3 ms·

Pretty broad paintbrush you got there to mark an entire generation (which I assume you are not part of) as the "problem". Guess when they die off in 2 decades w

Pretty broad paintbrush you got there to mark an entire generation (which I assume you are not part of) as the "problem". Guess when they die off in 2 decades we will be in a walking utopia.

bee_rider 3y ago
Perhaps the author of that comment was a millennial. Constant, random shit-talking of our generation was the norm set by uncreative thinkpiece authors as we were growing up, so it can be easy sometimes to fall into that mindset. Blame whoever was writing popular media from like 1995-2015.
- apwell23 3y ago
  Don't know. I am renting my apartment in my 40s because a certain generation blocked all new housing construction using NIMBY regulatory capture. Now seem to be even buying up all the scraps (with cash) that are left over with their enormous savings from the market bull run and housing boom. While enjoying high interest rates of their savings. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/13/housing-market-boomer-buyers-mortgage-rates/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/13/housing-m...
jfengel 3y ago
No, because we've built a ton of infrastructure around their car-centric culture. Even after they die off, it'll take many more decades to rebuild cities and suburbs around the rock-solid assumption that everybody has a car. And we're leaning even more heavily into it. Self-driving cars change a lot of things, but they still contribute to the notion that things can be arbitrarily far apart. If we're very lucky, it will mean that fewer people will own their own cars, and maybe they'll demand infrastructure where they won't have to pay to go to the grocery store. But even that happens on a nuclear fusion time scale (always 20 years away). So no, we're not getting a walking utopia when the Boomers croak. That can't happen until their buildings and roads also rot away.
- oblio 3y ago
  In the Netherlands it took them about 3 decades (~1970 - ~2000) to have decent bike infrastructure, in the context of them WANTING in 1970 to change the infrastructure. In the US in 2023, the majority of people don't want non-car infrastructure. So realistically widespread/easily available/universal biking/walking friendly infrastructure in the US will probably happen in 2070, if it happens at all.

Pretty broad paintbrush you got there to mark an entire generation (which I assume you are not part of) as the "problem". Guess when they die off in 2 decades we will be in a walking utopia.

bee_rider 3y ago

Perhaps the author of that comment was a millennial. Constant, random shit-talking of our generation was the norm set by uncreative thinkpiece authors as we were growing up, so it can be easy sometimes to fall into that mindset. Blame whoever was writing popular media from like 1995-2015.

apwell23 3y ago
Don't know. I am renting my apartment in my 40s because a certain generation blocked all new housing construction using NIMBY regulatory capture. Now seem to be even buying up all the scraps (with cash) that are left over with their enormous savings from the market bull run and housing boom. While enjoying high interest rates of their savings. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/13/housing-market-boomer-buyers-mortgage-rates/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/13/housing-m...

jfengel 3y ago

No, because we've built a ton of infrastructure around their car-centric culture. Even after they die off, it'll take many more decades to rebuild cities and suburbs around the rock-solid assumption that everybody has a car. And we're leaning even more heavily into it. Self-driving cars change a lot of things, but they still contribute to the notion that things can be arbitrarily far apart. If we're very lucky, it will mean that fewer people will own their own cars, and maybe they'll demand infrastructure where they won't have to pay to go to the grocery store. But even that happens on a nuclear fusion time scale (always 20 years away). So no, we're not getting a walking utopia when the Boomers croak. That can't happen until their buildings and roads also rot away.

oblio 3y ago
In the Netherlands it took them about 3 decades (~1970 - ~2000) to have decent bike infrastructure, in the context of them WANTING in 1970 to change the infrastructure. In the US in 2023, the majority of people don't want non-car infrastructure. So realistically widespread/easily available/universal biking/walking friendly infrastructure in the US will probably happen in 2070, if it happens at all.