644
‘People are happier in a walkable neighborhood’: the US community that banned cars
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
644 points (97.5% liked)
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Great idea, but they are taking it too far. People should be allowed to have a car, but it should be parked at the edge of the neighborhood and only be allowed to come in for loading and unloading of heavy things.
That way you have all the benefits and almost no inconvenience at all. We have that in many places in Denmark and it works great.
That's exactly what this development is?
There's nothing more American than taking ideas to their extreme end.
But, it's also not surprising to see this behavior given that it's a response to the other extreme of cars in every space, in every location.
I would take it one step further and say there should probably be small (single lane) roads that run through the neighborhood or an underground carpark with a few freight elevators that run directly into the buildings. Why? For a same reason you mentioned that they should allow cars. If you get a new fridge, imagine trying to walk that sucker from the street to your apartment. You probably wouldn't need very many freight elevators or access roads to significantly decrease the amount of effort required to get bulky and/or heavy objects to your apartment while still maintaining the general feel and spirit of a car-less community.
You really don't need new fridges that often, the couple times you do just put them on boards on casters and shove. If you can't: ask your neighbors, it's a good bonding experience.
What about garbage disposal.
You going to pull that around on casters as well?
Gee I wonder how the pedestrian-only streets in Denmark are doing it? I guess they aren't and are full of trash.
Stop conflating private car owner-ship with municipal service vehicles.
To be fair a pedestrian only street in a town with cars is very different from a street-less town.
It's not just one street, though. It's a series of connected streets. They're actually quite comparable to superblocks in Aarhus, Copenhagen and Aalborg.
I mean... it is full of pesky Danish people tho (/s)
Have you never seen waste containers on wheels?