Creating True Peace -
Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World
|
Sunday, 1 September 2019
quote [ Parking requirements increase the density of cars but reduce the density of people. It also puts pressure on businesses by taking up useful real estate and replacing it with car storage. ]
More food for urban thinking.
|
thepublicone said @ 7:14pm GMT on 1st September
I LOVE this idea; it just won't work.
My city- Halifax, NS- is trying to do the same idea with its downtown: build bike lanes everywhere, which replace on-street public parking spots traffic lanes, and parking lots apartments, attempting to force people to walk, bike or use public transit. Vacancy is at 1.3%, so new apartments are always good.
All of this is a great idea; none of it is working. The city was built in the 18th Century, so the roads are narrow to begin with; adding bike lanes just makes it ridiculous. The new apartments are NOT low-income, or even middle-income; they're "top 5% of the market" buildings. And yes, tourists are walking, renting bikes and Segways, using transit, etc. But the people that live here, they are just getting angrier at the increasing levels of traffic as people that live in the suburbs say "Fuck it" and bring their cars downtown anyway. Living downtown, and walking most places, it is amazing. Driving home from work? Not so much.
Urban planners LOVE this type of idea, but they seem to forget the greatest truth about the West: people LOVE their cars, love the freedom, and will gladly sit in traffic and then bitch and moan about it rather than change. The world is literally cooking around them, yet people are still buying ICE cars with impunity, and trying to take that ability from them is like trying to take guns from Americans- that shit just won't fly, no matter how good it is for their health and safety. I have always believed that Halifax should just go all-in, go to "hop on, hop off" electric trolleys, and ban cars completely from downtown unless you live there- Gate pass cards and everything.
That's a city of roughly 400,000 people with a tourist-driven downtown core; Trying to convert that to something the size of LA would be INSANE. It strikes me that ideas like this only work if you are purpose-building a city zone/neighbourhood/area, because, otherwise, it requires too much change for people to accept.
thepublicone said @ 7:14pm GMT on 1st September
I LOVE this idea; it just won't work.
My city- Halifax, NS- is trying to do the same idea with its downtown: build bike lanes everywhere, which replace on-street public parking spots traffic lanes, and turn parking lots into apartments, attempting to force people to walk, bike or use public transit. Vacancy is at 1.3%, so new apartments are always good.
All of this is a great idea; none of it is working. The city was built in the 18th Century, so the roads are narrow to begin with; adding bike lanes just makes it ridiculous. The new apartments are NOT low-income, or even middle-income; they're "top 5% of the market" buildings. And yes, tourists are walking, renting bikes and Segways, using transit, etc. But the people that live here, they are just getting angrier at the increasing levels of traffic as people that live in the suburbs say "Fuck it" and bring their cars downtown anyway. Living downtown, and walking most places, it is amazing. Driving home from work? Not so much.
Urban planners LOVE this type of idea, but they seem to forget the greatest truth about the West: people LOVE their cars, love the freedom, and will gladly sit in traffic and then bitch and moan about it rather than change. The world is literally cooking around them, yet people are still buying ICE cars with impunity, and trying to take that ability from them is like trying to take guns from Americans- that shit just won't fly, no matter how good it is for their health and safety. I have always believed that Halifax should just go all-in, go to "hop on, hop off" electric trolleys, and ban cars completely from downtown unless you live there- Gate pass cards and everything.
That's a city of roughly 400,000 people with a tourist-driven downtown core; Trying to convert that to something the size of LA would be INSANE. It strikes me that ideas like this only work if you are purpose-building a city zone/neighbourhood/area, because, otherwise, it requires too much change for people to accept.
<-- Entry / Current Comment
thepublicone said @ 7:14pm GMT on 1st September [Score:1 Informative]
I LOVE this idea; it just won't work.
My city- Halifax, NS- is trying to do the same idea with its downtown: build bike lanes everywhere, which replace on-street public parking spots traffic lanes, and turn parking lots into apartments, attempting to force people to walk, bike or use public transit. Vacancy is at 1.3%, so new apartments are always good.
All of this is a great idea; none of it is working. The city was built in the 18th Century, so the roads are narrow to begin with; adding bike lanes just makes it ridiculous. The new apartments are NOT low-income, or even middle-income; they're "top 5% of the market" buildings. And yes, tourists are walking, renting bikes and Segways, using transit, etc. But the people that live here, they are just getting angrier at the increasing levels of traffic as people that live in the suburbs say "Fuck it" and bring their cars downtown anyway. Living downtown, and walking most places, it is amazing. Driving home from work? Not so much.
Urban planners LOVE this type of idea, but they seem to forget the greatest truth about the West: people LOVE their cars, love the freedom, and will gladly sit in traffic and then bitch and moan about it rather than change. The world is literally cooking around them, yet people are still buying ICE cars with impunity, and trying to take that ability from them is like trying to take guns from Americans- that shit just won't fly, no matter how good it is for their health and safety. I have always believed that Halifax should just go all-in, go to "hop on, hop off" electric trolleys, and ban cars completely from downtown unless you live there- Gate pass cards and everything.
That's a city of roughly 400,000 people with a tourist-driven downtown core; Trying to convert that to something the size of LA would be INSANE. It strikes me that ideas like this only work if you are purpose-building a city zone/neighbourhood/area, because, otherwise, it requires too much change for people to accept.
