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Paris is closing the already pretty closed downtown ( along the Seine ). Does that qualify as large metro area? What are the actual piece of reality that makes

Paris is closing the already pretty closed downtown ( along the Seine ). Does that qualify as large metro area? What are the actual piece of reality that makes it impossible in US cities?

mlyle 3y ago
It's totally possible, but not as a step change. Heavy car traffic is a stable system that's actively unfriendly to pedestrian and bicycle uses. You need to slowly claw away space for bicycles and increase ridership; and then work to densify and intermix commercial and residential for things to work well. It takes decades, and the initial steps make things worse even if the new equilibrium is better.
- chimeracoder 3y ago
  > Heavy car traffic is a stable system that's actively unfriendly to pedestrian and bicycle uses. You need to slowly claw away space for bicycles and increase ridership; and then work to densify and intermix commercial and residential for things to work well. > > It takes decades, and the initial steps make things worse even if the new equilibrium is better. Your point about the stable equilibrium is correct, but there's no reason it has to take decades. If you look at pictures of cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Vienna from not long ago, you can see how much more pedestrian-friendly they were made, and much of those changes actually happened more or less overnight. The actual changes are pretty easy to implement. Red tape slows it down, but that's a feature of our own invention, not an inherent limitation.
  - mlyle 3y ago
    Things can definitely improve. I'm thinking of Copenhagen, which is probably the most bicycle friendly city in the world; it's taken about 50-70 years of bicycle-friendly policy and it's only now reached a point where number of car trips per day and bicycle trips per day in the city are equal.
- dopidopHN 3y ago
  Yes, it takes grits. Yo expands on Paris, Each mayor has been hated for it. The last one in particular. But then the reclaimed public space speaks for itself. Usually it seams irreal to think that an highway was in place of that canal/pedestrian area/bike lane/long park
- panick21_ 3y ago
  It takes decades because policy makers aren't willing to make big steps. And believes like your that it has to take decades are part of the reason why they don't. As soon as you take away cars, people look for alternatives and the space is claimed by lots of uses. Bus and bicycle use goes up fast.

Paris is closing the already pretty closed downtown ( along the Seine ). Does that qualify as large metro area? What are the actual piece of reality that makes it impossible in US cities?

mlyle 3y ago

It's totally possible, but not as a step change. Heavy car traffic is a stable system that's actively unfriendly to pedestrian and bicycle uses. You need to slowly claw away space for bicycles and increase ridership; and then work to densify and intermix commercial and residential for things to work well. It takes decades, and the initial steps make things worse even if the new equilibrium is better.

chimeracoder 3y ago
> Heavy car traffic is a stable system that's actively unfriendly to pedestrian and bicycle uses. You need to slowly claw away space for bicycles and increase ridership; and then work to densify and intermix commercial and residential for things to work well. > > It takes decades, and the initial steps make things worse even if the new equilibrium is better. Your point about the stable equilibrium is correct, but there's no reason it has to take decades. If you look at pictures of cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Vienna from not long ago, you can see how much more pedestrian-friendly they were made, and much of those changes actually happened more or less overnight. The actual changes are pretty easy to implement. Red tape slows it down, but that's a feature of our own invention, not an inherent limitation.
- mlyle 3y ago
  Things can definitely improve. I'm thinking of Copenhagen, which is probably the most bicycle friendly city in the world; it's taken about 50-70 years of bicycle-friendly policy and it's only now reached a point where number of car trips per day and bicycle trips per day in the city are equal.
dopidopHN 3y ago
Yes, it takes grits. Yo expands on Paris, Each mayor has been hated for it. The last one in particular. But then the reclaimed public space speaks for itself. Usually it seams irreal to think that an highway was in place of that canal/pedestrian area/bike lane/long park
panick21_ 3y ago
It takes decades because policy makers aren't willing to make big steps. And believes like your that it has to take decades are part of the reason why they don't. As soon as you take away cars, people look for alternatives and the space is claimed by lots of uses. Bus and bicycle use goes up fast.