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When the notion of adding walkable spaces and separated cycling lanes to NA cities comes up there's a reflexive brushing aside of the idea, that NA is "not euro
by Tiktaalik 6y ago
When the notion of adding walkable spaces and separated cycling lanes to NA cities comes up there's a reflexive brushing aside of the idea, that NA is "not europe" and that cycling simply can't work here.
It's really important to see that the cycling capitals in Europe didn't appear as such fully formed, but it was tough activism that created them from a rejection of the already established status quo of automobile oriented infrastructure.
Accordingly it's clear that it is of course quite possible for NA cities to follow the path of these European cities and create safe cycling and walking infrastructure too.
- samrmay 6y agoNA’s geography does make it slightly less prone to cycling/walking based transportation, but it seems people use a predilection towards cars as an excuse not to evolve. Super interesting that the shift to biking in Amsterdam was a concerted effort rather than a natural shift. I think there is also some outcome bias towards cars because they’re a comfortable/ known quantity for most people.
- Gravityloss 6y agoPeople just helplessly sit on so many things, telling incorrect excuse after another. In the spring I remember watching countless corona experts on TV claiming it can't be stopped. Meanwhile it was very well stopped in places like Taiwan or South Korea. It's as if those countries didn't even exist.
- SturgeonsLaw 6y agoThis is a perpetual source of bemusement for myself, a non-American, seeing arguments why x will never work because y, when it has been working quite well in other places for a while. The worst offenders are threads on universal healthcare, particularly when claims like "America is too diverse for universal healthcare" are made, and upvoted, with few people stopping to consider both the implication and even the basic truth of the statement.
- Gravityloss 6y agoYeah, it's common in all countries. During the second world war, when the Americans handed over aircraft carriers to the Brits, all the washing machines and ice cream machines had to be removed. I'm sure there are some reasons to that. But it just makes one think what are the real reasons "why we can't have nice things"
- caturopath 6y ago> NA’s geography does make it slightly less prone to cycling/walking based transportation How so? You mean the snowy towns or the hilly towns or...? > I think there is also some outcome bias towards cars because they’re a comfortable/ known quantity for most people. There's a bias toward cars since it's incentivized to drive cars. Our laws mean everything is far apart so trips are far and our transportation infrastructure is almost all fast or long roads. These are choices that prop up cars: if you could go to the grocery store with a short trip without a high risk of being hit by a car, more people would walk or ride a bike there. If transit was convenient, people would take it. People just want to get where they're going: cars are the best way to do that in the US because we have decided to incentivize car use over other options.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoLess density, maybe?
- caturopath 6y agoAh, I took the person to mean our physical geography. Our urban geography is of course the reason for our car use: we've put policy into place so that cars are incentivized and other forms of transportation are disincentivized, with density being a cornerstone of that.
- imtringued 6y agoDensity is one factor but the complete separation of commercial and residential zoning is also a huge factor. In a lot of walkable cities the first floor of most buildings is often reserved for low impact commercial uses like shops or restaurants. I am in a car dependent city (I need the car to go to work) but the fact that there are 3 stores in walking distance helps cut down on the voluntary car trips significantly. Even the weekly trip to a far away store takes 10 minutes at most by car.
- samrmay 6y agoCorrect. Was talking about the sheer size of many countries in NA makes it a much different situation than many countries in Europe. Could've been much clearer so I apologize.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y agoAs a former bike commuter, I fear driver negligence more than any amount of taxation.
- xellisx 6y agoIt's amazing that they allow for streets to be built so narrow in new neighborhoods, that only one car can get through if there is on parked on the side. Lot's of complaints about people parking on the street in a neighborhood that still being built out. They also have one way streets that are hard to get through of anyone is parked on the street.
- codetrotter 6y agoWho is they in this context? NA? Amsterdam? Europe?
- xellisx 6y agoI'm in the US, Texas more specifically.
- paledot 6y agoWhat amazes me is that some neighbourhoods in the US are constructed without sidewalks. I don't care about the street.
- xellisx 6y agoThere are a lot of places around me (Texas) with no sidewalks or bike lanes. The road planing has been, is, and will probably be horrid forever.
- quietbritishjim 6y agoAfter some Googling of 2 letter country codes and USA state codes I eventually realised you probably meant NA = North America. Another case where abbreviating saved the writer some typing but added work for the reader.
- samcheng 6y agoIn the Bay Area at least, there has been a movement toward walkable spaces and car-free boulevards as a reaction to COVID. A number of 'main streets' on the peninsula have been closed to cars, to provide space for struggling restaurants to have outdoor dining. People are already talking about saving some of these arrangements post-COVID, but we'll see if it actually happens. I imagine the businesses will worry about parking. As a frequent cyclist to my nearby (now car-free) mini-downtown-and-farmers-market, I'm all for it!