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But the high speed of travel is effected by making virtually everything pavement. You're just traveling through nothing (well, asphalt). Thanks to parking mini
by CalRobert 7y ago
But the high speed of travel is effected by making virtually everything pavement. You're just traveling through nothing (well, asphalt).
Thanks to parking minimums the actual buildings you want to go to are _dwarfed_ by their parking lots.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/06/13/the-whole-city-of-florence-could-fit-inside-an-atlanta-interchange/ https://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/06/13/the-whole-city-of-flo...
Also, forcing everything to be so far apart makes it nearly impossible to traverse on foot, serve with public transport, ride a bike to, etc.
- hnal943 7y agoDense urban living also requires most of your surroundings to be pavement.
- jcranmer 7y agoCompare a picture of Kansas City to one of Manhattan. In Kansas City, there are entire city blocks in the middle of downtown solely dedicated to parking, and more blocks that are given to massive highways to move people downtown. In Manhattan, there is virtually no given space given to such endeavors.
- hnal943 7y agoManhattan's landscape is concrete and (steel and glass). It's hardly pastoral.
- crooked-v 7y agoSure, but literally everyone in Manhattan is only a short subway ride away from Central Park.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoNYC has a surprising number of parks.
- cylinder 7y agoNot Manhattan. Outside of Central Park there's not much green space at all. Midtown south, Flatiron, Downtown, etc have nothing! They may have paved urban parks but there's simply not enough green space per person, and that's a choice they've made historically based on greed. People need accessible green space for use on a daily basis near their homes, not requiring long subway rides back uptown to Central Park.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoMidtown had a bunch of small parks nestled between roads in lots of places near Columbia U.
- cylinder 7y agoColumbia U is pretty far uptown, not midtown. Small pocket parks don't really cut it, people need to be able to go for walks under trees and maybe a sporting field or two.
- cryptonector 7y agoThere are many small parks in Manhattan in addition to Central Park.
- the_gastropod 7y agoThe Flatiron building is literally one block away from Madison Square Park...
- cylinder 7y agoI am well familiar with my old stomping ground Madison Square Park. Not what I'd call a proper park by any means. It's a series of benches around a lawn. Nice to sit and people watch, but that's about it.
- NovemberWhiskey 7y agoThe Battery Conservancy has 25 acres of parkland downtown at the tip of lower Manhattan; most of which is green.
- novok 7y agoGo to tokyo, it's less paved than LA in many places!
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- MrAlex94 7y agoHave you never been to old European cities? They’re beautiful and dense. Hell, even London has many parts that are dense compared to US cities yet are beautifully old and green (like Hampstead and Highgate!). At the end of it, we live in a world where every bit of profit matters more than earning slightly less and having something better looking. I mean let’s compare Los Angeles County vs Greater London: 4,058 sq mi vs 606 sq mi Density 2,100/sq m vs 14,550/sq mi. I mean the difference is insane! And ignoring the towers springing up all over London because of greedy developers, London doesn’t feel all that cramped or as if there’s concrete everywhere. US cities need better public transport and more dense areas. Leave the rest to nature!
- WalterBright 7y ago> greedy developers What's wrong with people building things that others want to buy?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ambernightcrush 7y agoWhat's wrong is that there is no profit in selling real estate and housing at below market value, by definition. And in places like the bay, market rents are not affordable to an increasingly large population. Hence, the greedy perception. Developers are acting in self interest and the old system of financing predicated continuous wage growth.
- WalterBright 7y agoNot building towers will result in even higher prices for housing.
- MrAlex94 7y agoAt least in the UK the price per square foot greatly increases after each new build that replaces an older one. Surely prices would go down? You can even verify yourself. Go on a property portal such as Zoopla or Rightmove and compare the cost of a new build and old build in the same area. I have yet to find one where the new build is cheaper per square foot.
- maccard 7y agoIt absolutely doesn't. It does if you mandate the only transport option to be low density, but pretty much every European city begs to differ
- crooked-v 7y agoParis is one of the highest-density cities in the world... and even then, the city by area is more than half parkland.
- mehhh 7y agoCities including Kent, WA mandate a 60/40 split if parking to building area, enforcing cars are the only practical transport option. This equation has shifted due to eBikes, as they can blow past the snarled traffic on the handful of roads that connect the area, but it still leaves elders, youngsters and the infirm housebound.
