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I've been to Venice and I do feel kind of bad about the situation. I wish there were more cities like it to visit or live in, that were really aggressively pede
by TulliusCicero 4y ago
I've been to Venice and I do feel kind of bad about the situation. I wish there were more cities like it to visit or live in, that were really aggressively pedestrian friendly. The fact that it's mostly little alleys and side streets with nary a car to be seen is just...sublime, in its own way.
It's amazing the impact it has on your brain to not have to worry about cars at all as you wander about on foot. Of course there are many reasonably pedestrian-friendly cities all over the world, but I can't really thing of anything on Venice's level where it's in a developed/rich country, and yet there's this decently-sized population/geographical area with essentially zero cars around.
- chasil 4y agoI've been to Venice, and I've driven from Miami to Key West. Both are doomed, but the catastrophes will have markedly different vibes.
- Barrin92 4y agoQuite a few towns in Europe are pretty similar. A few years ago I spent some time in Pontevedra which literally banned cars from the city. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/18/paradise-life-spanish-city-banned-cars-pontevedra https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/18/paradise-life...
- TulliusCicero 4y agoLooks like cars are only banned from the center of the city there. I won't dispute that it looks quite nice though.
- nextos 4y agoPontevedra is very compressed. Pedestrian-only areas cover most of the city.
- TulliusCicero 4y agoIt looks like it only takes 10 minutes or to walk from one end where there's cars to the other. In contrast, going from the train station in Venice to the park on the opposite end takes close to an hour. Part of why Venice is nice is because it feels big enough to really explore on foot. Having a much smaller town that has no cars is okay, but not quite the same experience.
- alliao 4y agowalking around when it's pitch black is quite frightening though; many canals had no barriers
- jhugo 4y agoI have spent a delightfully large amount of time walking around Venice in the dark and I never once felt that I couldn't see the edge of the canal. It's relatively rare for people to accidentally fall in, so I think I'm not alone. If you have unusually bad night-time vision or can't walk in a straight line then I can imagine it could be a concern, though.
- dougmwne 4y agoThis is really not that rare in Europe. There are many hundreds of historical cities with large sections built before cars. Pedestrianized zones are popular and even where cars are present, there's a much better balance between pedestrians and cars. Overtourism is also a very localized phenomenon. The vast majority of people never wander beyond a single square or a single high street, as is mentioned by the author when they say they go one street back. The lesson is that if you go to a globally famous city during a famous festival, and stand in a famous square, you may find quite a lot of other people with you.
- TulliusCicero 4y agoI traveled around Europe while living in Munich and that wasn't quite my experience. Yes, there were many places that were highly walkable or pedestrianized city centers, but sizable cities where cars didn't exist in essentially the whole area? I didn't see that, and so far the specific examples people have mentioned have been small towns or just city centers with no cars.
- dougmwne 4y agoI suppose you could call Venice that, but you could also see it as a historical district of the larger metropolitan area. The metro area has a population of 2.5 million. Only 50k live in Venice proper.
- telesilla 4y agoThe Dalmatian coast has some lovely small cities of ancient stone, and far less people. Wonderful things to be found.