4 ms·

It's disheartening to read some of the replies to your comment. A large number of Americans seem so traumatized/conditioned to the suburban/car-centric setup, t

by screye 4y ago

It's disheartening to read some of the replies to your comment. A large number of Americans seem so traumatized/conditioned to the suburban/car-centric setup, that they can't even envision a future with Transit. It is doubly sad, because the political and economic dominance of the boomer era was so pronounced, that many Americans now dream of a future (suburban white picket fence house) that is derived from exactly this unsustainable past that made the 'dream' unachievable in the first place. American suburbia works if you live in a unipolar era of unprecedented wealth that's unmatched almost anywhere else in the world or in history. Well, duh. It's no different to considering Dubai's abandoned Palm Islands or World Islands a sensible infrastructure because they haven't yet bankrupted a country with practically infinite per-capita wealth. The first sign of economic troubles will decisively doom your nation. It's started for America, and other unsustainable cities will follow suit. it is staring Americans in their face too. Every private money-conscious closed-system mini-govt ensure that transit and density are in order. People rave about the convenience of buses in college towns and Disneyland's metro system, as if either of those are unrealistic outside of those contexts. I have said it before and will say it again. American urban infrastructure (or lack there of) is the closest thing we have to a monocausal root of all of America's problems. Obesity, loneliness, cost of living, low trust, Govt. debt etc etc.

panick21_ 4y ago
Mostly agree. The problem with monocausal issue is that it also touches everything. To really address it, there is no monocausal solution. - Taxation policy (Land Value Tax) - Transportation policy local and federal level - Services policy (police, social services) - Land use policy (mixed-use, multi-fam homes and so on) Problem is many of these institutional systems were developed or revolutionized in the exact wrong moment, in the 50/60. So that many standards and standard way of doing things have encoded the exact wrong solution. Traffic engineering is a particular victim of this. Everything is done by a book of standards, and the standards are just totally wrong.
- milkytron 4y ago
  > Problem is many of these institutional systems were developed or revolutionized in the exact wrong moment, in the 50/60. In addition, because of the way the policies were made and allowed select people to get rich from these policies, those people now use their money and power to further entrench these policies to keep their own power and money. The auto industry wants continued government subsidies for roads, vacant land owners want to continue property tax instead of land value tax, etc. It's like we've dug a massive hole and some of us see a way out, but many people with the tools are still digging.

by screye 4y ago

panick21_ 4y ago

Mostly agree. The problem with monocausal issue is that it also touches everything. To really address it, there is no monocausal solution. - Taxation policy (Land Value Tax) - Transportation policy local and federal level - Services policy (police, social services) - Land use policy (mixed-use, multi-fam homes and so on) Problem is many of these institutional systems were developed or revolutionized in the exact wrong moment, in the 50/60. So that many standards and standard way of doing things have encoded the exact wrong solution. Traffic engineering is a particular victim of this. Everything is done by a book of standards, and the standards are just totally wrong.

milkytron 4y ago
> Problem is many of these institutional systems were developed or revolutionized in the exact wrong moment, in the 50/60. In addition, because of the way the policies were made and allowed select people to get rich from these policies, those people now use their money and power to further entrench these policies to keep their own power and money. The auto industry wants continued government subsidies for roads, vacant land owners want to continue property tax instead of land value tax, etc. It's like we've dug a massive hole and some of us see a way out, but many people with the tools are still digging.