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1163 points DaveZale | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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mzmzmzm ◴[] No.44771148[source]
At the same time NYC and Toronto, we are removing protected bike lanes. In North America the acceptable amount of lives per year to sacrifice for a little convenience for drivers is above zero, and apparently rising.
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cyberax ◴[] No.44772256[source]
> At the same time NYC and Toronto, we are removing protected bike lanes. In North America the acceptable amount of lives per year to sacrifice for a little convenience for drivers is above zero, and apparently rising.

BTW, what do you think about the 5-10 extra lifetimes that people in NYC collectively waste _every_ _day_ in commute compared to smaller cities?

A well-designed car-oriented city will have commutes of around 20 minutes, compared to 35-minute average commutes in NYC. So that's 30 minutes that NYC residents waste every day on average. That's one lifetime for about 1.2 million people commuting every day.

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woodruffw ◴[] No.44772723[source]
You've sort of given it away with the "smaller cities" thing. People who live in NYC don't want to live in a smaller American-style city with suburban sprawl.

(You've also glossed over the more painful statistic: for every lifetime-equivalent lost on mass transit inefficiencies, there are hundreds lost to gridlock in NYC. That number, already terrible, would be far worse without the city's mass transit -- you simply cannot support the kind of density NYC endeavors for with car-oriented development.)

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cyberax ◴[] No.44774672[source]
I mean, I don't hide my despair at large cities. They're destroying the fabric of the Western civilization by acting as black holes for population.

> You've also glossed over the more painful statistic: for every lifetime-equivalent lost on mass transit inefficiencies, there are hundreds lost to gridlock in NYC.

Here's the thing. A well-designed human-oriented city like Houston has FASTER commutes than ANY similar-sized city in Europe.

The fix for cities like NYC is to stop building them and start de-densifying them.

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1. masklinn ◴[] No.44774730[source]
> well-designed human-oriented city like Houston

Said no urban planner in the history of urban planning. Or NJB (https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54)

> FASTER commutes than ANY similar-sized city in Europe.

Houston ranks 7th worst traffic in the US. The internet tells me you’re boasting of 30mn for an “average 6 miles commute”. That’s bicycle distance and speed that you need to drive due to a broken city.

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2. cyberax ◴[] No.44774839[source]
> Said no urban planner in the history of urban planning. Or NJB (https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54)

Wrong. Houston is a great example for planners who care about housing availability and the quality of life for the people. And not bike lanes and road diets.

> Houston ranks 7th worst traffic in the US.

Yes. And the 7th worst traffic in the US is STILL BETTER than any large European city's oh-so-great transit.

Tells you volumes, doesn't it?

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3. ◴[] No.44776597[source]