I don’t know how you could train people to get out of their cars. The whole situation is bus-ted. Perhaps there’s subway to do it, but I’m at a loss as to how.
We need some action from the bike-ameral legal system. Currently, supporters of public transit are underground, but they need to expose car-centric planning as the utter tram it is.
Many people have their choices made for them because there are no practical alternatives.
Yup. Shit, one time I DID take the train up to the city to see a concert. Bit me in the ass hard when I got back to the train station JUST in time to see the last train of the night literally pulling away before my eyes. That was an expensive Uber…
And that’s when you have a train at all. My state has two professional football teams and no internal commuter rail
I just came up with a thought the other day! This would be a decades long approach and I have no idea if it would work. The idea is for generic American cities, that have a few sky scrapers in a downtown and then the burbs.
Start with 3-5 square blocks in the heart of downtown and close the roads. Make them permanently pedestrian only. These roads are typically very wide, so allow food trucks/vendors to occupy a portion of the center. Add bike lanes, and add really good reliable public transit around this area. Let that marinate for a few years, then add another chunk of the same size.
I think you would see this portion of the city become a very popular residential area. Businesses will figure out how to provide amenities where people gather. By starting small you are not requireing people to get rid of their cars, just not use them in certain areas. As this expands you will have a larger and larger portion of the population that finds it inconvenient and expensive to own a car once their needs are met in this ever expanding bubble.
I doubt you could ever get this done, but it’s an idea!
This sounds incredibly similar to Barcelona’s superblocks. Definitely do-able if you get city government on board, there is a proven roadmap to follow.
You don’t even need to ban cars, just add traffic calming that makes the route less convenient for people driving through it. My town did this with a section of a street that went through medium density housing. They changed it from a three-lane one-way street to a two-lane, two-way road with two bike lanes and replaced the stop lights with roundabouts.
Now driving through there takes twice as long as before, which motivates drivers to avoid the area. Since it’s now just the people who live in the area there’s a lot less car traffic. And it’s reasonably close to downtown with plenty of stuff within walking distance.
I just came up with a thought the other day! This would be a decades long approach and I have no idea if it would work. The idea is for generic American cities, that have a few sky scrapers in a downtown and then the burbs.
I should add:
- transit costs are expensive. Build them in at the start
- look at the “15-min city” concept.
- look at “mixed-use (high-density) residential”
I live in an area of mixed-use high-density and it’s done really well: I use the train for everything thats not immediately close-by, all my daily stuff is within a block or two, I’ve rarely driven in 5 years, and while I know the 30-storey buildings above the shops are 97% occupied, I really don’t notice the neighbours.
It’s segregated, rez and biz, but I showed my neighbor how to cope. Now her commute with her kids to daycare is 1 elevator, switch at P4 to the other elevator stack because they both come out in the same room, go back up to the daycare at G to drop the kids off, and walk out to the mètro. Her kids’ commutes are dry, warm and safe, and they’re safely away before she leaves the building.
My city bought out some succesful busniesses downtown to demolish their buildings and build a new stadium with surface level parking for all the people who live outside of the city to drive to. Can we at least get a parking garage instead of surface level so we dont have to demolish businesses and homes for the benefits of suburban and rural sports fans?
Unfortunately the reality often is that it’s cheaper to buy more land and demolish buildings that get in the way than it is to build tall to solve for that. And that prestige project has to be cheap so that it can get out the door in this local politicians election cycle. Now if people could be held accountable for really bad choices they made a long time ago…
If cost is the concern, why did it get placed downtown where land is expensive? The stadium could have been built on the outskirts where land is cheaper and they can build as much parking as they want.
We should also be factoring in the long term impacts. Over the course of 20 years is it better to have a sea of parking around the stadium or a parking garage which leaves space for local restaurants, shops and merch stores to open right next to the stadium?
We should do that. But politicians that are out of office in a couple of years really don’t care because by then it won’t be their problem to solve. Solving actual problems is boring but the flashy project that was totally unnecessary will be remembered. For better or worse.
Yep - that’s something we tend to do well:
Melbourne Cricket ground (100,000 capacity)
Adelaide oval (53,000 capacity)
Brisbane Gabba (42,000 capacity)
Sydney Olympic stadium (83,000 capacity) (there are some carparks just out of view, but not many)
I know right? But that makes sense to do and most places have politicians that want their prestige projects where it suits them and those usually don’t make too much sense. Besides that good public transport solutions are boring. That huge parking space looks way more impressive from above…
And so the idea of coffin/bathtub sized homes was born.
This one is actully much worse then it might appear at first glance. The housing “near” the stadium is mostly mid density. Also there is a light rail line running half a mile away from the stadium, but due to a bit of cliffs and any sort of attempt to do it, you need to walk nearly two miles to the station, due to a lack of proper pedestrian paths.
So this would be easy to fix and btw there is a park next to it. a few pedestrian bridges and wideing some sidewalks.
If it were just to watch a game, many might have taken a form of transit system to get there.
That said, I hear Americans have a tradition of a tail gate party(and at the far right of the picture that might be the case here) so in that particular country it’s probably not likely any of them took transit.
