In the 1970s cities began allowing right turns on red as a way of saving energy. The notion was, you didn’t want drivers wasting gas waiting for the light to change. 50 years later, this notion … and its premise, that cars are the center of urban transportation … are in conflict with another goal: Let’s make it safer to walk in cities … and ITS premise, that cars are only one form of transportation and must share with others. Safely. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-right-turn-red-ban-19381814.php#walkable
Barrhaven loves you. But not in the acts-of-service love language. Pedestrians can do their own shoveling. Parking lot is quite clear, though. #Ottawa#walkablecity#barrhaven
“Kind of amazing”: A researcher who studies the impact of diseases like Alzheimer’s on older people looked at “road diets” that deliberately slowed traffic on city streets. How did these streets affect older drivers with impairments? They made driving far safer for these people … and everyone else. https://nextstl.com/2023/09/road-diets-and-older-adults/#walkable#cycling
For those unfamiliar with it, Lemmy is basically a federated version of Reddit, distributed across multiple servers like Mastodon. (For anyone who wants to delve further, lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, and aussie.zone are three popular Lemmy instances.)
From Mastodon, you can follow any Lemmy group by following its handle, exactly the same way that you would follow a Mastodon account. Any new posts to that group will then begin appearing in your Mastodon feed.
Even better, if you start a thread on Mastodon, you can also post it to a relevant Lemmy group just by including its handle in your post. (Please note this only seems to work with the first post of a thread.)
"Much of the pushback against the 15-minute city concept is rooted in fiction rather than fact.
The claims start with the idea that limiting car use is government overreach, an attack on individual freedom (even though, as Toderian says "ironically, it's providing more choice").
From there, it gets, well, weird.
Limiting cars & promoting pedestrian or bike access is framed as a slippery slope to government-run, open-air prisons"
hey #urbanists id like you to solve the issue of dense housing and being able to play my music and movies at super loud volume. it's really the best perk of living in a house.
just a suggestion of an area that needs some work and attention. thanks.
It's been a week since we got back from our trip to Mexico City and we're still thinking about it. Loved the city! It's a proper urbanist city that the US could only dream of.
I knew that the city was nicer than I've been led to believe, but even then I was pleasantly surprised. Separate bike lanes, wide sidewalks, perfect weather, and great people!
See that pedestrian street in the picture above? That doesn't just happen by accident. They lined it with trees and maintain the plants around it. Someone here doesn't hate pedestrians and cyclists.
In the US this would be a 5-lane stroad.. and you'd be lucky if you got a 48-inch ADA concrete sidewalk. Name me one street that looks like this in Austin Texas? There are none, because they hate you.
What is improved language instead of "walkable neighborhoods" that includes people who use wheelchairs, other mobility devices?
i know I've seen suggestions, but am not finding those while editing a housing document. Existing language example: "...focusing on creating well-designed, walkable, and vibrant communities."
I think I'm going to go crazy if I see another sidewalk which just stops for five feet because the city only put in sidewalks to meet standards and didn't even think about someone actually using it.
Two seconds of actual thought would fix this problem.
Laisvės Alėja (Independence Way) is a fully pedestrianised street that runs east-west across most of Kaunas.
It is lined with shops, restaurants, cafe/bars, museums, outdoor dining areas, and historical sites (such as the old Presidential Palace, which was used from 1918 until the 1930s). Three-to-four floors of apartments can be found above the shops.
A small tree-lined park can be found in the middle of the street, with bicycle paths and outdoor dining areas on the sides.
During summer, the bars and cafes fill up as lunch approaches, and they remain busy well into the evening (with twilight in Summer sometime around 10:30pm).
Cuisine varies from traditional Lithuanian fare (such as Cepeliniai and Saltibarciai) to modern Italian, Turkish, Georgian, Japanese, American, Thai, and more. (That includes these delicious burritos, tuna salads, and ribs.)
The street begins as Vilnius Gatve at the town hall square in the old city, just near Kaunas Castle and the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris Rivers.
It continues for roughly 2.3 kilometres across almost the entire length of the city, to the historic Church of St Michael the Archangel (Sv. Arkangelo Mykolo Baznycia).
It is bisected by a second pedestrianised street running north-south that links it to the war museum, the Zalgris basketball arena, and the university.
> Millions of Australians face the daily frustration of delayed commutes, particularly on busy motorways. But as governments spend billions continually upgrading roads, experts say that might not be the best solution.
@largess@betterstreetsnsw thanks for the insight. I lived in inner Brisbane (renting of course) until 2019 and I was envious of the Gold Coast Light Rail.
I'm very hopeful that the younger generations are seeing how stupid car centric infrastructure is. Why does everyone want to go to Europe so much?
Obligatory meme - it's because they have #walkable space and public transportation.
The U District Street Fair is a periodic reminder of how nicely a pedestrianized, car-free space would work along University Way NE (aka The Ave) in Seattle.
Yes, please! It's closed often enough anyway and is probably the worst way to get around downtown. Close the Circle, as well as Meridian and Market inside Ohio/Pennsylvania/Illinois/Washington.
"A cycle path built through part of Sydney’s inner west will be ripped up on Tuesday, five months after it was completed, due to a council decision described by riders as a knee-jerk reaction to complaints from residents."
@ajsadauskas I am absolutely furious that Canada Bay council is going ahead with this act of environmental and infrastructure vandalism.
If you've ever asked why Australia doesn't have great quality cycling infrastructure or transport planning that reflects the realities of net zero by 2050, here's a big part of the reason.
It's car-brained local governments listening to NIMBYs.
"A cycle path built through part of Sydney’s inner west will be ripped up on Tuesday, five months after it was completed, due to a council decision described by riders as a knee-jerk reaction to complaints from residents.
"The separated bike path on Heath Street in the inner west suburb of Rodd Point is part of a planned $7 million cycleway designed to connect the Bay Run at Iron Cove on the banks of the Parramatta River to Concord."
UPDATE: I did some more digging into the local council in Canada Bay, and found this about the mayor:
"The Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently investigating allegations Canada Bay’s long-term mayor Angelo Tsirekas accepted perks from developers, including international flights and accommodation, in return for favourable decisions."
‘Knee-jerk reaction’: Sydney cycle path to be ripped up months after opening (www.smh.com.au)
"A cycle path built through part of Sydney’s inner west will be ripped up on Tuesday, five months after it was completed, due to a council decision described by riders as a knee-jerk reaction to complaints from residents."