71–80 of 102 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This type of repetitive comment[1] is a bit like the bike lanes discussion: 1.City introduces bike lanes on street. 2. Residents complain about parking spaces going away, businesses complain about future bankruptcies due to fewer customers, general uproar is huge. 3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersecti…
> 3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersections are safer. Except that 3 doesn't actually happen... Bike lanes stay empty and kill businesses. In Seattle and Portland the businesses within 1 block of new bike lanes declined faster after 2019.
Sauce: Culver City Move Pilot Report, page 59 https://www.culvercity.gov/files/content/public/v/8/services...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This type of repetitive comment[1] is a bit like the bike lanes discussion: 1.City introduces bike lanes on street. 2. Residents complain about parking spaces going away, businesses complain about future bankruptcies due to fewer customers, general uproar is huge. 3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersecti…
> 3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersections are safer. Except that 3 doesn't actually happen... Bike lanes stay empty and kill businesses. In Seattle and Portland the businesses within 1 block of new bike lanes declined faster after 2019.
From 2020 [2]: > "Both the trend analysis and DID analysis show that the protected bike lane on Second Avenue corridor positively impacted employment, especially in the retail sector, when compared to the Fourth Avenue control corridor"
> "In conclusion, the protected bike lane on Broadway triggered a significant employment increase in the food services industry after installation, indicating an improvement in business vitality as a result."
The overall study finds that
> - On the Second Avenue corridor, the protected two-way bike lane contributed to higher employment and improved business vitality in the retail sector. - On Broadway Avenue, we find that the protected bike lane triggered a significant positive impact on food services employment after installation, indicating an improvement in business vitality as a result."
and > In terms of retail service sector, we found either mixed results or insignificant results. [...] However, the insignificant results may be significant in this context, indicating that there does not appear to be a negative causal impact of right-of-way or parking lane removal on economic outcomes.
Anecdotally, many people in Seattle seem to use the bike lanes, even to commute to work. I also saw a lot of people using them during the world cup.
[1]https://seattletransitblog.com/2013/08/06/seattle-case-study... [2] https://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/media/project_files/National-Stree...
We were told no phones in schools. I used my phone. They confiscated it for 2 weeks. I was like yeah fair enough. I don’t understand why this isn’t done now?
My kids were basically required to have a phone for school. In theory they could use a laptop for everything but in practice it was assumed you had a phone. They were supposed to use the calendar for assignments (and were given time to use the calendar), the teacher would tell them to take a picture of the white board with their homework assignment on it, and they used some private app (don't know the name of it) for…
I’m strongly against phones in school, but as a child myself, I was extremely unorganized. And did not get my act together fully until college, when I had a simple laptop with a calendar app where I could plan out all my classes, assignments, etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersections are safer. Except that 3 doesn't actually happen... Bike lanes stay empty and kill businesses. In Seattle and Portland the businesses within 1 block of new bike lanes declined faster after 2019.
> In Seattle and Portland the businesses within 1 block of new bike lanes declined faster after 2019. I wonder if there was some event that generally killed businesses relying on foot traffic some time after 2019 that could help explain that outcome. Perhaps once that event is identified, we can consider what businesses did survive and compare them to the foot traffic heavy businesses and see if there's some other qu…
If you look at research on bike lanes in American cities (or in other well-designed human-oriented modern cities), they typically _at_ _most_ don't affect businesses. There's scarce evidence of them helping anything but creating traffic jams.
> Perhaps once that event is identified, we can consider what businesses did survive and compare them to the foot traffic heavy businesses and see if there's some other qualitative difference between those that made it through and those that didn't.
I live in Seattle, and that's what initially motivated me too look at modern urbanism. I was very much a proponent of "stong towns", transit, and all other stuff before. Then I noticed that areas that get an "urbanistic renewal" always get worse around here, and that was even before COVID.
Now the difference is just stark. Seattle Downtown is a ghost town. Bellevue (a city across the lake from Seattle) did not do anything significant with its downtown car infrastructure, and it's thriving. And even in _Seattle_ a place called "University Village" is doing fine. Because it's away from transit, bike lanes, and has a lot of free parking.
This doesn't go far enough, in my opinion. I think all screens should be banned from schools. No TV, no phones, no projectors, no slides. No shortcuts for anybody, no distractions. Everything handwritten. I know this sounds like I'm sarcastically criticizing phone bans but I'm serious. (Edit: obviously will need some accommodations for disabled students, and computer labs will have to exist for technical literacy cla…
TVs are good when used appropriately. We watched Macbeth for the literature class.
Actually effective way to protect kids without massive societal consequences and it also improves learning.
Stanford researchers studied the second assertion and found no change https://ed.stanford.edu/news/national-study-school-cell-phon...
Czech schools: "The new measure, which has been at the center of heated debates in recent months, will apply in kindergartens and elementary schools, most likely from September 2027. ... It doesn't apply, however, to secondary schools, universities or vocational schools."
The Stanford study was based on "more than 43,000 middle and high schools nationwide".
Also, while half of the authors are Stanford research associates, the other half are at other institutions. The publication is a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
And from the preregistration, "Our measure of treatment (i.e., whether a given school has a true phone ban at a particular point in time) is based on organizing sales and shipping data from Yondr (i.e., a company that sells lockable phone pouches)", a company they partnered with for the study.
How .. odd. Is sales data for a single company really the right way to tell if a school has a true phone ban?
I don't understand the legislative pushes for some of these things. Schools can already say "no phones during instructional hours". Many of them do. I guess legislating it can mandate the policy across a school district, state, country etc., so perhaps that makes sense. But others call for outright bans for kids, all the time. Parents can also restrict usage or set rules for appropriate use. Many do.
Have you talked to a teacher lately?