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If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

streets.mn

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Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#91

Post by evandale »

psunavy03 wrote: post #6
paulcole wrote: post #4

The thing is we (as an American society) really don’t want a shift to walking. We like the idea of walking more but won’t actually do it. Instead we’ll make up a million excuses about why we just can’t walk. I say this as someone who at 40 years old has never learned to drive and who has walked/bicycled/taken the bus virtually everywhere I’ve needed to go. And I’ve lived in very rural and very suburban areas, as well…

> I say this as someone who at 40 years old has never learned to drive and who has walked/bicycled/taken the bus virtually everywhere I’ve needed to go. I say this with no mockery or disrespect, just description . . . you are not normal. I mean in a statistical sense. Not only are you part of (maybe the last) generation who salivated over the thought of getting a driver's license at 16 and getting away from Mom and D…

You really don't need a car. Bikes are awesome. You can ride them with backpacks. Friends have trucks. Money pays for delivery.

Source: a normal 38 year old that never had a license

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#92

Post by OfSanguineFire »

PaulHoule wrote: post #73
goda90 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have literally seen people scoff at biking or riding the bus as something for poor people. It is a common sentiment.

There is this story that nobody takes the bus in L.A. but when I go there and ride the bus the bus is always full. It is not bad at all to ride the bus from Beverly Hills to Hollywood but the bus does not stop at Rodeo Drive, you have to pick it up on the next street over.

Surprised to hear the bus is always full. I took the Metrolink train from Union Station to San Bernardino recently, during an hour when people ought to be going home from work, and it was spookily empty. The one single other passenger in sight told me it was usually so empty. I thought of how crazy it was to offer this huge rail infrastructure - which really did seem cheap and convenient - for so few people to use.

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#93

Post by akira2501 »

"People should walk!"

Pictures of miles long suburban corridors with no services or business along them.

Maybe.. people don't walk there.. because there's no _reason_ to be walking there.

If you want people to walk, give them a reason other than "I don't like cars."

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#94

Post by bryanlarsen »

_8j50 wrote: post #85

Just throwing it out there but it would be nice if there were a lot more pesestrian and bike only roads built separate from car roads. Big cities already have recreational walking trails that typically follow some sort of a drainage or sewage "river". Another thing I wondered is how under most city streets there is already wiring and tunnels and some infra. Is the cost that unreasonable to convert roads one by one so…

> Big cities already have recreational walking trails

Those are a great example of the problem. Often those recreational walking trails are very nice, but they don't go anywhere functional.

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#95

Post by dalke »

mikenew wrote: post #53
arrowsmith wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I'm in a new city I love to go for an aimless walk with no destination in mind just to get lost, get a feel for the place and see what I discover. Then I visited the US and quickly realised that this is a terrible idea in pretty much any American city.

There are a few exceptions but yeah, it's bad. I remember visiting Houston and asking the hotel receptionist which way to walk to get to some restaurants a half mile away, and it was clear that no one had ever asked that before. And sure enough it was a terrible experience.

We had rented a car from San Francisco to San Diego. My wife was going to drop off the car at the airport. We asked at the hotel (by the harbor near Little Italy) how to get back. 'Uber'. We then looked at the map and realized it was about 0.5 miles away, with sidewalks the whole way. She walked.

My Houston experience was when I wanted to go to a nearby salsa place. It was about 3 blocks away from the motel, as the crow flies, but the other side of the interstate. It required a car to get there.

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#96

Post by wnc3141 »

I think what's being noticed here, as in many urbanist conversations, is that our urban conditions are primarily reflective of the vastly unequal socio-economic structure we have at large.

In places where the working poor are the most disadvantaged, there also tends to be the highest auto dependency. (Think American South, Panama City, Panama etc)

To Soap box for a moment, almost all of our problems are reflective of our vast inequality. Our ability to live more sustainably, enjoy greater opportunity, ability to form new businesses, household formations, civic function etc. ultimately are limited by the degree of inequality a nation faces.

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#98

Post by barbazoo »

mc32 wrote: post #51
Guvante wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had trees, they ripped them out in the name of safety. "A drink driver might swerve off the road" killed so many old growth trees in the US.

It wasn’t one reason. Some of it came down to liability (buckling sidewalks, falling limbs in storms, pruning), public safety (baddies can hide under trees and away from choppers before FLiR), impact on utilities (100+ years ago maybe there was a sewer line and maybe a water line, but not much else in most places).

You're not wrong but man have we unlearned in many parts of the world how to live alongside nature.

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#99

Post by routerl »

aeternum wrote: post #81

I don't like the word dignity for this. I think a clearer term would be priority. We want to encourage people to be pedestrians so pedestrians should have priority over cars. In some countries, pressing a walk button actually triggers the stoplight to cycle to yellow then red for cars. Why not implement that more frequently? Also favor putting cars/roadways through tunnels rather than pedestrians. Surface can be nice…

Priority is a ceiling which can shift; see the history of public transit in LA, before car companies destroyed it.

Dignity is a floor; it is very difficult to lower a floor.

Re: If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

#100

Post by ttymck »

aeternum wrote: post #81

I don't like the word dignity for this. I think a clearer term would be priority. We want to encourage people to be pedestrians so pedestrians should have priority over cars. In some countries, pressing a walk button actually triggers the stoplight to cycle to yellow then red for cars. Why not implement that more frequently? Also favor putting cars/roadways through tunnels rather than pedestrians. Surface can be nice…

What don't you like about the word dignity in this context?
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