- novok 7y agoIf your already in a mobility scooter, I could see it being modified to work in ebike mode. In a way, it's even more convenient for you because you don't have to lock it up or park it anywhere.
- mehhh 7y agoMobility scooters make poor eBike platforms due to the direct electric drive, small radius tires. Hitting 10+mph in a mobility scooter is not likely to happen without serious modifications that are more costly than welding two eBikes together.
- novok 7y agoBut you can foresee a mobility scooter that was designed to go 1-20mph comfortably? They take up so much space and weigh so much you could probably make them street legal electric motorbikes.
- pjc50 7y agoMobility scooters are designed to operate in pedestrian spaces, including indoors. Ones capable of 20mph would probably get banned from pedestrian areas, indoor operation, malls etc for the same reason you wouldn't let someone ride an electric motorbike up the corridors.
- fanf2 7y agoThe world record is over 70mph but yes, seriously modified http://www.colinfurze.com/fastest-scooter.html http://www.colinfurze.com/fastest-scooter.html
- vokep 7y agoThis. And its depressing. A walkable city is much easier to be in a good mood in than a car-centric city.
- ovi256 7y ago>much easier to be in a good mood in Is that for you, or for the average person, or for most persons ? If not the last, it's just a personal opinion, and a possible typical mind fallacy.
- CalRobert 7y agoWell, add me and everyone who visited me in the centre of Dublin to the list. If nothing else, inhaling less poison and, crucially, hearing less engine noise helps.
- heymijo 7y agoThis is a good question and one that should be applied to the OPs comment that kicked off this thread.
- boomlinde 7y agoConsider the health implications of effects of motor traffic. Noise pollution exposure is known to be associated with stress, raised blood pressure, memory loss, nervousness and depression. Congested traffic is associated with stress and aggression, even domestic violence. Air pollution is associated with perceived annoyance, not to mention all manner of medical conditions that have (IMO) obvious mood implications (COPD can be a real downer). As a matter of opinion it seems obvious to me that a space designed for cars is not as comfortable to people as a space designed for people. As a matter of statistics, there are a lot of associations between motor traffic and poor mood, and illnesses with mood implications.
- nine_k 7y agoNew York begs to differ. Because of high city density, I can walk to nearly every destination of day-to-day shopping or services. I can commute in 30-40 minutes from (more) affordable Brooklyn to job-packed Manhattan. I can take a train if I want to read, or a bike if I want to enjoy the view. Car traffic is pretty slow here, admittedly. But I need a car maybe once or twice a month, and Lyft provides it. The cost of it living in an apartment, and not your own house with a lawn to tend. I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, the US lacks another such city, except maybe Chicago. Most US cities are large sprawling villages around a small downtown where all buildings are offices and commerce, and nobody actually lives.
- camiat 7y ago>Most US cities are large sprawling villages around a small downtown where all buildings are offices and commerce, and nobody actually lives. You just described San Jose, which brings us back into the Bay Area.
- Domenic_S 7y agoSan Jose has 4 high rise residential towers downtown: https://www.highrises.com/san-jose/high-rise-condos/ https://www.highrises.com/san-jose/high-rise-condos/
- CalRobert 7y agoIs this meant to be a high number or a low number? It seems quite low to me for a city of over a million people.
- CalRobert 7y agoBut.. we agree completely. I'm not sure I follow? New York exists because it was built before we made it illegal to build cities like it. One of the reasons we lack other cities like it is because we made it illegal to build large buildings without huge amounts of parking and gigantic roads. Though, would Boston not qualify?
- mrmonkeyman 7y agoFlorence, like Rome and all cities in Italy are dirty, chaotic cesspools with the few remaining crumbling ruins to remind us of a better time.
- CalRobert 7y agoAddendum - this video (shared recently in another HN discussion) is a _fantastic_ illustration of the problems of parking minimums, made with Cities: Skylines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lvUByM-fZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lvUByM-fZk
- vonmoltke 7y ago> Thanks to parking minimums the actual buildings you want to go to are _dwarfed_ by their parking lots. Has anyone put together a summary of parking minimum ordinances are across the US?