3 ms·

Cars: - are energy hogs - are loud - are extremely dangerous - require up to 50% of city land to operate.

close04 8y ago
> require up to 50% of city land to operate Where is this number coming from and what does it apply to exactly? It sounds like something that might be realistic in the US but probably not in most other parts of the world.
- djtriptych 8y ago
  Tried to be careful with "up to". LA's city center has been measured at 59%. I'll try to find the source again. But just consider: - roads - highways / major ingress/egress - sidewalks (yup. Don't really need them without cars) - parking lots & garages A nice source with color-coded maps - http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-at-street-area.html http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-at... A nice survey/writeup from Vox: https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-cities-technologies https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-cities-technol...
  - close04 8y ago
    Those are the links are found also before concluding it must be mostly a US thing. I was actually surprised about this. In Europe there far less space dedicated to cars.
notahacker 8y ago
Nobody disputes that road vehicles have downsides On the other hand it is disputed that the impoverished and economically isolated city of Asmara having barely any cars is a demonstration that a city functions well with virtually no access to private motorised transport and inadequate public transport. (cf Groningen had a policy of actively removing roads in favour of cycle paths to achieve high cycle use, achieved very high cycle use whilst remaining a typically prosperous mid-sized northern European city. Asmara might be interesting as a human interest story, but if you want to make arguments about the superfluity of powered road vehicles you'd probably be best citing just about anywhere else... except possibly Yangon)

> require up to 50% of city land to operate Where is this number coming from and what does it apply to exactly? It sounds like something that might be realistic in the US but probably not in most other parts of the world.

djtriptych 8y ago
Tried to be careful with "up to". LA's city center has been measured at 59%. I'll try to find the source again. But just consider: - roads - highways / major ingress/egress - sidewalks (yup. Don't really need them without cars) - parking lots & garages A nice source with color-coded maps - http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-at-street-area.html http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-at... A nice survey/writeup from Vox: https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-cities-technologies https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-cities-technol...
- close04 8y ago
  Those are the links are found also before concluding it must be mostly a US thing. I was actually surprised about this. In Europe there far less space dedicated to cars.

notahacker 8y ago

Nobody disputes that road vehicles have downsides On the other hand it is disputed that the impoverished and economically isolated city of Asmara having barely any cars is a demonstration that a city functions well with virtually no access to private motorised transport and inadequate public transport. (cf Groningen had a policy of actively removing roads in favour of cycle paths to achieve high cycle use, achieved very high cycle use whilst remaining a typically prosperous mid-sized northern European city. Asmara might be interesting as a human interest story, but if you want to make arguments about the superfluity of powered road vehicles you'd probably be best citing just about anywhere else... except possibly Yangon)