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Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

makeamericawalkable.com

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Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#71

Post by kxrm »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #58
chromatin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reasonable people can disagree. My quite small yard in the burbs is my oasis with fruit trees, a garden, place for my dog to run, and a lovely place to sit and listen to birds. On top of this, we can walk to amenities and greet our neighbors on the sidewalk. If I lived in a soulless apartment block my mental health by contrast would be in the pits.

The solution is soulful apartment blocks. The US is really bad at apartment complexes. I commonly saw way nicer, less depressing ones while living in the outskirts of Munich.

This, I live in DC, and there are neighborhoods that have density without feeling like concrete jungles. In my condo it is possible to go outside and enjoy the trees, greenery and also spend a few hours talking to a group of 5 or 6 neighbors all within 5 ft of my front door.

I think American's would be served better by not stereotyping alternative lifestyles and environments and actually explore those alternatives more thoughtfully.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#72

Post by henryhenryhenry »

hackyhacky wrote: post #27

I am fully on-board with walkable cities, it's something I feel very strongly about. This link, however, is not to an article supporting the lofty claim of the title (currently "Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health"), but rather to a shop where you can buy red Trump-style "Make America Walkable Again" hats.... for what end exactly? Not clear. The site is collecting donations, but they don't say w…

What would you like to see on the website? All proceeds from hat sales go toward funding the Make America Walkable documentary.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#73

Post by alibarber »

henryhenryhenry wrote: post #65
alibarber wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup - for anyone else, this link is junk. It's a page that says they have a million views on Tiktok and please give some money.

It’s a project raising money for the documentary. Goal of the doc is to raise awareness about walkability.

It's an honourable goal - but the page needs to tell us why you're the right person to make this documentary!

How do you plan on proving your hypothesis? What evidence do you have to support it? Who have you spoken to who agrees and can support - who disagrees? What will the viewer learn from your documentary that they will not from elsewhere? Is it a documentary that the viewer will get excited about to see? If I disagree with you completely, might I watch it and have my mind changed? - These are questions I would want answered from such a site.

I'm afraid the website looks more like a political campaign, collecting cash from those who agree with you. Or a merch store with a catchy slogan.

Honestly I wish you well, I've supported indie docs before - these are just my first impressions from this site.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#74

Post by rightbyte »

marktani wrote: post #59

Had a fun conversation about language learning with an American friend who's learning German. She asked me what "walkable" is in German. Then it hit me, we don't have this word because in Germany this concept is unknown. Funny how societal factors have such an imprint in language.

"Fußgängerfreundlich"? It is used alright. E.g. Berlin has really bad street lighting, so I guess you could say it is not very pedestrian friendly.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#75

Post by mrguyorama »

blueyes wrote: post #20
henryhenryhenry wrote: post #2

Why do you feel better when you go to Europe, or even to Disneyland? Humans crave walkable neighborhoods. American and Canadian infrastructure is the main reason we have so many mental health problems.

Modern America reserves walkability for college campuses (which explains some of the nostalgia that attaches to them); golf courses and shopping malls -- which may explain part of their popularity.

Actually, American shopping malls are a great example of UNwalkability, because they are usually out in the middle of nowhere with respect to the closest population center, mostly to fit giant parking lots but also because American Malls were a weird result of a certain retail and real estate situation.

In America, "going to the mall" is almost always a trip you get into your car for, even if you live in a big city! You can't just drop in to get something as you walk around.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#76

Post by henryhenryhenry »

alibarber wrote: post #73
henryhenryhenry wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a project raising money for the documentary. Goal of the doc is to raise awareness about walkability.

It's an honourable goal - but the page needs to tell us why you're the right person to make this documentary! How do you plan on proving your hypothesis? What evidence do you have to support it? Who have you spoken to who agrees and can support - who disagrees? What will the viewer learn from your documentary that they will not from elsewhere? Is it a documentary that the viewer will get excited about to see? If I di…

Thanks for the tips. I’ll use your advice to revamp the site.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#77

Post by moritzwarhier »

ch4s3 wrote: post #49
moritzwarhier wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if you are living in a noisy and polluted location, which is the case for most people without a car, clichees aside.

The places with low rates of car ownership in the US are cities like D.C., NYC, SF, Boston, and Chicago. These aren't heavily polluted places, NYC in fact has great air quality most of the time due to prevailing winds. The ten worst cities for Air pollution have 0 overlap with the bottom 10 cities in car ownership.

Averaging air pollution (noise pollution is just as bad, btw) over a huge metropolitan area is not a meaningful metric though, I think.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#78

Post by vonnik »

mrguyorama wrote: post #75
blueyes wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern America reserves walkability for college campuses (which explains some of the nostalgia that attaches to them); golf courses and shopping malls -- which may explain part of their popularity.

Actually, American shopping malls are a great example of UNwalkability, because they are usually out in the middle of nowhere with respect to the closest population center, mostly to fit giant parking lots but also because American Malls were a weird result of a certain retail and real estate situation. In America, "going to the mall" is almost always a trip you get into your car for, even if you live in a big city!…

But what I'm saying is: they're privatizing and selling walkability, as long as you get inside them. So walkability is no longer part of the commons. Agree with you that the parking lots contribute to sprawl, and in general v sad about it.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#79

Post by mrguyorama »

shmerl wrote: post #66
TulliusCicero wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but walkability goes far beyond sidewalks. It's easy to find US cities with plenty of sidewalks that are hideously unwalkable, as well as many streets in Japan with no sidewalks that are still highly walkable.

Unless there are separate streets for pedestrians (which is basically non existent in US most of the time), not sure how you can have any city walkable without sidewalks.

Mainly by making motorists responsible for killing pedestrians. Instead, in America you mostly don't even get fined for running over a pedestrian, as "it's just an unfortunate accident", even when you have chosen to purchase a vehicle that makes it harder to safely navigate around pedestrians.

Consider: Do other countries even have the concept of "Jaywalking", which was explicitly an attempt by vehicle manufacturers to blame pedestrian deaths on pedestrians.

Re: Lack of Walkability in the US is destroying mental health

#80

Post by jzb »

henryhenryhenry wrote: post #65
alibarber wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup - for anyone else, this link is junk. It's a page that says they have a million views on Tiktok and please give some money.

It’s a project raising money for the documentary. Goal of the doc is to raise awareness about walkability.

That's a nice goal, but the site doesn't deliver the promise of the headline. You don't cite a single study or back up that headline on the site. The site title doesn't match the headline.

It's spammy to bait-and-switch with a submission that says one thing and then takes me to a page that tries to sell me a hat and make a donation - and utterly fails to provide any substance to back up the claim.

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