2074
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

From the end of the video:

Though, I admit, actually fixing American and Canadian cities after they were destroyed by car infrastructure and rebuilt to be car-dependent is a very daunting task, and I'm personally not even convinced it can be done in the foreseeable future, which is a big part of the reason why we left North America for a better city in the Netherlands in the first place.

In case it's not clear, I'm not against trains, buses, trolleys, trams, and bikeable, walkable cities. Far from it. But regardless of whether cities used to be connected by rail and were bikeable, as stated in the video, they aren't anymore, and haven't been for generations in many cases. So what's the solution in the meantime, while we wait for the slow churning bureaucracy to get its head out of its butt?

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A start could be a similar method to the Netherlands. It took them a few decades to get their cities car free again. Whenever a city road was due for resurfacing/redevelopment, instead of just slapping down the same road and calling it a day, other options are considered like adding bus lanes, trams, or bike lanes while reducing the total number of car lanes.

The best part here is it can be done locally. The municipality can decide they want change and commit to a redesign.

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

That actually sounds reasonable. Are these options and methods being considered in America already? I want to see something like this happening in places like the LA metropolitan area and the Bay Area, the most notoriously gridlocked areas in California, which seems like the most car-centric state in the US.

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

To find more info about the push for this kind of redevelopment in America I would look to the movement Strong Towns.

https://www.strongtowns.org/

[-] wanderingmagus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks! Unfortunately there isn't a chapter near my location, the nearest one is 40 minutes away. Still, glad to see a movement already exists!

[-] Katana314@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I live in the Boston area, and while it doesn't seem like it would compare to a place like the Netherlands, it's slowly going in that direction by acknowledging a shift in focus. Places like here and New York are slowly respecting bicycles as a more viable city transport, and expanding the rail/bus systems. If that mindset can continue to occur each time the city planning office receives a complaint about lane congestion, or a city block that's fallen into disuse, it can make some slow changes that make walking/biking/training a little bit better. They won't replace the backbone of the city, but often they don't need to.

this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
2074 points (93.5% liked)

Fuck Cars

9663 readers
118 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS