5 ms·

Small and midsized US cities desperately need a small (or large) urban planning revolution. Cars are considered the "default" too often, especially in cities un

by m3rc 9y ago

Small and midsized US cities desperately need a small (or large) urban planning revolution. Cars are considered the "default" too often, especially in cities under half a million in population. It's these cities in particular that need to have an increased focus on pedestrian and assisted walking infrastructure.

mstade 9y ago
I keep telling this to anyone who'll listen. I have cousins living in a small affluent US city, and every member of that family has their own car. To me as a European, that's mind boggling. At the same time, I've tried to make it in that town without a car before and while you can mostly get by with a decent bicycle, trying to walk anywhere is pointless. Everything is designed with cars front and center. Parking everywhere, "small" roads are four lanes, sidewalks just randomly stop in the middle of nowhere, leaving you with the option of backtracking, venturing out in the road, or – if you're lucky – cross lawns to get to where you're going. More often than not, the side of the road is your only option if you want to keep going. Crossing streets is easy if you're fit and a reasonably fast walker, but the lights are timed to be quite fast, leaving those less able bodied or slower to simply be stranded in the middle (usually there's a stop) meaning a single crossing turns into two. Fortunately, drivers in this area seem to be fairly friendly to pedestrians, and will yield to people crossing the street. One of my cousins came to stay with me for a few months this summer, and this is when she truly got what I've been saying for years I think. She got by mostly with her own two feet, wherever she was going. When she needed to travel further, I got her a travellers card. I'm not sure she even knows where to find a bus stop in her home town. (Neither would I.)
- bryanlarsen 9y ago
  "Fortunately, drivers in this area seem to be fairly friendly to pedestrians, and will yield to people crossing the street." That's part of the infrastructure too. Unfortunately it's a part that is easily lost. I went to university in a city that had that culture -- 25 years later that culture is gone as a resource boom pulled in a significant number of newcomers.
- TulliusCicero 9y ago
  American cities largely feel like they were designed by people who hate cities. Living in Munich now, urban design is easily the #1 thing I'd transplant over to the states if I could.
  - plopz 9y ago
    The US could really use a complete leveling like what Europe got from the world wars. Being able to redesign everything from scratch with modern sensibilities would be great.
    - oftenwrong 9y ago
      That's exactly how the older American cities got where they are today: http://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ http://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/
    - chiefofgxbxl 9y ago
      "Anybody who travels back and forth across the Atlantic has to be impressed with the differences between European cities and ours, which make it appear as if World War Two actually took place in Detroit and Washington rather than Berlin and Rotterdam." - James Howard Kunstler, Home From Nowhere (1996)
    - TulliusCicero 9y ago
      This is hilarious to me because usually what pro-car apologists say is that the reason European cities are more walking-friendly is because they're so old and have pre-car street grids. Which isn't entirely wrong, but the fact that American cities are hostile to walking was still a collective choice on our parts, the advent of the car didn't mean that we had to explicitly favor them at all times, that was something we decided to do.
- m3rc 9y ago
  When people think of "urban planning" their minds often jump immediately to large-scale infrastructure changes or totally designed cities built from the ground up, but it's exactly these sorts of little things that are actually the most important. Yielding to pedestrians, like you said, is an element of infrastructure, and it's cheap as hell to change attitudes about it. Parking is absurd. Planning codes have mandated numbers of parking spaces for businesses, so if you want to develop land your only option is to turn it into a strip mall. LA is an asphalt hellscape precisely because of this, parking requirements have made it so there is over 4.2 square meters of asphalt PER PERSON, just for parking alone. I only own a bike but live with a partner who has a car and I know it would be difficult to go completely without in my city (~300,000 pop.) I, like many people my age, am planning on moving to a larger more urban city that will have more public transportation and bike infrastructure, but I recognize that this isn't really the answer. Comparatively poor American millennials and gen-Z's that continue condensing populations into urban centers leaves even less incentive for long term change in mid-sized towns.
