BF2S Forums D&ST - Science

A lot of less urbanized places in the country are only "pedestrian friendly" as you approach city center. The further out you go, the more rapidly sparse and occasionally overgrown sidewalks become, forcing you to make frequent crossings to get to more sidewalk, or even level ground where you won't twist your ankle in the mud or rip your flesh on brambles. It's not even that they just started building sidewalks in some of these places either. It's been decades and I guess some towns just figure they'll bully new construction or significant remodel into doing it for them (snail's pace that is). Higher priority it seems is sometimes placed on creating pretty median strips.

Not bad walking if you're within like 15-30 minutes of your (second or third) job, but a huge problem right now in having to commute insane distances to work in places people can't afford to live. Then there's all the other errands you're going to need to run, a 10 mile trip to the one grocery store in Beaver Bog Mountains, and other chores that (disgusting) busses in your area don't really route for, there's just not enough time in the day.

Americans like living in large inefficient houses well away from other Americans.

Seems like America is starting to boil though, maybe they will wake up.

More buses and electric cars are the only options, besides abandoning complete cities like Detroit.

Or put a big fat tax on petrol to fund public infrastructure like most developed countries.

uziq wrote:

Larssen wrote:

Their entire infrastructure has been designed for cars. It would take trillions to redesign, nevermind the necessary cultural change

they're the richest country on earth. many less wealthy countries have transitioned from auto-urbanism to pedestrian/bike-friendly systems.

america's infrastructure is crumbling, and its public transit systems are lamentable. this is a political failure, not a 'lack of funds'.

look up the disaster of california's high-speed rail project, proposed to link the LA and SF metropolitan areas, for instance.

a state economy which is richer than almost every country on earth -- and a total calamity.

I've read up on the high speed rail project and it kind of proves the point. Not disagreeing that it's a good and preferable idea, but the execution appears to be hideously complicated. For legal, political, cultural, some practical reasons all leading to an astronomical cost. And that's just for 1 high speed rail in a small part of the country. Imagine redesigning the entire US.

It can only really be done if both state and federal governments broadly agree on the need to transition away from cars, across political spectrums. That will probably still leave lots of legal obstacles in the form of zoning rights, private lands that need to be bought, planning for mass renovations and redirecting traffic etc. It's a monster undertaking.

you can see the same above image repeated in cities all over. destroyed high-density urban centres and turned half of the surface area into carparks.

having giant arterial roads bisecting neighbourhoods is one of the things that contributes to ghettoization, though.

wasn't that city where the massive race riots were (tulsa?) rebuilt so the black folks were safely on the other side of the expressway, without access to the main civic amenities in town?

the city planning history of new york, with its major luminaries like robert moses, is an instructive example of how 'urban design', roads and infrastructure projects, etc, can be engineered with social purposes in mind.

Last edited by uziq (2022-06-20 22:13:55)

it's almost as if many other countries have managed to regenerate urban centres, promote public transport and cycle paths, etc, all at the same time as part of a coordinated programme.

What. I haven't heard of anyone being afraid to go out at night in years. The 90s and 00s were awful. It started turning around in the 10s. Of course there are still bad areas but with gentrification they're being pushed into suburbs

Well the areas they paved over were poor black neighborhoods

uziq wrote:

imagine thinking indians living on $3 a week are the problem when this is the norm in your culture.



related:
https://twitter.com/brenttoderian/statu … je4NfqwC4g

Electricity use is the bigger problem, suggest turning off your refrigerator.

Yes, focus on the changes other people need to make, not the ones you can actually do now.

to save for posterity:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Americans like living in large inefficient houses well away from other Americans.

Seems like America is starting to boil though, maybe they will wake up.

once again, you'd expect electricity production to consume/emit more than transportation ... considering, you know, every single aspect of our productive economic lives relies on electricity. or are you seriously suggesting that we go back to primary/secondary sector agricultural societies? are you going to forego the refrigerator or home AC/heating any time soon, dilbert?

transportation is a lifestyle nudge that can be changed and shaped without drastically upending society. going without electricity, erm, not so much ... ?

it's astounding the arguments you come out with.

and which one of us do you think consumes the most units of electricity in their day-to-day lifestyle? is this going to be another case of the guy who drives a subaru to get a pint of milk criticising the person who walks or gets the subway everywhere? i rent a 20 square metre studio apartment. i work in public or co-working spaces. the only electrical appliances that i use are a laptop/phone, a mini fridge-freezer, a washing machine once per week and, sparingly, a kettle. how are you doing over there?

Last edited by uziq (2022-06-23 02:55:02)