Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

streets.mn

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 713 posts

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

#391

Post by msla »

hfgjdssaghj wrote: post #221
rz2k wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a pretty strong anti-cycling stance, because I watched my New York neighborhood that was a pedestrian paradise significantly degraded by bike lanes. The balance of walking, subways, busses, taxis and delivery trucks had worked pretty well. Bicyclists introduced the concept of failing to yield, then acting indignant and entitled.

> I have a pretty strong anti-cycling stance, because I watched my New York neighborhood that was a pedestrian paradise significantly degraded by bike lanes. A car driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian walk into a café and order ten cream cakes. When the waitress places them on their table the car driver grabs nine of them and scoffs them in his face, then he leans over to the pedestrian and whispers: “don’t let the cyc…

I've been all but shoved aside by cyclists on sidewalks. Don't try that crap with me.

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

#392

Post by mrtreeman »

beebeepka wrote: post #138
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't upvote this enough. In Austin, with us on track to break the record of 100+ degree consecutive days, there is a huge difference between walking along nice, shaded areas and barren sidewalks. The trees don't even need to be that "mature" - I've seen new developments plant grown trees that only take a couple years to really expand. Like the blog post and other commenters mentioned, it's not just trees alone but e…

It's crazy to me that people need to be reminded that trees, and plants in general, lower the temperature. Sufficient amounts of dense bushes do absolute wonders. I can feel the cool, moist air from 20 meters. Animals understand this stuff just fine, yet certain modern humans somehow have trouble with the concept.

[dead]

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

#393

Post by thebradbain »

brightlancer wrote: post #373
xtracto wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote time. Ten years ago I (Mexican, living in Mexico, a bit "white-er" than the average Mexican skin color) worked for a Silicon Valley startup with HQs in Mountain View. One time I was visiting said HQ, I met several people, I got to talk with one of them (Chinese/Asiatic looking woman) about how I was moving while I was there, and where was I staying (she didn't know where I was from). At some point I told her…

> I guess the stigma that only poor people (And we Mexicans are poor you know haha) take the bus is pretty alive in some parts of the US. Because it's mostly true. It's not _always_ true and we shouldn't hold prejudices, but it would be just as wrong (though not as un-PC) to claim that public transit was used equally across income levels, racial/ ethnic checkboxes, etc. "Americans who are lower-income, black or Hispa…

The funny thing is that a lot of the “crime, drug use, and general anti-social behavior” on transit is overblown in the very minds of people who don’t take transit regularly. Sure, in the US it’s nowhere near as pleasant as it could (or should) be, but it’s really not that bad, nor as slow as people with a car imagine it is.

My realtor said I was the only person she’s worked with who has ever bought a house that doesn’t own a car — in Los Angeles, of all places.

Yet 8 years later, I still get around by a mix of Uber and trains and bus. And the funny part is, I am almost always the first to arrive because I don’t have to worry about parking, and even with 50% of my trips done via Uber to fill in gaps in the network, after gas/insurance/parking I am still spending less!

I do walk a lot too, but that’s one place I would agree LA has absolutely systemically dropped the ball on outside of the historic pockets that the city didn’t demolish. I often feel like I’m the only one who has walked on a given sidewalk in years, and wonder if I’m supposed to be walking there

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

#394

Post by phendrenad2 »

Walkable cities have hit a snag I never imagined: People who think that making cities walkable is a front for totalitarian control of citizens, requiring passports to travel in/out of cities or between "walkability zones", and that everyone who advocates for walkability is in on this conspiracy.

I'm starting to believe that we can't have nice things, and wonder how we ever did.

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

#395

Post by fnimick »

pdonis wrote: post #390
fnimick wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have explicitly said other people in your suburb should not be able to build dense housing on their property. Why? And if there are many people who want urban areas and not enough housing to accommodate, would you support expanding them, or is this an attack on your preferences?

> You have explicitly said other people in your suburb should not be able to build dense housing on their property. I have said no such thing. I have said that in a suburb, most people won't want to do that. But that doesn't mean nobody will. In every suburb I've lived in, there has been a mix of single family homes, townhomes, and apartments. Some suburbs are even evolving to the point where they have a core area th…

The whole point I'm making is that many suburbs are zoned by law to be exclusively single family. That's a problem. Expanding that zoning doesn't mandate density, but it will allow it where it is currently banned.