  - saint_fiasco 9y ago
    > Yielding to pedestrians, like you said, is an element of infrastructure, and it's cheap as hell to change attitudes about it. I suppose it's an attitude that is cheap to maintain, if it is already common. But I don't know how to change into that system in a place that does not have it already. Teach it in driving schools and wait for old drivers to die?
    - santaclaus 9y ago
      > Teach it in driving schools and wait for old drivers to die? Or pass and enforce laws about yielding to pedestrians. The difference between Oregon (with some of the most pedestrian friendly laws that are actually enforced) and California (where I've watched cop cars slowly roll through crowded crosswalks) is pretty marked.
      - saint_fiasco 9y ago
        How can a place like California change from a widespread habit of not enforcing laws to a habit of enforcing them?
- CalRobert 9y ago
  I have a lot of American family and I think a lot of them don't think it's actually true that you can build a city where you don't need a car. They've heard it, but assume it must be for novelty's sake and for REAL trips you drive, of course, because who could carry groceries? It's really hard to convince someone otherwise if they know no different.
  - lagadu 9y ago
    I actually understand why: from chatting with my US coworkers whenever they visit us, I found something that I find fascinating: grocery shopping is something that only happens at most once a week, usually less often. Because supermarkets are far away from offices and residential areas they only buy groceries very infrequently (compared to me, who does it maybe 4-5 times a week). It makes sense given the urban planning: you get to the office by car and go home by car, so grocery shopping isn't an opportunity that presents itself frequently. Compare it to me: I'll bicycle or take the metro every day and my route (and everyone's really) passes by more supermakets than I can easily count. It's more than a matter of habit or novelty, you can't get people to change unless you offer them an environment where that change is beneficial to them.
    - CydeWeys 9y ago
      I'm a single person and I don't go to the grocery store very frequently, and can still easily carry a week's worth of food back to my apartment using a backpack. If you're willing to use a cart (and a lot of people do use them for shopping) you can bring back even more. I think the problem starts looming when you're trying to buy food for many people once a week. You either need all of those people to come with you to help bring back the food, a motorized vehicle, or a cargo bicycle.
      - CalRobert 9y ago
        To be honest, I cheat a little bit - after having a kid I started getting groceries delivered. Regardless, though, I think a lot of my family (obviously a small sample size) just don't really think it's possible. They're so used to everything being a barren asphalt landscape that it just isn't possible to conceive of a practical place where you don't need to drive. I don't even blame them; I lived in it for 30 years and had a hard time imagining anything different myself (though when I did experience it, I desperately wanted to live in it and worked hard to make it happen).
- JBlue42 9y ago
  The house I grew up, in a rural area, there's a small restaurant we would frequently get food from less than 2,000 ft away. We would have to drive to pick up because it was unsafe to walk there. Busy two lane road with drainage ditches on both sides of the road. Also, not having a car meant you didn't go anywhere. When my grandmothers stopped driving, they stayed cooped in the house all day (except for one, now deceased, that tended to her small garden).
sethrin 9y ago
Many cities in the US formerly had light rail systems, but these were purchased and dismantled by companies involved in the automotive industry[0]. These companies also created a "car culture" which may rival Sam Colt's creation of "gun culture" in its deleterious effects on society. The younger generations seem to be rejecting this culture, so perhaps in some few decades we may have a culture where the political will exists to improve public transportation. I'm not going to hold my breath. As an aside, Brasilia probably holds a special place in pedestrian hell. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...
pnathan 9y ago
I would suggest federal funding emigration to large cities, with federal funding & demands to improve infrastructure. :-)

