4 ms·

Neither your comment, or the other 2 have any bearing on the reality in which i live and that i know many others also live. The cities we live in are hundreds,

Neither your comment, or the other 2 have any bearing on the reality in which i live and that i know many others also live. The cities we live in are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. The idea of that a 15 minute city has any bearing on real life is sadly laughable. I'm sorry to have to say so, but it's true.

alistairSH 6y ago
Cars didn't exist hundreds or thousands of years ago, so your statement can't possibly be true. Well planned communities can be close to car-free, at least for day-to-day activities. The problem is we haven't prioritized being nearly car free, choosing instead of externalize the costs of car culture (pollution that generations will have to deal with, health impacts on some community members today, depletion of fossil fuels and the impact of digging them up, vast swaths of land dedicated to flat tarmac for car storage).
- _carbyau_ 6y ago
  Not defending the post you reply to, but while well planned communities can require close to car free, the modern life is such that people are aware of - and cars enable easy access to - the greater world much more so than otherwise. They want to see sights 90 minutes drive away. 3 hours drive away. And be home again that night. I support "local living without cars as much as possible", but I think cars are here to stay for most of us.
  - adrianN 6y ago
    People driving to see sights is really not the issue with cars that we have.
  - alistairSH 6y ago
    Nowhere did I ever claim people shouldn’t have access to cars. I own a car. My wife owns a car. I drive 12k miles/year doing just what you described - day trips or weekend trips. But, I have the option to leave the car parked most of the week and it amazes me that more communities aren’t planned similarly.
- makomk 6y ago
  Hundreds or thousands of years ago, most people would be born, grow up, live their entire lives and die within a few miles of where their parents were born. We're not living in that kind of society today and I don't think it'd be possible to go back to it short of the total collapse of civilization and technology and death of almost all of the world's population.
  - alistairSH 6y ago
    Sure, but that's not what was said above: "The cities we live in are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. The idea of that a 15 minute city has any bearing on real life is sadly laughable." The two sentences don't make sense together. Those old cities were "15 minute" cities by necessity - easy long distance travel wasn't a thing until the industrial revolution. We've since redesigned many of them for car use, and in some cases realized the mistake and redesigned them again (Amsterdam, for example).
andrewl 6y ago
The fact that the 15-minute city will not work everywhere does not mean that there is no place it can work. I live in a major city on the east coast of the United States, and I have it now. There are other cities in which it could be implemented. There are regions of my city in which it can not be implemented. But it's worth doing where possible. There will be various solutions to our energy and pollution problems, and some of the variations will depend on the region the solution is being implemented in. I don't think solar power will be as big in Canada as in, say, the Sahara Desert.
- foobiekr 6y ago
  I am curious which city we are talking about. This sounds very nice.

alistairSH 6y ago

Cars didn't exist hundreds or thousands of years ago, so your statement can't possibly be true. Well planned communities can be close to car-free, at least for day-to-day activities. The problem is we haven't prioritized being nearly car free, choosing instead of externalize the costs of car culture (pollution that generations will have to deal with, health impacts on some community members today, depletion of fossil fuels and the impact of digging them up, vast swaths of land dedicated to flat tarmac for car storage).

_carbyau_ 6y ago
Not defending the post you reply to, but while well planned communities can require close to car free, the modern life is such that people are aware of - and cars enable easy access to - the greater world much more so than otherwise. They want to see sights 90 minutes drive away. 3 hours drive away. And be home again that night. I support "local living without cars as much as possible", but I think cars are here to stay for most of us.
- adrianN 6y ago
  People driving to see sights is really not the issue with cars that we have.
- alistairSH 6y ago
  Nowhere did I ever claim people shouldn’t have access to cars. I own a car. My wife owns a car. I drive 12k miles/year doing just what you described - day trips or weekend trips. But, I have the option to leave the car parked most of the week and it amazes me that more communities aren’t planned similarly.
makomk 6y ago
Hundreds or thousands of years ago, most people would be born, grow up, live their entire lives and die within a few miles of where their parents were born. We're not living in that kind of society today and I don't think it'd be possible to go back to it short of the total collapse of civilization and technology and death of almost all of the world's population.
- alistairSH 6y ago
  Sure, but that's not what was said above: "The cities we live in are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. The idea of that a 15 minute city has any bearing on real life is sadly laughable." The two sentences don't make sense together. Those old cities were "15 minute" cities by necessity - easy long distance travel wasn't a thing until the industrial revolution. We've since redesigned many of them for car use, and in some cases realized the mistake and redesigned them again (Amsterdam, for example).

andrewl 6y ago

The fact that the 15-minute city will not work everywhere does not mean that there is no place it can work. I live in a major city on the east coast of the United States, and I have it now. There are other cities in which it could be implemented. There are regions of my city in which it can not be implemented. But it's worth doing where possible. There will be various solutions to our energy and pollution problems, and some of the variations will depend on the region the solution is being implemented in. I don't think solar power will be as big in Canada as in, say, the Sahara Desert.

foobiekr 6y ago
I am curious which city we are talking about. This sounds very nice.