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Secrets of the world's happiest cities

theguardian.com

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Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#31

Post by mwfunk »

michaelochurch wrote: post #13

The car is a textbook case of catastrophically bad scaling. For sporadic use (errands, long trips, leisure) it's amazing. For daily commuting (60 miles per day, plus parking) it's horrible. Space-consuming, polluting, expensive (except cheap relative to, e.g., Amtrak because no one uses the latter) and unsafe when abused to the point that cars are (operated while drunk, while seriously ill, or at unreasonable speeds…

I generally agree, but would add that if someone's daily commute is 60 miles a day, regardless of how they get to work, there's something catastrophic about that as well. I don't know what to attribute it to, but for any metropolitan area where 60 miles of commuting is the norm, there are problems which go way beyond the means by which the residents get to work.

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#32

Post by merraksh »

alpeb wrote: post #21

Bogotanian here. This is one of the most unlivable cities there is. As soon as you step out the door you're aggravated in a thousands ways through your day. Bogotá and Colombia usually score high in the "happiness" rankings because of a servitude mentality that dates back to the colony. Inequality is very high even for Latin American standards and people are taught to accept and embrace it. You'll rarely see protests…

I don't think the article has any intention to depict Bogotá as a happy city in absolute terms (although yeah, the author calls Peñalosa the "Mayor of Happiness"), but rather that the changes brought by its mayor in recent years have made it happiER.

I would be curious about your opinion in this sense: despite the rampant corruption and all other problems, has the city's quality of life actually improved over the past years?

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#33

Post by brigade »

MAGZine wrote: post #30
a1a wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The downside is that you will kill the city. I am not sure about larger cities, but smaller cities (i.e. 200k- people) this sure applies. Banning personal cars makes the very majority of people, who lives just outside the city, to go shopping in the large centers (read: Walmart and siblings) placed outside the city. This does not only kill all the stores in the city, but also all coffee shops and what-else that goes…

Nobody who lives outside of the city would ever be expected to give up their vehicle. The corollary, is, however, that this means that people need to live IN the city, and the city needs to NOT be sprawling, and have good transit networks (paths, bike lanes, p. transit)

The point is that there are always going to be people that live outside the city. Period.

Banning cars from the city means anyone not living in the city simply won't visit, which for most cities will result in too few people spending money inside the city to sustain the businesses that make living in the city attractive.

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#34

Post by [deleted] »

saosebastiao wrote: post #25
rpedroso wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other problems that need to be solved before public transit can fully replace automobiles. Consider groceries. I can't get two weeks of groceries for two people without a car. Wine bottles get heavy, and stacking bags on my arms risks crushing my eggs. I imagine it's even more complicated for those with larger families. It's also generally cheaper to pick up furniture with Zipcar than it is to have furnitur…

When you live in a walkable neighborhood, you quickly realize that you don't need to get groceries for two weeks in one trip. I go to the grocery store 4-5 times per week, spending maybe 10-15 minutes max each time.

[deleted]

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#35

Post by grey-area »

a1a wrote: post #23
oftenwrong wrote: post #2

Extra space, cleaner air, healthier and happier people, safer streets... Is there really any downside to banning personal cars from the city? Leave the roads for cyclists, public transportation, emergency vehicles and delivery vehicles. Suburbanites can park outside of the city can go the rest of the way via bus/train/bicycle. http://ecooptimism.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bike-bus-c...

The downside is that you will kill the city. I am not sure about larger cities, but smaller cities (i.e. 200k- people) this sure applies. Banning personal cars makes the very majority of people, who lives just outside the city, to go shopping in the large centers (read: Walmart and siblings) placed outside the city. This does not only kill all the stores in the city, but also all coffee shops and what-else that goes…

Many countries have usable public transport (buses, trains, metro, trams, taxis). London already imposes a punitive levy on private cars within the city, the result is a slight reduction in car traffic and no appreciable effect on shopping or pedestrian traffic. It would be very interesting to find out what a complete ban, or a much higher levy, would do to the city, but I doubt very much it would kill it. Do you have an example not in the us where this has been tried?

As long as there are other ways to get around, a city does not need cars, in fact cars are a negative for most denizens.

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#36

Post by grey-area »

rpedroso wrote: post #19
zacinbusiness wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The automobile-industrial complex that destroyed public transportation in the US would never let it happen here. Maybe in other countries it's a possibility. Or maybe in the future when the major car manufacturers FINALLY go under. I support visionary tech like the HyperLoop even if only because it shows that there are some smart people who can actually see the problem and that they are thinking of ways of solving it…

There are other problems that need to be solved before public transit can fully replace automobiles. Consider groceries. I can't get two weeks of groceries for two people without a car. Wine bottles get heavy, and stacking bags on my arms risks crushing my eggs. I imagine it's even more complicated for those with larger families. It's also generally cheaper to pick up furniture with Zipcar than it is to have furnitur…

Thats a solved problem in many places; it's far more efficient to have deliveries than everyone going in a car to a huge supermarket every week. Home delivery of groceries can be great, I've used it for years without problems, and you can buy your eggs and veg from a local walkable market if you have one (many large cities have weekly markets as well).

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#37

Post by zacinbusiness »

rpedroso wrote: post #19
zacinbusiness wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The automobile-industrial complex that destroyed public transportation in the US would never let it happen here. Maybe in other countries it's a possibility. Or maybe in the future when the major car manufacturers FINALLY go under. I support visionary tech like the HyperLoop even if only because it shows that there are some smart people who can actually see the problem and that they are thinking of ways of solving it…

There are other problems that need to be solved before public transit can fully replace automobiles. Consider groceries. I can't get two weeks of groceries for two people without a car. Wine bottles get heavy, and stacking bags on my arms risks crushing my eggs. I imagine it's even more complicated for those with larger families. It's also generally cheaper to pick up furniture with Zipcar than it is to have furnitur…

I agree with you here - there are tons of real world problems with almost all public transportation systems. And I can't speak from a lot of experience, but I've spent a lot of time in London and I found that regardless of where I was there was always a walkable market and a walkable supermarket nearby. But, the further you get from the city center then the more difficult it gets. Here we need open-air markets ,farmer's markets, and these sorts of things. Even then, there are issues with transportation. However, I think a bicycle-focused transportation system is a good idea.

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#38

Post by rayiner »

rpedroso wrote: post #19
zacinbusiness wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The automobile-industrial complex that destroyed public transportation in the US would never let it happen here. Maybe in other countries it's a possibility. Or maybe in the future when the major car manufacturers FINALLY go under. I support visionary tech like the HyperLoop even if only because it shows that there are some smart people who can actually see the problem and that they are thinking of ways of solving it…

There are other problems that need to be solved before public transit can fully replace automobiles. Consider groceries. I can't get two weeks of groceries for two people without a car. Wine bottles get heavy, and stacking bags on my arms risks crushing my eggs. I imagine it's even more complicated for those with larger families. It's also generally cheaper to pick up furniture with Zipcar than it is to have furnitur…

Ever use a grocery cart? When the wife and I lived in New York we'd take the train to Costco and load up the baby's stroller (we have one of these: http://uppababy.com/vista/overview, lots of storage). It was way more convenient than where we live now, where we have to drive to the Costco and figure out how to shlep stuff from the parking garage to our apartment. Before, we literally strolled from the shelves at Costco straight up to our fridge.

It's hard to describe how inconvenient driving life is after living in a walkable city (and in New York, we lived in Westchester, in the burbs 20 miles from Manhattan!). Weekends are filled with strapping the baby into a car seat and driving to the mall to get basic essentials. Forget an ingredient you need for dinner? No running down to the grocery store a block over--30 minutes in the car for you!

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#39

Post by Samuel_Michon »

alpeb wrote: post #21

Bogotanian here. This is one of the most unlivable cities there is. As soon as you step out the door you're aggravated in a thousands ways through your day. Bogotá and Colombia usually score high in the "happiness" rankings because of a servitude mentality that dates back to the colony. Inequality is very high even for Latin American standards and people are taught to accept and embrace it. You'll rarely see protests…

> they think they're "happy"

Not to discount the rest of your comment, but ‘happiness’ is a state of mind. You can live in squalor and be happier than someone living in a mansion.

I think that good living conditions, privacy, and civil rights make for happier people. However, in a community that’s homogenous, sharing the same values and needs, it only takes for their needs to be met to be pretty darn happy.

Re: Secrets of the world's happiest cities

#40

Post by yetanotherphd »

This was a very interesting article but the evidence presented was especially weak.

I was particularly unimpressed by "Bogotá's fortunes have since declined. The TransMilenio system is plagued by desperate crowding as its private operators fail to add more capacity – yet more proof that robust public transport needs sustained public investment." It seems like any outcome is evidence for the authors views.

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