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

#396

Post by sershe »

tvaughan wrote: post #258
degrews wrote: post #106

I moved from Spain to the US, and I often find myself trying to explain to people back home just how miserable and even humiliating the pedestrian experience is here. Here are some other examples of things that I think contribute to the hostile walking experience in the US: * Cars parked in short driveways often extend all the way across the sidewalk. Even if you can easily step off onto the road to walk around them…

> I often find myself trying to explain to people back home just how miserable and even humiliating the pedestrian experience is here. Same. I’ve lived in Los Ángeles and Amsterdam, and it is impossible to explain to my friends and family just how awful the quality of life is in LA precisely because of the difference in attitudes and priorities over cars. Perhaps some have “nicer” (aka bigger) houses in LA than they…

Subjectively worse, not objectively worse. I think driving is much more convenient and nice for most things I like to do. The only exceptions I can think of are if I were a kid in a car-centric area (strangely, the thinking in the US is usually reversed, kids supposedly need to be in the burbs), or if I was drunk. I don't often get drunk, so I'd prefer to drive for everything from minor groceries to outdoor activities ~100% of the time.

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

#397

Post by mrtreeman »

Aerbil313 wrote: post #239
voisin wrote: post #9

If we want a shift to walking, we need cities to plant around 100x the number of trees they have. Ever walk through an old, mature neighbourhood? Usually there are tons of people on the sidewalks, and a primary reason is that there are mature trees providing plenty of shade. Then try walking in a new neighbourhood with barely any shade. It is awful.

People walked under sun since forever. That's what hats are for. What you're really saying is walking under the sun crosses a discomfort threshold for you which driving and walking under shade doesn't.

[dead]

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

#398

Post by brailsafe »

fnimick wrote: post #318
grecy wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time a politician anywhere in the world suggests adding more freeways or more lanes to freeways, I think they should be forced to live in LA for a year and do a ~1 hour commute each way in traffic. They need to see first hand what happens when you just add more freeways and more lanes. It's not good.

I had a conversation recently with someone lamenting that we didn't have roads like LA here in Boston. Saying their ideal road was 3 lanes, plus a bike lane, plus a bus lane in each direction. Imagine being a pedestrian trying to cross that! I really don't understand someone who looks at that traffic disaster and wants to build the same thing here at home.

I think this is exactly what Seattle is building at it's already awful waterfront

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

#399

Post by dymk »

Kye wrote: post #362
dymk wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most states (all?) it's illegal to have a tinted front window, yet people still have them, because it's not enforced. IMO cops should be citing people left and right for tinted windows and tinted license plate covers. You'd think they'd already be taking advantage of such an easy revenue source.

I doubt cops like pulling people they can't see over. They could be shot dead and never see the gun.

Take a picture of car and the license plate, and send them a citation in the mail. We already have traffic cameras doing the same thing.

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

#400

Post by brightlancer »

gochi wrote: post #191
voisin wrote: post #9

If we want a shift to walking, we need cities to plant around 100x the number of trees they have. Ever walk through an old, mature neighbourhood? Usually there are tons of people on the sidewalks, and a primary reason is that there are mature trees providing plenty of shade. Then try walking in a new neighbourhood with barely any shade. It is awful.

I don't think the tree has much to do with it. While shade is important and should be even more so going forward, the general scale of new neighbourhoods compared to old ones is dramatically different. It's like homes used to be so much closer to the sidewalk, it was just a couple of steps to reach the sidewalk and get going, but now it's these giant football field widths separating homes from the sidewalk, and then…

> I don't think the tree has much to do with it.

I do. I lived 25+ years in Atlanta and I walked all over downtown, midtown, Buckhead, Little 5, Westside, etc. and a lack of trees means you BAKE walking more than a block.

There are lots of really nice, shaded neighborhoods in Atlanta. But anywhere there's a business that you'd walk to, you BAKE.

Post reply on HN