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What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

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Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#231

Post by ndnxhs »

Annatar wrote: post #186

There is one major reason why this isn't practical in the United States yet: Europe has a well developed, often tax payer or state subsidised public transport network. Americans don't have that at scale: they must use their cars to go to work, else they cannot work. Solve the problem of public transport first. You can start with tax payers' funding and move on to a purely for-profit, no subsidies model gradually by i…

A lot of Americans I have spoken to have the opinion that public transport is only for homeless people and is always slow and dirty.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#232

Post by Vinnl »

Scarblac wrote: post #220
Vinnl wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, I've been allowed to get a driver's license for over a decade in the Netherlands, but neither I nor my partner has one. Granted, most of my friends to have one, but almost none of them have a car. It helps that we live in a large city, and one that actively discourages driving and encourages public transport and cycling (even by Dutch standards), but not only is it not necessary to drive, it's often the worst t…

I got the license at 35, with kids having a car around often saves a lot of trouble. But we still only use it twice a week or so.

Absolutely, I expect to be doing the same if I ever do have kids. Primarily for e.g. holidays and such, I think.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#233

Post by Annatar »

reitanqild wrote: post #204
Annatar wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you know little of wolves: they would only hunt a moose in a large pack. And yes, they are very shy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YybY5sEeZUU

They're not as shy as some people argue it seems: They've gone into people's garden and killed the dog there. Also I recently saw recordings of one or two wolves attacking a moose with calf so the part about only attacking in packs seems to be proven wrong. Kids are often peoples biggest investment. I understand if they play it safe. (I also argue that we should keep the wolves. I just disagree with people who claim…

A wolf is about as dangerous to a person as a stray dog or any dog afraid enough of a person to bite it.

If they smell fear pheromones, they will attack and attempt to assert themselves.

I as a child have been bitten by furious dogs and would even get into fights with them, pieces of flesh often hanging off of my body, and yet, it is this very act of defiance that makes me have no fear of dogs (I actually love them). Same goes for a wolf. It's an experience every child should make (and would have made some 10,000 - 30,000 years ago) in order to not be permanently harmed by a canine, be it a dog or a wolf.

We've become daisies and pansies, generation X raising a bunch of oversensitive idiots.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#234

Post by Annatar »

ndnxhs wrote: post #231
Annatar wrote: post #186

There is one major reason why this isn't practical in the United States yet: Europe has a well developed, often tax payer or state subsidised public transport network. Americans don't have that at scale: they must use their cars to go to work, else they cannot work. Solve the problem of public transport first. You can start with tax payers' funding and move on to a purely for-profit, no subsidies model gradually by i…

A lot of Americans I have spoken to have the opinion that public transport is only for homeless people and is always slow and dirty.

That is because that is currently the reality. The buses are dirty and with exceptions here and there, mostly poor or the working poor ride them. The system is currently inefficient and focused purely on profit. Since there is usually a monopoly on regional public transit, the reality is exactly what other people told you. I myself rode the intercity bus for a year and half when I was a poor hungry student, although that was several decades ago, but not much has changed since then. Monopoly and lack of public awareness and activism does that.

That doesn't mean that the perception cannot be changed, or that the reality cannot be changed. People have to demand it and it will start somewhere. Small steps. Incremental optimisations.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#235

Post by Touche »

whatshisface wrote: post #74
Touche wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aka, the superwealthy.

I don't see how living in the suburbs makes you super-wealthy. In most American cities that I know of, the very poor live in the city, the middle class lives in the suburbs, and the very rich live in top-floor penthouses and wherever else they want. Roads, cars and long commutes are very much a middle-class thing, because the poor can't afford all the driving and the rich can buy a great house in the middle of the ci…

I got a lot of downvotes and it's because I didn't direct my comment well enough, this is who I was referring to as the superwealthy:

> people who are a block away from every place they need to go.

I don't know of any city in the U.S. where a middle class person can live within walking distance of everything that they need. Take a look at the most urban cities in the U.S., San Francisco, New York, Boston. You're not living in a walkable place in those cities unless you have a title that includes "executive" or "vice" in it.

The closest is probably Chicago.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#236

Post by dang »

megaremote wrote: post #89
robertAngst wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was brought up in Adam Ruins Everything, and his Automotive episode was so misleading that I don't trust anything he says. >I don’t get why cities are built around cars. Sure there is a fantasy that we could have cities that don't require roads. However our modern 5,000,000 population Metro areas wouldnt exist. Instead housing prices would skyrocket, and the lowest income people would be forced to live in rural…

Are you delusional? There are plenty of cities that minimize cars to a great extent, like Hong Kong, New York, Paris. The problem is people are really addicted to cars.

Personal swipes will get you banned on HN, so please edit those out of what you post here, regardless of how wrong someone else is. Your comment would be fine without the first sentence.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#237

Post by manmal »

stewbrew wrote: post #152
manmal wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the place where I live (Austria, town with 30k residents), the Fußgängerzone in the center is currently dying. Shops close left and right, and migrate to the three big shopping centers. This town is a strange mix because almost everybody needs to own a car (bus system is underdeveloped) to take kids to school or shop groceries, but the town itself is not that big (a lot of places are reachable by bike). Most peopl…

Complain to the local politics who made this (the shopping centers at the town's outskirts) happen although it was already known what effects this would have on the town's center. This is a pretty common development in, e.g., Lower Austria where politicians in the 1990s (and in some towns even in the 2000s) thought this were a good idea. Fußgängerzones work where politicians don't ruin town centers.

Exactly. We are probably talking about the same town, in Lower Austria :)

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#238

Post by manmal »

oska wrote: post #148
manmal wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the place where I live (Austria, town with 30k residents), the Fußgängerzone in the center is currently dying. Shops close left and right, and migrate to the three big shopping centers. This town is a strange mix because almost everybody needs to own a car (bus system is underdeveloped) to take kids to school or shop groceries, but the town itself is not that big (a lot of places are reachable by bike). Most peopl…

Why do parents feel the need to take children to school in a small town in a very safe country? Why can't they ride a bike or walk?

With a dysfunctional public transit system and unsafe bike lanes (not separated from the road), that doesn’t always work. Our school is 10km away, so for us, bike is off the table for now.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#239

Post by mcv »

jandrese wrote: post #229
mcv wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about a hard speed limit, it's about driving at walking pace. It's not for thoroughfares, it's for cul-de-sacs where people live and children play. No car has any business going fast there. Bikes aren't a problem; they're small and nimble and don't kill people when they hit them.

Bikes on the road are subject to all of the same laws cars are.

You seem to be intentionally missing the point here. It's about safety for playing children. Cars are a bigger issue than bikes. Especially when the bikes are being used by playing children.

Re: What Happens to Kid Culture When Streets Are Closed to Cars

#240

Post by romwell »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #198
romwell wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like they just took a place designed for cars NYC was developed in its current form, with high-rises and all, well before cars were commonplace[1]. So no, they didn't take a place designed for cars, and yes, that's why it actually works when you take the cars out of the equation again . [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_N...

> NYC was developed in its current form, with high-rises and all, well before cars were commonplace[1]. Ha, no it was not. Oh, it was originally developed sans cars, that's true. But that's not the same thing as its current form. Cities are continually being redeveloped after all. You think Amsterdam was always so bike-friendly? Try googling for what it was like in the early 70's, before the "Stop De Kindermoord" cam…

Please do tell how NYC has been radically re-developed since 1920's.
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