3 ms·

I enjoy being a tourist in winding mazes. But when I want to get to work? Give me wide straight roads.

golemiprague 8y ago
And get stuck in hours long traffic jams? No thank you. Many congested cities are a better opportunity for a good public transportation. Compare LA or Sydney to Tokyo or London, congested cities are much more lively and most people have fast access to the action and to business districts unlike sprawled cities where only few rich people enjoy the interesting parts and the rest commute for hours to the boring suburbia. On the other hand they have bigger houses, wide streets and large parks so there is always a trade off, but getting to work is certainly easier in congested cities with good train system.
icsllaf 8y ago
Would there be a difference in commutes on work vs commutes dependent on driving? Much easier to walk in a winding maze than drive through it and you can put much more in the former than the latter dependent on the land-use and density.
romwell 8y ago
>But when I want to get to work? Give me wide straight roads. Why? Is getting lost on the way to work a problem? A month into working anywhere, you learn all the ways to get there anyway. And a 45-minute tram ride to work on winding streets beats a 1.5 hour traffic jam on a nice, wide, straight 101 North any time.
- souprock 8y ago
  Wait, what? You think a 45-minute commute is good? The 1.5-hour thing is simply beyond the pale. You need to get out of the urban megacity. I've lived in several parts of the USA. My worst commute was 20 minutes by car, and my current commute is 3 minutes by car or 15 to 20 minutes by foot. These were all software development jobs. The reason is that I choose small cities. I choose places that have suburban density, though they aren't technically suburbs because people aren't commuting into an urban megacity. The jobs are local. Another nice benefit of this choice is my expenses. Houses go for 10% to 20% of what you pay in a place like the Bay Area, not even counting the extra land you get. Nearly everything else is cheaper too. Gas is half the price. Groceries are cheaper. Taxes are much lower.
  - romwell 8y ago
    Well, my current commute is 30 minutes by bicycle (South Bay), but that's about to change. And yes, I guess living in NYC for a while seems to have affected me in many ways :)

And get stuck in hours long traffic jams? No thank you. Many congested cities are a better opportunity for a good public transportation. Compare LA or Sydney to Tokyo or London, congested cities are much more lively and most people have fast access to the action and to business districts unlike sprawled cities where only few rich people enjoy the interesting parts and the rest commute for hours to the boring suburbia. On the other hand they have bigger houses, wide streets and large parks so there is always a trade off, but getting to work is certainly easier in congested cities with good train system.

icsllaf 8y ago

Would there be a difference in commutes on work vs commutes dependent on driving? Much easier to walk in a winding maze than drive through it and you can put much more in the former than the latter dependent on the land-use and density.

romwell 8y ago

>But when I want to get to work? Give me wide straight roads. Why? Is getting lost on the way to work a problem? A month into working anywhere, you learn all the ways to get there anyway. And a 45-minute tram ride to work on winding streets beats a 1.5 hour traffic jam on a nice, wide, straight 101 North any time.

souprock 8y ago
Wait, what? You think a 45-minute commute is good? The 1.5-hour thing is simply beyond the pale. You need to get out of the urban megacity. I've lived in several parts of the USA. My worst commute was 20 minutes by car, and my current commute is 3 minutes by car or 15 to 20 minutes by foot. These were all software development jobs. The reason is that I choose small cities. I choose places that have suburban density, though they aren't technically suburbs because people aren't commuting into an urban megacity. The jobs are local. Another nice benefit of this choice is my expenses. Houses go for 10% to 20% of what you pay in a place like the Bay Area, not even counting the extra land you get. Nearly everything else is cheaper too. Gas is half the price. Groceries are cheaper. Taxes are much lower.
- romwell 8y ago
  Well, my current commute is 30 minutes by bicycle (South Bay), but that's about to change. And yes, I guess living in NYC for a while seems to have affected me in many ways :)