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From my observation, these new housing developments are built without adequate parking and without improvements to the streets, leading to congested messes and

From my observation, these new housing developments are built without adequate parking and without improvements to the streets, leading to congested messes and worsening already bad traffic. How people can see this as a positive is unknown to me.

GalenErso 4y ago
Denser cities lead to less traffic on a per capita basis, not more.
duped 4y ago
One of the problems with new construction in some places (eg LA county) is that new construction has a requirement of too many parking spaces, not too few.
pjdemers 4y ago
On my street, a parcel with one home was just rezoned for 24 homes - with zero on site parking. 24 homes without parking will add ~ 50 cars to on street parking. There is room for maybe 30 cars on the local streets without having to cross a 6 lane highway. Interesting to see how this will play out.
- r00fus 4y ago
  Any public transport worth speaking of? If not, then maybe prices will be impacted for the new development unless they all taxi/uber everywhere...
forthwall 4y ago
Building neighborhoods with parking can lead to worse traffic, the further out you build things, the more likely people need to drive. Roads cannot become infinitely wide, so if there's a shopping center in the middle of a city, but houses spread out for tens of miles, all those people in the radius will drive, causing more traffic. If everyone is in a denser location where more trips don't need to be done with driving, people will opt out of a car, or use a car way less, thus less congestion. San Jose is mostly zoned single family homes with lots of parking, yet there's plenty of traffic. Maybe it's the ample space devoted to parking and driving that's the real problem, as it forces you to drive. I think the next step is providing more services closer to people in these upzoned areas, as well as good transit to commercial centers so they can opt out of driving entirely.
r00fus 4y ago
This is an important element - if developers don't have to take into account the infrastructure needs of their buildings, then won't it just lead to the tragedy of the commons?
mikebenfield 4y ago
You weren’t worried about traffic when people built who knows how many thousands of single family homes many miles from anything people might actually want to go to, making traffic in many US cities a complete disaster. And now that people are considering a mode of development that’s just slightly more sane - a little less car centric and a little more dense… suddenly this is what’s going to somehow push the traffic over the edge. It’s so precisely backwards it’s honestly funny.

GalenErso 4y ago

Denser cities lead to less traffic on a per capita basis, not more.

duped 4y ago

One of the problems with new construction in some places (eg LA county) is that new construction has a requirement of too many parking spaces, not too few.

pjdemers 4y ago

On my street, a parcel with one home was just rezoned for 24 homes - with zero on site parking. 24 homes without parking will add ~ 50 cars to on street parking. There is room for maybe 30 cars on the local streets without having to cross a 6 lane highway. Interesting to see how this will play out.

r00fus 4y ago
Any public transport worth speaking of? If not, then maybe prices will be impacted for the new development unless they all taxi/uber everywhere...

forthwall 4y ago

Building neighborhoods with parking can lead to worse traffic, the further out you build things, the more likely people need to drive. Roads cannot become infinitely wide, so if there's a shopping center in the middle of a city, but houses spread out for tens of miles, all those people in the radius will drive, causing more traffic. If everyone is in a denser location where more trips don't need to be done with driving, people will opt out of a car, or use a car way less, thus less congestion. San Jose is mostly zoned single family homes with lots of parking, yet there's plenty of traffic. Maybe it's the ample space devoted to parking and driving that's the real problem, as it forces you to drive. I think the next step is providing more services closer to people in these upzoned areas, as well as good transit to commercial centers so they can opt out of driving entirely.

r00fus 4y ago

This is an important element - if developers don't have to take into account the infrastructure needs of their buildings, then won't it just lead to the tragedy of the commons?

mikebenfield 4y ago

You weren’t worried about traffic when people built who knows how many thousands of single family homes many miles from anything people might actually want to go to, making traffic in many US cities a complete disaster. And now that people are considering a mode of development that’s just slightly more sane - a little less car centric and a little more dense… suddenly this is what’s going to somehow push the traffic over the edge. It’s so precisely backwards it’s honestly funny.