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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

#151

Post by lucumo »

throw0101a wrote: post #61
lucumo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. This is only true if you live in an inner city bubble. Cars are pretty popular ways of getting about in the suburbs and rural areas.

Oh the Urbanity recently visited the Netherlands and did a profile video, "The Fascinating Human-Scale Urbanism of Dutch Suburbia": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nImFJ7KKjAo > Cars are pretty popular ways of getting about in the suburbs and rural areas. But how much are cars needed on a day-to-day basis for day-to-day errands? I don't think any is saying that they are not useful (at times), but you can have them…

Errands? I guess you could get by without a car. But then, you could get by without leaving the house for the most part, with groceries and other stuff delivered to your door.

Still, the average number of cars per household is more than 1 in the suburbs. And that's no surprise really, because work is not in the suburbs. Especially not the jobs that pay enough to live in suburbia.

If you're lucky the one bus line or tram line in your suburb goes to near your job. More commonly, it doesn't.

Look, people use cars because they are practical. They are fucking expensive, so anyone who reasonably can do without, will. People in inner cities do not use cars that often, because a car is a heavier burden there. Parking is expensive and difficult in the city.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#152

Post by 2023throwawayy »

ehaliewicz2 wrote: post #95
2023throwawayy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Needing to download an app, and saying "you need to book in advance" are not the same thing. Just because you didn't want to deal with it and didn't do research ahead of time doesn't mean "We couldn’t even park downtown". You didn't want to, and that's fine.

Plenty of cities get away with garages that don't require an app. Don't normalize shitty things like that.

I prefer being able to see my time remaining via the app and extend time if needed. Don't tell me what to "normalize".

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#153

Post by axus »

gwbas1c wrote: post #143
supportengineer wrote: post #130

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.

> it's too bad we don't have a way to quickly setup housing (even temporary) in parking areas. RVs. Don't quote me, but I suspect some temporary shelters during disasters are RVs (and go to the exact parking lots you describe.) > We have an abundance of parking and a shortage of housing But I'm not sure that putting RVs in underutilized parking lots will solve the homeless crisis. (Assuming that's what you're referri…

I thought RVs had to worry about electricity and sewer hookups for anything over a few days.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#154

Post by xnx »

singleshot_ wrote: post #85
xnx wrote: post #13

Seems like parking is a side effect for people's preference for larger houses and yards. Convince people to live in smaller houses and share walls with their neighbors, and the parking situation would change dramatically.

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.

I'm not advocating that. For those that want to change parking, it seems like that's what they'll have to do.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#155

Post by chimeracoder »

everdrive wrote: post #122
abraxas wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

Not at all. New construction in NYC has excellent soundproofing. Even that is actually more a side-effect of changes to fire codes than a specific demand for soundproofing - buildings constructed with soundproofing as a specific goal can be even more insulated.

If you're in one of those buildings, it's actually quite difficult to hear your neighbors during any normal activity.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#156

Post by davidw »

catgary wrote: post #121
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.

I don't think many people are truly anti-car activists. Just that we need to redimension their absolute centrality to so many policies and budgets.

I'm involved in pro-housing politics and it's just amazing how many people are like "well, ok, sure, people need a place to live and all, but let's think FIRST about where to store the automobiles. If that works out, then I guess we can build some housing".

They don't say it quite like that, but it's the general idea.

Cities should be about people first and foremost. Places for them to live and do business. Cars are pretty convenient for some things, and many people want one...fine. But base the decisions around people first and then work out spaces for the cars.

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#157

Post by pharmakom »

ghayes wrote: post #138
david2ndaccount wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I never understood why you can’t do this to say 10% of city roads. That way there’s still car accessibility and you can continue to grow public transit, as well. Personally I think the majority of roads should be reclaimed to pedestrians and tracked rail cars. The only exception would be street-local deliveries/residents can enter and drive at say 3mph yielding to all pedestrians.

People literally took to the streets (ironic, I know) when they tried this in London, UK

Re: The force that shapes everything around us: Parking

#159

Post by bugglebeetle »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #140

It is insane how much actual land is used for ground-floor parking. You could house every homeless person in the USA with like 1/1000th of the available parking space, and park all the moved cars in vertical parking structures. But, geez, that costs money , and political clout, and homeless people don't exactly have a lobbying group.

It would cost less money than all that is already spent on homelessness combined, but violates the principle that real estate must function first as a wildly profitable speculative asset in expensive urban centers, which is why it’s verboten. You can set billions on fire with BS homelessness programs that both don’t compromise the underlying asset prices and provide myriad opportunities for graft, which is why they’re the favorite form of indirect taxation on real estate put in place by politicians. We already have and spend the money, just in the most corrupt and useless ways imaginable.
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