialized transportation for car-camping etc. You can work around a lot of this but a lot of people don't want to if they can afford it.

I don't live in the city but I'd definitely own a car if I did.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#129

Post by massysett »

sleepybrett wrote: post #82
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pity that they didn't bake in the option to turn on realistic parking lots and road sizes for the required capacity. It does have traffic jams and more roads can help, especially since the player can control induced demand far more than in reality, but allowing the player to switch between both what's a fun game and what's a realistic simulation could have gone a long way to inform a good chunk of the populati…

I haven't looked at 'cities: skylines' or if there is a sequel... recently. I'm wondering if they finally did start modeling parking. I think 'realistic parking' should probably be an option, like you said some people want the 'classic' sim-city experience and modeling. I'd hate to drive those people away from the 'cities' series, as it just seems to be sim-city without the EA enshittification. I think it could be re…

There is a sequel coming out in the next few months and the developers say that parking is modeled more realistically than in the first Cities: Skylines. In the first game, citizens did not park cars at all - cars appeared out of thin air, were driven to their destination, and then vanished again. Folks often called these "pocket cars" because citizens could put them into and take them out of their pants pockets.

Apparently in the sequel buildings actually have parking, and the cars sit in the parking lot. Some citizens such as older ones prefer to drive.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#130

Post by supportengineer »

We have an abundance of parking and a shortage of housing, it's too bad we don't have a way to quickly setup housing (even temporary) in parking areas. Most parking is already located near other utilities so they would already be close by. To start with, we could require every parking lot over a certain size provide basic amenities like public restrooms with showers and water fountains.
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