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Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

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Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#541

Post by [deleted] »

komali2 wrote: post #201
mystifyingpoi wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have kids? I don't think so (correct me if I'm wrong). Car is absolutely essential for driving around small kids no matter the urban density. I'm more dependent on my car(s) when I got the first newborn than I ever was.

> Do you have kids? I don't think so (correct me if I'm wrong). Car is absolutely essential for driving around small kids no matter the urban density. I hear this all the time yet right now am traveling in Amsterdam and see many parents trucking their kids around in bicycles without issue. Actually I remember seeing this in SF as well, and in Taiwan and Japan I see incredibly young children riding public transit on t…

[deleted]

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#542

Post by EE84M3i »

seper8 wrote: post #248
komali2 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have kids? I don't think so (correct me if I'm wrong). Car is absolutely essential for driving around small kids no matter the urban density. I hear this all the time yet right now am traveling in Amsterdam and see many parents trucking their kids around in bicycles without issue. Actually I remember seeing this in SF as well, and in Taiwan and Japan I see incredibly young children riding public transit on t…

Most of these bike moms/dads still have a car at home.

That is definitely not true in many parts of Japan.

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#543

Post by dataflow »

deltarholamda wrote: post #500
rcpt wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everybody loves public transit until they get panhandled for the jillionth time OP is right. The demand is huge and supply is tiny. Even with those scary panhandlers people are jamming onto public transport (when it actually exists) and going far far out of their way to experience walkable areas. > zero other options if I want to live where crime is low and the schools aren't dysfunctional Crime in NYC is exceeding…

>Why don't you simply move to Chelsea or the Upper West Side? Because I'm not in the top 0.1%. "Why don't you just move into a $2-5 million dollar home?" is an astonishing take.

I imagined they thought you'd consider renting, not just buying. (It's still expensive, but not top-0.1% expensive.)

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#544

Post by deltarholamda »

rcpt wrote: post #486
deltarholamda wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a wife? Kids? Would you let them bicycle through the homeless district? I don't get hassled either, but it's not about me. My job as a husband and father is to protect my family.

"wife I forbid you from traveling on that road" Do you have a wife?

My wife is far more risk adverse than I am. We'd be moving if she had to bike through a Hooverville to buy milk.

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#545

Post by hammock »

cryptopian wrote: post #477
nehal3m wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Climatists' is a strange way of putting this because pulling everything we do back to human scale will be a huge boon to solving the climate crisis. As someone who's worried about threats to the future of the species in the form of climate change I'd be all for a human centric movement.

Exactly. If you have plenty of community spaces spread around an urban area - cafes, pubs, small businesses, public parks - you both reduce the amount of travel required, and strengthen local communities

Lovely way of looking at it

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#546

Post by cognomano »

TL;DR: «Only “necessary traffic” is allowed in Pontevedra: vehicles used for emergency and public safety, public services (including garbage and water trucks, etc.), transportation of people with reduced mobility, and accessing private garages are permitted 24/7. However, loading and unloading for commercial supplies, home delivery, transporting bulky objects, and house moving and related activities, are permitted only during certain hours.»

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#547

Post by Saline9515 »

elAhmo wrote: post #533
Saline9515 wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a reason among others, but this bike-centric policy (pedestrians nor public transport are the priority) led to an exodus of families [0]. I am among them, as I realized pretty quickly that it's a real pain to move around, buy groceries, go to the doctor, and so on with very young children in Paris, especially if you don't own a car. And now you have to deal with the uncivil behavior of the cyclists, moreover. It…

As someone with a family and a car, can't you use public transport for that? You can walk to local parks and have a doctor that is relatively nearby, but Paris has very extensive transport network and it is perfectly fine to move around without a car. No one is arguing you should take your sick kid on a bike for one hour ride.

- Paris' subway doesn't have elevators, impossible with a stroller.

- Buses are crowded, very slow, and being blocked for >1h because of protests or roadworks with a sick newborn is a rather unpleasant experience. I did it already. And in general, public transportation in Paris has degraded a lot. Who wants to explain to his 3-year-old son what this fine gentleman is doing while heating crack in the back of the train car?

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#548

Post by pkulak »

scott_w wrote: post #427
pkulak wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have to admit that even I, I public transit nerd, would prefer an empty subway car. I also don’t like driving when I’m stopped dead in traffic, or biking when it’s next to a highway with no lane, or the bus when I miss my transfer, or walking when it’s pouring rain. I guess my point is that everything has a worst it can be. The idea, though, is that a city should offer all of them so that you can choose. And…

I generally agree but I'll caveat that subway at its worst can be far worse with trains going missing. "Metro apologises" is a running joke around the north east of England for how bad its service became in the past 15 years.

But 40,000+ Americans die in their cars (and run over by others' cars) every year. No subway caveat is ever going to beat that. And at least it's obvious that subways going missing is a _very_ solvable problem. We've completely given up on making driving safer.

EDIT: Sorry, re-read the context, and I think you were countering my claim that a subway will always get you there on time? Yeah. You're right. Subways can absolutely be delayed, go missing, stop running, go on strike, etc. Sorry for going off the "rails" there. :D

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#549

Post by dijit »

Aurornis wrote: post #501
dijit wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was quite careful to say "Northern Europe" because there are some very touristy places that attract criminals who specifically prey on tourists. I could imagine Paris and London in that list, despite both being very safe for locals (and.. both being Northern Europe)- but perhaps less safe for tourists. I would imagine Prague being a middle-European tourist destination that is plagued much worse by this (but, also,…

> I was quite careful to say "Northern Europe" because there are some very touristy places that attract criminals who specifically prey on tourists. Okay, but then why can’t we Americans just exclude the bad parts of America and only allow you to compare to the good parts? Why must every America-Europe comparison be about the worst case American cities (usually taken from headlines) but only compared to a select subs…

Because the USA is one country and Europe is a collection of vastly different countries.

You would likely agree that the USA and Mexico are incomparable and its sort of the same, though the EU evens some things out: its much less far reaching than a federal government.

That said: happy to compare the best case US public transport to the Nordics. Literally anywhere in the Nordics to anywhere in the US.

Re: Pontevedra, Spain declares its entire urban area a "reduced traffic zone"

#550

Post by mendigou »

Saline9515 wrote: post #502
darkwater wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are totally off. Never lived in Paris but I lived in Barcelona for many years, during the transformation to be more car-hostile and bikes and pedestrians friendly. I spent there my 20s-30s and left when I had a family but due to (public) school scarcity in our neighborhood and rent prices. But mobility was not the issue at all. It was actually a pleasure bring my daughter to her kindergarten by bike and t…

Barcelona is in Spain, on the Mediterranean, where the weather is fair all year long. It's not the case in many parts of the world. Bicycles are a rather dangerous mode of transportation, and I wouldn't use it with kids, especially in a city.

People in Germany and the Netherlands must extra hardened I guess, since everyone bikes around there, even with their kids in tow.
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