5 ms·

Would you mind putting in concrete examples the sentence "most Americans do not live in areas where you could reasonably live without a car". It's not a critiqu

by gfs78 7y ago

Would you mind putting in concrete examples the sentence "most Americans do not live in areas where you could reasonably live without a car". It's not a critique, I'm not american so I don't understand how could this be, given the level of development of the country and the proliferation of cities that you are supposed to have.

bobthepanda 7y ago
Most Americans live in metropolitan areas, but the vast majority of these metropolitan areas are extremely low-density, single-use suburbs. * The roads are long, winding, and poorly connected (so walking distances are excessive). This leads to ridiculous scenarios like https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/02/28/sprawl-madness-two-houses-share-backyard-separated-by-7-miles-of-roads/comment-page-1/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/02/28/sprawl-madness-two-ho... * The stores are generally large big-box stores that is often kilometers from ones' house; there are no small corner shops and restaurants, because they are illegal. * If you're still determined to walk, you probably need to cross large, high-speed roads with short crossing times, and your origin and destination are probably separated from the road by a large parking lot. And you may not even have sidewalks or crossing facilities. Example: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Panera+Bread,+143+Alexander+Ave,+Lake+Grove,+NY+11755/Whole+Foods+Market,+120+New+Moriches+Rd,+Lake+Grove,+NY+11755/@40.8678391,-73.1316564,1108m/data=!3m3!1e3!4b1!5s0x89e838f901d09b09:0xe8c76fea3ceffde0!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e83854a7b4e64b:0xb83c201412aa917a!2m2!1d-73.133002!2d40.865939!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e838f9a0b71fd9:0x61f01775f0a5062e!2m2!1d-73.1259228!2d40.8697563 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Panera+Bread,+143+Alexander+... * Public transit in American suburbs is a joke. Because it's so hard to walk around, ridership is very low, making frequency hard to justify, causing even lower ridership. And this is before you consider that Americans are anti-tax American suburbs have an associated history with white flight post-segregation, so people often object to transit because it'll let "criminals" in So you wind up with situations like this Detroit man who walked 21 miles every day because he didn't have a car. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/01/31/detroit-commuting-troy-rochester-hills-smart-ddot-ubs-banker-woodward-buses-transit/22660785/ https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015...

by gfs78 7y ago

bobthepanda 7y ago

Most Americans live in metropolitan areas, but the vast majority of these metropolitan areas are extremely low-density, single-use suburbs. * The roads are long, winding, and poorly connected (so walking distances are excessive). This leads to ridiculous scenarios like https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/02/28/sprawl-madness-two-houses-share-backyard-separated-by-7-miles-of-roads/comment-page-1/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/02/28/sprawl-madness-two-ho... * The stores are generally large big-box stores that is often kilometers from ones' house; there are no small corner shops and restaurants, because they are illegal. * If you're still determined to walk, you probably need to cross large, high-speed roads with short crossing times, and your origin and destination are probably separated from the road by a large parking lot. And you may not even have sidewalks or crossing facilities. Example: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Panera+Bread,+143+Alexander+Ave,+Lake+Grove,+NY+11755/Whole+Foods+Market,+120+New+Moriches+Rd,+Lake+Grove,+NY+11755/@40.8678391,-73.1316564,1108m/data=!3m3!1e3!4b1!5s0x89e838f901d09b09:0xe8c76fea3ceffde0!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e83854a7b4e64b:0xb83c201412aa917a!2m2!1d-73.133002!2d40.865939!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e838f9a0b71fd9:0x61f01775f0a5062e!2m2!1d-73.1259228!2d40.8697563 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Panera+Bread,+143+Alexander+... * Public transit in American suburbs is a joke. Because it's so hard to walk around, ridership is very low, making frequency hard to justify, causing even lower ridership. And this is before you consider that Americans are anti-tax American suburbs have an associated history with white flight post-segregation, so people often object to transit because it'll let "criminals" in So you wind up with situations like this Detroit man who walked 21 miles every day because he didn't have a car. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015/01/31/detroit-commuting-troy-rochester-hills-smart-ddot-ubs-banker-woodward-buses-transit/22660785/ https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2015...