by m3rc 9y ago

mstade 9y ago

I keep telling this to anyone who'll listen. I have cousins living in a small affluent US city, and every member of that family has their own car. To me as a European, that's mind boggling. At the same time, I've tried to make it in that town without a car before and while you can mostly get by with a decent bicycle, trying to walk anywhere is pointless. Everything is designed with cars front and center. Parking everywhere, "small" roads are four lanes, sidewalks just randomly stop in the middle of nowhere, leaving you with the option of backtracking, venturing out in the road, or – if you're lucky – cross lawns to get to where you're going. More often than not, the side of the road is your only option if you want to keep going. Crossing streets is easy if you're fit and a reasonably fast walker, but the lights are timed to be quite fast, leaving those less able bodied or slower to simply be stranded in the middle (usually there's a stop) meaning a single crossing turns into two. Fortunately, drivers in this area seem to be fairly friendly to pedestrians, and will yield to people crossing the street. One of my cousins came to stay with me for a few months this summer, and this is when she truly got what I've been saying for years I think. She got by mostly with her own two feet, wherever she was going. When she needed to travel further, I got her a travellers card. I'm not sure she even knows where to find a bus stop in her home town. (Neither would I.)

bryanlarsen 9y ago
"Fortunately, drivers in this area seem to be fairly friendly to pedestrians, and will yield to people crossing the street." That's part of the infrastructure too. Unfortunately it's a part that is easily lost. I went to university in a city that had that culture -- 25 years later that culture is gone as a resource boom pulled in a significant number of newcomers.
TulliusCicero 9y ago
American cities largely feel like they were designed by people who hate cities. Living in Munich now, urban design is easily the #1 thing I'd transplant over to the states if I could.
- plopz 9y ago
  The US could really use a complete leveling like what Europe got from the world wars. Being able to redesign everything from scratch with modern sensibilities would be great.
  - oftenwrong 9y ago
    That's exactly how the older American cities got where they are today: http://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ http://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/
  - chiefofgxbxl 9y ago
    "Anybody who travels back and forth across the Atlantic has to be impressed with the differences between European cities and ours, which make it appear as if World War Two actually took place in Detroit and Washington rather than Berlin and Rotterdam." - James Howard Kunstler, Home From Nowhere (1996)
  - TulliusCicero 9y ago
    This is hilarious to me because usually what pro-car apologists say is that the reason European cities are more walking-friendly is because they're so old and have pre-car street grids. Which isn't entirely wrong, but the fact that American cities are hostile to walking was still a collective choice on our parts, the advent of the car didn't mean that we had to explicitly favor them at all times, that was something we decided to do.
m3rc 9y ago
When people think of "urban planning" their minds often jump immediately to large-scale infrastructure changes or totally designed cities built from the ground up, but it's exactly these sorts of little things that are actually the most important. Yielding to pedestrians, like you said, is an element of infrastructure, and it's cheap as hell to change attitudes about it. Parking is absurd. Planning codes have mandated numbers of parking spaces for businesses, so if you want to develop land your only option is to turn it into a strip mall. LA is an asphalt hellscape precisely because of this, parking requirements have made it so there is over 4.2 square meters of asphalt PER PERSON, just for parking alone. I only own a bike but live with a partner who has a car and I know it would be difficult to go completely without in my city (~300,000 pop.) I, like many people my age, am planning on moving to a larger more urban city that will have more public transportation and bike infrastructure, but I recognize that this isn't really the answer. Comparatively poor American millennials and gen-Z's that continue condensing populations into urban centers leaves even less incentive for long term change in mid-sized towns.
- saint_fiasco 9y ago
  > Yielding to pedestrians, like you said, is an element of infrastructure, and it's cheap as hell to change attitudes about it. I suppose it's an attitude that is cheap to maintain, if it is already common. But I don't know how to change into that system in a place that does not have it already. Teach it in driving schools and wait for old drivers to die?
  - santaclaus 9y ago
    > Teach it in driving schools and wait for old drivers to die? Or pass and enforce laws about yielding to pedestrians. The difference between Oregon (with some of the most pedestrian friendly laws that are actually enforced) and California (where I've watched cop cars slowly roll through crowded crosswalks) is pretty marked.
    - saint_fiasco 9y ago
      How can a place like California change from a widespread habit of not enforcing laws to a habit of enforcing them?
CalRobert 9y ago
I have a lot of American family and I think a lot of them don't think it's actually true that you can build a city where you don't need a car. They've heard it, but assume it must be for novelty's sake and for REAL trips you drive, of course, because who could carry groceries? It's really hard to convince someone otherwise if they know no different.
- lagadu 9y ago
  I actually understand why: from chatting with my US coworkers whenever they visit us, I found something that I find fascinating: grocery shopping is something that only happens at most once a week, usually less often. Because supermarkets are far away from offices and residential areas they only buy groceries very infrequently (compared to me, who does it maybe 4-5 times a week). It makes sense given the urban planning: you get to the office by car and go home by car, so grocery shopping isn't an opportunity that presents itself frequently. Compare it to me: I'll bicycle or take the metro every day and my route (and everyone's really) passes by more supermakets than I can easily count. It's more than a matter of habit or novelty, you can't get people to change unless you offer them an environment where that change is beneficial to them.
  - CydeWeys 9y ago
    I'm a single person and I don't go to the grocery store very frequently, and can still easily carry a week's worth of food back to my apartment using a backpack. If you're willing to use a cart (and a lot of people do use them for shopping) you can bring back even more. I think the problem starts looming when you're trying to buy food for many people once a week. You either need all of those people to come with you to help bring back the food, a motorized vehicle, or a cargo bicycle.
    - CalRobert 9y ago
      To be honest, I cheat a little bit - after having a kid I started getting groceries delivered. Regardless, though, I think a lot of my family (obviously a small sample size) just don't really think it's possible. They're so used to everything being a barren asphalt landscape that it just isn't possible to conceive of a practical place where you don't need to drive. I don't even blame them; I lived in it for 30 years and had a hard time imagining anything different myself (though when I did experience it, I desperately wanted to live in it and worked hard to make it happen).
JBlue42 9y ago
The house I grew up, in a rural area, there's a small restaurant we would frequently get food from less than 2,000 ft away. We would have to drive to pick up because it was unsafe to walk there. Busy two lane road with drainage ditches on both sides of the road. Also, not having a car meant you didn't go anywhere. When my grandmothers stopped driving, they stayed cooped in the house all day (except for one, now deceased, that tended to her small garden).

sethrin 9y ago

Many cities in the US formerly had light rail systems, but these were purchased and dismantled by companies involved in the automotive industry[0]. These companies also created a "car culture" which may rival Sam Colt's creation of "gun culture" in its deleterious effects on society. The younger generations seem to be rejecting this culture, so perhaps in some few decades we may have a culture where the political will exists to improve public transportation. I'm not going to hold my breath. As an aside, Brasilia probably holds a special place in pedestrian hell. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

pnathan 9y ago

I would suggest federal funding emigration to large cities, with federal funding & demands to improve infrastructure. :-)