4 ms·

When it comes to automobiles and the US... are there any similar countries?

by bananapear 4y ago

xyzzyz 4y ago
Most of Europe outside of large metros is the same as well.
- bonzini 4y ago
  It depends. For example there are many places that are too small to live without a car, but where you can do basic grocery shopping or kids can still go to school on foot or by bike. The spread is rarely comparable to the US.
- skrtskrt 4y ago
  There’s a difference between “it’s rural so things are spread out” and what we have in places like LA and Houston where major metro centers that could have been dense with good transit were purposely designed to be spread out and only able to be gotten around in in an automobile
  - Lammy 4y ago
    There are plenty of non-US places which used to have transit and now do not. Britain's 1960s "Beeching Axe" comes to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts
- barrkel 4y ago
  Europe is not like the west coast of the US. Even urban areas are practically unnavigable by foot; everything is too spread out and only accessible by walking along heavily trafficked roads. You'll want at least a bicycle in rural Europe, but you don't normally need a whole lot more.
yaomtc 4y ago
Canada
- doubled112 4y ago
  Definitely the suburbs around the major cities. 40 minute walk to the nearest store does seem unreasonable. 2 hours to bus to work or 15 minutes to drive.
- na85 4y ago
  Depends on where. I'm in Victoria and don't need a car (have one, though).
  - vinay427 4y ago
    That may be the point of the comparison, as I understood it, with urban areas that don't require cars more of an exception than a norm. This is certainly the case in the US as well (NYC metro, DC metro, SF metro, university towns, etc.).
    - na85 4y ago
      Perhaps, but I'd say urban areas are the norm here. 80% of Canada lives along the Windsor-Quebec City corridor.
      - vinay427 4y ago
        I'm aware. As for the urbanization, that's about on par with the US (82% for Canada, 83% for the US according to this metric [1]). More to the point, most of those areas outside of Toronto and Montreal have middling-to-no usable public transport. For example, I was recently passing by Kingston, ON, which has buses in some parts of the city but they reach a fraction of the population in the Kingston metro area. The same goes for much of the Windsor-London corridor. The qualification I stated was "urban areas that don't require cars," not any urban area. [1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=OE https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locat...
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

When it comes to automobiles and the US... are there any similar countries?

xyzzyz 4y ago

Most of Europe outside of large metros is the same as well.

bonzini 4y ago
It depends. For example there are many places that are too small to live without a car, but where you can do basic grocery shopping or kids can still go to school on foot or by bike. The spread is rarely comparable to the US.
skrtskrt 4y ago
There’s a difference between “it’s rural so things are spread out” and what we have in places like LA and Houston where major metro centers that could have been dense with good transit were purposely designed to be spread out and only able to be gotten around in in an automobile
- Lammy 4y ago
  There are plenty of non-US places which used to have transit and now do not. Britain's 1960s "Beeching Axe" comes to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts
barrkel 4y ago
Europe is not like the west coast of the US. Even urban areas are practically unnavigable by foot; everything is too spread out and only accessible by walking along heavily trafficked roads. You'll want at least a bicycle in rural Europe, but you don't normally need a whole lot more.

yaomtc 4y ago

Canada

doubled112 4y ago
Definitely the suburbs around the major cities. 40 minute walk to the nearest store does seem unreasonable. 2 hours to bus to work or 15 minutes to drive.
na85 4y ago
Depends on where. I'm in Victoria and don't need a car (have one, though).
- vinay427 4y ago
  That may be the point of the comparison, as I understood it, with urban areas that don't require cars more of an exception than a norm. This is certainly the case in the US as well (NYC metro, DC metro, SF metro, university towns, etc.).
  - na85 4y ago
    Perhaps, but I'd say urban areas are the norm here. 80% of Canada lives along the Windsor-Quebec City corridor.
    - vinay427 4y ago
      I'm aware. As for the urbanization, that's about on par with the US (82% for Canada, 83% for the US according to this metric [1]). More to the point, most of those areas outside of Toronto and Montreal have middling-to-no usable public transport. For example, I was recently passing by Kingston, ON, which has buses in some parts of the city but they reach a fraction of the population in the Kingston metro area. The same goes for much of the Windsor-London corridor. The qualification I stated was "urban areas that don't require cars," not any urban area. [1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=OE https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locat...

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]