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Are Americans ready to give up everything rather than admit that dismantling public transit/street-cars/rail and creating zoning restrictions for giant single h

by mrpopo 3y ago

Are Americans ready to give up everything rather than admit that dismantling public transit/street-cars/rail and creating zoning restrictions for giant single housing-only residential areas was a bad idea and will cripple traffic for generations? Autonomous cars do not solve traffic. Flying taxis will not solve traffic. Traffic is solved by abandoning the strange ideal of private cars/pick-up trucks with a single person inside.

klabb3 3y ago
Shared housing and shared transit has become gridlocked, initially because of industry forces and propaganda. But today, I think it remains for other reasons: Americans are scared of strangers (sometimes rightfully so) and public spaces are often depressing. The interesting exception is commercial air travel, which to me embodies the worst parts of shared transit, yet is not considered socialist and dangerous here in the US.
- mrpopo 3y ago
  Yes, I agree that a smooth transition will be unlikely if not impossible. It's not clear how to escape the spiral.
lxm 3y ago
Zoning restrictions are a red herring. Even cities with liberal or nonexistent ones (Houston) have traffic issues, and even the most adamant anti-zoning activists rarely want to raise their kids next to a gas station or a liquor store. It's the downtown-suburb hub-spoke city model, where everyone ends up on the road at the same time driving in the same direction. Look at some cities designed from scratch with cars in mind like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine,_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine,_California The office complexes are decentralized, surrounded by shopping plazas, parks and schools which are then encircled by apartments, then semi-detached residences, and finally detached single family houses. Everyone with a job at one of the office parks can live closer to their specific job without affecting the traffic patterns of the other neighborhoods. Even though it's very car-centric (with I-5 and 405 going through it), has next to zero public transport, is home to a regional airport, Irvine consistently ranks in the top 10 places for living / retiring / growing up / bringing up kids / park access metrics.
- adrianN 3y ago
  Where I live every supermarket and every kiosk is a liquor store and people raise their kids just fine.
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    And here government have monopoly on hard stuff. And people are happy to live closer to their stores... I have never heard anyone anywhere to say they don't want to live next to one. Though generally they are next to super and hypermarkets.
onetokeoverthe 3y ago
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by mrpopo 3y ago

klabb3 3y ago

Shared housing and shared transit has become gridlocked, initially because of industry forces and propaganda. But today, I think it remains for other reasons: Americans are scared of strangers (sometimes rightfully so) and public spaces are often depressing. The interesting exception is commercial air travel, which to me embodies the worst parts of shared transit, yet is not considered socialist and dangerous here in the US.

mrpopo 3y ago
Yes, I agree that a smooth transition will be unlikely if not impossible. It's not clear how to escape the spiral.

lxm 3y ago

Zoning restrictions are a red herring. Even cities with liberal or nonexistent ones (Houston) have traffic issues, and even the most adamant anti-zoning activists rarely want to raise their kids next to a gas station or a liquor store. It's the downtown-suburb hub-spoke city model, where everyone ends up on the road at the same time driving in the same direction. Look at some cities designed from scratch with cars in mind like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine,_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine,_California The office complexes are decentralized, surrounded by shopping plazas, parks and schools which are then encircled by apartments, then semi-detached residences, and finally detached single family houses. Everyone with a job at one of the office parks can live closer to their specific job without affecting the traffic patterns of the other neighborhoods. Even though it's very car-centric (with I-5 and 405 going through it), has next to zero public transport, is home to a regional airport, Irvine consistently ranks in the top 10 places for living / retiring / growing up / bringing up kids / park access metrics.

adrianN 3y ago
Where I live every supermarket and every kiosk is a liquor store and people raise their kids just fine.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  And here government have monopoly on hard stuff. And people are happy to live closer to their stores... I have never heard anyone anywhere to say they don't want to live next to one. Though generally they are next to super and hypermarkets.

onetokeoverthe 3y ago

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