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"Walking" is not transportation infrastructure, it is a lack of transportation infrastructure. That's doesn't mean walking is bad (walking is great!), but it do

"Walking" is not transportation infrastructure, it is a lack of transportation infrastructure. That's doesn't mean walking is bad (walking is great!), but it doesn't count as transit infrastructure. Claiming walking as "transportation infrastructure" is like saying a homeless man's sleeping bag is "housing infrastructure". > Manhattan has infrastructure for 1.6 million residents and 1.5 million commuters. Except it doesn't quite, though, does it? Despite Manhattan being one of the wealthiest places in America, and despite it having the highest funded transit agency in the nation, Manhattan is critically short on transportation infrastructure for it's residents. It has the second-worst commute times in the nation (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-are-the-top-20-worst-commutes-in-america-2017-12-07 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-are-the-top-20-worst...) and its transit agency is notorious for delays and problems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_New_York_City_transit_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_New_York_City_transit_cri...) . NYC transportation is so bad that chartering a private helicopter is a viable alternative - https://www.uber.com/blog/new-york-city/uber-copter/ https://www.uber.com/blog/new-york-city/uber-copter/ (Again, I support alternative public transit and despite NYC's issues, we should still be building more subways and trains across the US. But the idea that they are some sort of panacea is a lie, the idea that "save money" is not true, and the idea that they are cheaper for individual persons to use is only true if they are subsidized to an exceptionally higher dollar amount, far above any that public car transport ever has been). > Try doing that (housing 1.6 million residents in 23 square miles) in the suburbs Wait, no one is arguing that density isn't dense -- obviously Manhattan is one of the densest places in the US, far denser than any suburb. I agree entirely. But also, almost no one can afford to live in Manhattan, and most municipalities could never handle the cost nor the complexity of building/maintaining another Manhattan. (Arguably, NYC itself sometimes can't handle the cost/complexity of maintaining Manhattan). Only 0.3% of Americans live in Manhattan. ~99% of the 1+ million residents of my hometown here in Michigan will never be able to afford to live in Manhattan or any place like it. Every single adult here would need a 200-400% raise before we could afford to live a dense urban lifestyle anything like how Manhattanites do. No one is arguing that density isn't dense. The argument is that density is inherently more complicated, inherently more expensive, and requires massive amounts of extra money to pull off.

Retric 7y ago
Manhattan's median annual household income is $66,739, that’s not far from the national average and below many countries in the US. It’s 1.6 million people their not all rich. A quick check found a studio at $1,325/month that’s considered affordable for one person on a 40k/year salary. Don’t forget many people don’t have cars which can be a massive savings. And sidewalks etc, are very much infrastructure. Subway stations are generally 5 blocks apart rather than every block because people are expected to walk up to 2.5 blocks without issue. The absolute maximum distance from a residential address to a subway station is 0.8 miles that’s only a 10.5 minute walk + time waiting at crosswalks. The average is closer to 1/4 that distance. I have had longer walks from my parking garage to the office. PS: I am saying low density makes things worse not that the largest city in the US will have short commute times. That’s never going to happen. Filling 50+ story office buildings from the surrounding area requires people moving increasing distances as the urban center gets larger. Optimally, a new office building is effectively filled by a new ring of people at the furthest edge of the city commuting in, though in practice it’s less efficient than that.
- maxsilver 7y ago
  > A quick check found a studio at $1,325/month that’s considered affordable for one person on a 40k/year salary. What? That's nowhere near affordable! There is no valid metric by which that cost is affordable to that income, that's a insane figure! Using the standard federal housing guidelines, a single person making $40k/yr should spend about $810/month on rent. And a $40k/yr person spending at-or-above $1290/month is considered dangerously house-poor (by that same metric). I wish people would stop trying to normalize housing crisis financials. No person should ever have to spend $1300/month+ on a studio apartment, and people should stop pretending that's OK.
  - Retric 7y ago
    I mean affordability as in people will do it and cover other expenses. It’s clearly a huge cost, but you need consider it as part of a larger lifestyle. A 30 day unlimited subway ticket only costs 127$. By comparison it’s difficult to spend that much under 500$/ month on a car including taxes, insurance, financing, maintenance, fuel, maintenance, and depreciation (aka the actual cost of a car every n years). Which makes it comparable to ~950$ a month rent + car which is still around 100$ over your suggestion, but not the insanity it may seem like. After graduation I was in a roughly similar situation at my first job with a 1050$/month apartment with a car in Fairfax VA on a 38,000$/year salary that included heath insurance for 150/month. This was 2003, but I also had student loans to pay back.

Retric 7y ago

Manhattan's median annual household income is $66,739, that’s not far from the national average and below many countries in the US. It’s 1.6 million people their not all rich. A quick check found a studio at $1,325/month that’s considered affordable for one person on a 40k/year salary. Don’t forget many people don’t have cars which can be a massive savings. And sidewalks etc, are very much infrastructure. Subway stations are generally 5 blocks apart rather than every block because people are expected to walk up to 2.5 blocks without issue. The absolute maximum distance from a residential address to a subway station is 0.8 miles that’s only a 10.5 minute walk + time waiting at crosswalks. The average is closer to 1/4 that distance. I have had longer walks from my parking garage to the office. PS: I am saying low density makes things worse not that the largest city in the US will have short commute times. That’s never going to happen. Filling 50+ story office buildings from the surrounding area requires people moving increasing distances as the urban center gets larger. Optimally, a new office building is effectively filled by a new ring of people at the furthest edge of the city commuting in, though in practice it’s less efficient than that.

maxsilver 7y ago
> A quick check found a studio at $1,325/month that’s considered affordable for one person on a 40k/year salary. What? That's nowhere near affordable! There is no valid metric by which that cost is affordable to that income, that's a insane figure! Using the standard federal housing guidelines, a single person making $40k/yr should spend about $810/month on rent. And a $40k/yr person spending at-or-above $1290/month is considered dangerously house-poor (by that same metric). I wish people would stop trying to normalize housing crisis financials. No person should ever have to spend $1300/month+ on a studio apartment, and people should stop pretending that's OK.
- Retric 7y ago
  I mean affordability as in people will do it and cover other expenses. It’s clearly a huge cost, but you need consider it as part of a larger lifestyle. A 30 day unlimited subway ticket only costs 127$. By comparison it’s difficult to spend that much under 500$/ month on a car including taxes, insurance, financing, maintenance, fuel, maintenance, and depreciation (aka the actual cost of a car every n years). Which makes it comparable to ~950$ a month rent + car which is still around 100$ over your suggestion, but not the insanity it may seem like. After graduation I was in a roughly similar situation at my first job with a 1050$/month apartment with a car in Fairfax VA on a 38,000$/year salary that included heath insurance for 150/month. This was 2003, but I also had student loans to pay back.