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Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

citylab.com

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Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#61

Post by [deleted] »

uxp100 wrote: post #51
bloomca wrote: post #27

I don't think there is such a great divide. The greater divide is between people who own a car (or cars) and who do not, however, seems for USA it is a divide between New York City and the rest of the country. Also, I can comment on one thing I personally enjoy a lot – walking. I lived in many European cities, and recently moved to USA, so I can comment on it. To be able to walk, you need to live close enough to your…

You probably should specify the city you're talking about. Those seem like pretty specific complaints. I think the main thing that can be generalized across most of the US that you mentioned is the grid system, with parking lot islands in second place, but they're not common in the center of many cities. They are quite common on the edges. For example, many readers here may be familiar with San Jose, and itis not a g…

[deleted]

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#62

Post by bobthepanda »

WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #40
chabons wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phenomenon you're describing gives rise to the last mile transport problem, which is notoriously hard to solve. You either want something which is compact enough to fit on existing transit systems or exists in a sufficient quantity at transit nodes to augment human mobility and smooth out the gradients between transit nodes. I'm hoping that as battery and motor technology advance we'll be able to miniaturize pers…

> miniaturize personal transit technology This was the segway model.

This is also now the e-scooter and e-bike model, which seems to be faring better.

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#63

Post by justaguyhere »

skh wrote: post #57
bloomca wrote: post #27

I don't think there is such a great divide. The greater divide is between people who own a car (or cars) and who do not, however, seems for USA it is a divide between New York City and the rest of the country. Also, I can comment on one thing I personally enjoy a lot – walking. I lived in many European cities, and recently moved to USA, so I can comment on it. To be able to walk, you need to live close enough to your…

I lived in Berlin for a while and when I came back to the U.S. the two things that stood out were the massive parking lots and billboards. American cities are hostile to humans. Way too much space taken up by ugly parking lots. Go out West and so much land is fenced off. Access to lakes and rivers is hard since so much of the surrounding land is private and fenced off.

Outside of cities like NY, it is actually dangerous to walk. There aren't sidewalks, drivers are actually hostile towards those on foot and on bikes. American cities are built for cars and cars only.

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#64

Post by scarejunba »

joey-bob wrote: post #56
bloomca wrote: post #27

I don't think there is such a great divide. The greater divide is between people who own a car (or cars) and who do not, however, seems for USA it is a divide between New York City and the rest of the country. Also, I can comment on one thing I personally enjoy a lot – walking. I lived in many European cities, and recently moved to USA, so I can comment on it. To be able to walk, you need to live close enough to your…

Where do you live in the US? It sounds like California, specifically the concrete desert of LA.

Sounds like practically anywhere in the country to be honest.

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#65

Post by bobthepanda »

curtis wrote: post #31

> We are cleaving into two nations—one where daily life revolves around the car, and the other where the car is receding in favor of walking, biking, and transit. Walking, biking, and transit are not actually the same thing, except that they are "not driving". So it's more accurate to say that there are two kinds of commuters, those that take cars and those that don't. There's absolutely nothing new about this though…

I think that walking, biking, and transit are a lot harder to cleave apart than car/non-car; many transit users also walk and bike, many cyclists also walk and take transit, etc. This is even more true once you expand this out to all trips, e.g. I take transit to work but walk to the grocery store, I take transit to work but bike to the park, etc.

So they aren't the same, but they do go hand in hand quite a lot. I don't think there's any implication in the article that they are the same.

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#67

Post by AnimalMuppet »

justaguyhere wrote: post #63
skh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Berlin for a while and when I came back to the U.S. the two things that stood out were the massive parking lots and billboards. American cities are hostile to humans. Way too much space taken up by ugly parking lots. Go out West and so much land is fenced off. Access to lakes and rivers is hard since so much of the surrounding land is private and fenced off.

Outside of cities like NY, it is actually dangerous to walk. There aren't sidewalks, drivers are actually hostile towards those on foot and on bikes. American cities are built for cars and cars only.

The one city I know well definitely has sidewalks, both downtown and in the suburbs. (I can't comment on hostility to bikes, though.)

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#68

Post by bobthepanda »

briandear wrote: post #55
the_gastropod wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring all the other problems, like car crashes, urban land-use, infrastructure spending to support them, etc, their emissions alone should be a clear moral issue when talking about cars. When the alternatives (walking, public transit, and bicycling) are orders of magnitude more efficient, it's absolutely a moral issue.

Walking, public transport and biking are orders of magnitude more inefficient if you have kids or have to transport anything bigger than a backpack.

As someone who grew up in New York, kids are actually much easier with walking, public transport, and biking. I was able to go out to school, head to team sports, go to restaurants and shopping, hang out with friends, etc. all independently.

When I went to college, all of my suburban friends hadn't done too much of any of that, because being in the suburbs before driving age requires a parent available to be your chauffeur. Anecdotally, they were also more prone to underage drinking before college, because they just couldn't go out and do much.

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#69

Post by jpindar »

johngorse wrote: post #54

Why do people with car drive alone to work? There is a big chance that someone from your neighborhood is going at least in your direction. We practice co-driving in Europe all the time.

We call it carpooling, and it's not that uncommon, I've done it. Some highways have special "High Occupancy Vehicle" lanes to encourage it.

Re: Great Divide in How Americans Commute to Work

#70

Post by joey-bob »

scarejunba wrote: post #64
joey-bob wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you live in the US? It sounds like California, specifically the concrete desert of LA.

Sounds like practically anywhere in the country to be honest.

The only place where I've lived that didn't have yards, parks within walking distance, and could be considered overcrowded was in California. I briefly visited Dallas once, and I could see that as being similar.
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