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I wonder how you measure that? I have a one sentence goal that I think is more measurable - "Every child should be able to cycle to school on car-free paths" T

I wonder how you measure that? I have a one sentence goal that I think is more measurable - "Every child should be able to cycle to school on car-free paths" That sets a different tone and yet achieves very similar goals.

mytailorisrich 4y ago
In Paris I suspect that every child can walk to school. It is a very dense city with primary schools in every neighbourhood. I am sure most children already walk to school.
- lifeisstillgood 4y ago
  But car free paths is a deep standard to meet. Pavements (sidewalks) don't quite make it - you still cross roads. Although pretty safely. A cycle path that is car free is much harder - especially as you get into the elongated roadways of suburbia and car centric towns. There is a venn diagram with the Strong Towns argument of density and taxable value, the car-agnostic approach of Barcelona or Tokyo and i think the thin sliver of overlap with the modern world looks like car-free paths. A mobility network that is local and human powered and will engender path-side amenities and opportunities to spring up. Basically, just keeping the current town planning approach, with long car centric roads and amenities and just slapping a cycle path in is not transformative
Someone 4y ago
> "Every child should be able to cycle to school on car-free paths" That implies every house should be connected to a car-free path. I don’t see that as feasible. I would aim for having all houses in 30km/hour zones and requiring any crossings of higher-speed car lanes to be on segregated cycle paths. That’s doable.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  Why not? That's only one path in one direction every two blocks. Why is dedicating 5% of the space and 2% of the money on doubling tansport capacity unfeasible?
  - lifeisstillgood 4y ago
    Thank you. It's just so ... different. the term "block" would stop being so meaningful because that path would break up a block and become ... But your argument is absolutely on point - i agree. It's just hard to imagine what it will look like :-)
    - Schroedingersat 4y ago
      I was thinking more along the lines of every second street in one direction having a separated bike lane with full right of way at conflict points and infrastructure to manage the cars (like raised crossings and/or lights) so noone would have to cross a road at an undesignated spot more than once to get to it. You can even arrange it such that there is no through traffic on some cross roads (bike lane in the middle and all entering cars must turn right in RHD countries) to reduce the number of conflict points (with cars only crossing the bike lane every km or 2). But the alley way type arrangement you're thinking of has existed in the past as well (and probably still exists in some places) with a narrow alley enterable through the back yard that cars only enter if they live on that block. Additionally it's not really a burden for the cyclist to walk for the first/last km or use the sidewalk at jogging pace where that is legal (so long as the sidewalk road crossings are built with similar levels of safety and pedestrian priority).
  - Someone 4y ago
    So, how would you go from your front door to that path? Walking to it over the pavement would work, but I wouldn’t call that a good or even decent answer, and riding on the road wouldn’t be car-free.
    - Schroedingersat 4y ago
      Walking up to one block with your kid takes far less time than queueing in a pickup line in your car for two hours, it's not really any burden at all to walk 100m. If you dedicate a slightly larger tiny minority of land for 1 lane every block in the short direction then it requires walking at most one house over (because you either live on the long road, or you're on the short road within one house of either corner, or there's already a greenway or an alley or large non-residential block that can afford 2m for a pathway at your back boundary). There are also many countries that allow children (or sometimes also adults) to ride on the footpath at moderate speed giving way to pedestrians if there is no bike lane.

mytailorisrich 4y ago

In Paris I suspect that every child can walk to school. It is a very dense city with primary schools in every neighbourhood. I am sure most children already walk to school.

lifeisstillgood 4y ago
But car free paths is a deep standard to meet. Pavements (sidewalks) don't quite make it - you still cross roads. Although pretty safely. A cycle path that is car free is much harder - especially as you get into the elongated roadways of suburbia and car centric towns. There is a venn diagram with the Strong Towns argument of density and taxable value, the car-agnostic approach of Barcelona or Tokyo and i think the thin sliver of overlap with the modern world looks like car-free paths. A mobility network that is local and human powered and will engender path-side amenities and opportunities to spring up. Basically, just keeping the current town planning approach, with long car centric roads and amenities and just slapping a cycle path in is not transformative

Someone 4y ago

> "Every child should be able to cycle to school on car-free paths" That implies every house should be connected to a car-free path. I don’t see that as feasible. I would aim for having all houses in 30km/hour zones and requiring any crossings of higher-speed car lanes to be on segregated cycle paths. That’s doable.

Schroedingersat 4y ago
Why not? That's only one path in one direction every two blocks. Why is dedicating 5% of the space and 2% of the money on doubling tansport capacity unfeasible?
- lifeisstillgood 4y ago
  Thank you. It's just so ... different. the term "block" would stop being so meaningful because that path would break up a block and become ... But your argument is absolutely on point - i agree. It's just hard to imagine what it will look like :-)
  - Schroedingersat 4y ago
    I was thinking more along the lines of every second street in one direction having a separated bike lane with full right of way at conflict points and infrastructure to manage the cars (like raised crossings and/or lights) so noone would have to cross a road at an undesignated spot more than once to get to it. You can even arrange it such that there is no through traffic on some cross roads (bike lane in the middle and all entering cars must turn right in RHD countries) to reduce the number of conflict points (with cars only crossing the bike lane every km or 2). But the alley way type arrangement you're thinking of has existed in the past as well (and probably still exists in some places) with a narrow alley enterable through the back yard that cars only enter if they live on that block. Additionally it's not really a burden for the cyclist to walk for the first/last km or use the sidewalk at jogging pace where that is legal (so long as the sidewalk road crossings are built with similar levels of safety and pedestrian priority).
- Someone 4y ago
  So, how would you go from your front door to that path? Walking to it over the pavement would work, but I wouldn’t call that a good or even decent answer, and riding on the road wouldn’t be car-free.
  - Schroedingersat 4y ago
    Walking up to one block with your kid takes far less time than queueing in a pickup line in your car for two hours, it's not really any burden at all to walk 100m. If you dedicate a slightly larger tiny minority of land for 1 lane every block in the short direction then it requires walking at most one house over (because you either live on the long road, or you're on the short road within one house of either corner, or there's already a greenway or an alley or large non-residential block that can afford 2m for a pathway at your back boundary). There are also many countries that allow children (or sometimes also adults) to ride on the footpath at moderate speed giving way to pedestrians if there is no bike lane.