4 ms·

Public transportation is indeed good, I didn't have a car when I lived there. Now I live in the countryside so I have a Toyota. But as someone who lives outsid

by tyfon 8y ago

Public transportation is indeed good, I didn't have a car when I lived there. Now I live in the countryside so I have a Toyota. But as someone who lives outside of Oslo it is hell visiting my friends that still live there if I want to bring my children and need to use the car. It's also almost impossible to bike around in the winter as the snow clearing efforts are not really up to standards anymore. While I support less cars in the centre I think they went a bit too far in this case.

mikepurvis 8y ago
Typically the suggested solution in these cases is parking at a commuter rail lot somewhere out of town and then taking the train in. Obviously that requires restraint and forward-planning in terms of how much stuff you can bring, but should be doable in most cases.
- tyfon 8y ago
  Yes it is possible, but instead of 30 minutes each way by car it takes 1.5 - 2 hours each way depending on how well the different transportation systems correspond. With a three year old and a seven year old it's not so easy.
  - mikepurvis 8y ago
    Totally appreciate that— I have kids myself in the same age range, and we've taken lots of trips together by bus, subway, and regional rail, so I do hear where you're coming from. At the same time, the road access and parking facilities that you need to exist at your destination in order to be able to drive door to door do have real costs, and those costs aren't borne by the person who drives in a few times a year to visit. I suspect that there is probably a sliding scale of mechanisms by which you could trade money and time/convenience back and forth on this trip— for example, paying more to park closer in to the city (shorter transit trip) or transferring to a cab and paying the cab (instead of transit) to get between your parking spot and destination. You haven't previously had to consider these options because the default one was so obviously the cheapest and most convenient; maybe that's part of the value of cities drawing a hard line on this, that now everyone who previously just drove by default now really has to consider alternatives. Anyway, I really do respect Oslo and other cities for giving this a try— despite the inconvenience to people in your situation, it'll be neat to see more of what else comes of it.

by tyfon 8y ago

mikepurvis 8y ago

Typically the suggested solution in these cases is parking at a commuter rail lot somewhere out of town and then taking the train in. Obviously that requires restraint and forward-planning in terms of how much stuff you can bring, but should be doable in most cases.

tyfon 8y ago
Yes it is possible, but instead of 30 minutes each way by car it takes 1.5 - 2 hours each way depending on how well the different transportation systems correspond. With a three year old and a seven year old it's not so easy.
- mikepurvis 8y ago
  Totally appreciate that— I have kids myself in the same age range, and we've taken lots of trips together by bus, subway, and regional rail, so I do hear where you're coming from. At the same time, the road access and parking facilities that you need to exist at your destination in order to be able to drive door to door do have real costs, and those costs aren't borne by the person who drives in a few times a year to visit. I suspect that there is probably a sliding scale of mechanisms by which you could trade money and time/convenience back and forth on this trip— for example, paying more to park closer in to the city (shorter transit trip) or transferring to a cab and paying the cab (instead of transit) to get between your parking spot and destination. You haven't previously had to consider these options because the default one was so obviously the cheapest and most convenient; maybe that's part of the value of cities drawing a hard line on this, that now everyone who previously just drove by default now really has to consider alternatives. Anyway, I really do respect Oslo and other cities for giving this a try— despite the inconvenience to people in your situation, it'll be neat to see more of what else comes of it.