LogFAQs > #967592829

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Which is sort of the point. The solutions might work in cities, but there's a hell of a lot of the US that isn't city. Certainly more so than is the case in Europe. So unless you intend to force everyone into the US into metropolitan areas at gunpoint, those sorts of solutions will always be less effective here than elsewhere.

Step 1: Fix the cities
Step 2: Establish suitably-sized park & ride lots outside of each city to allow rural visitors to take transit into the city so there isn't as much car infrastructure needed

An oversimplification? Obviously. But so many people take an all-or-nothing attitude toward the issue, with the philosophy that anything short of fixing all the problems perfectly right away isn't worthwhile. That's just not a sensible way to approach the matter (or most of life, really); successfully creating any viable alternatives will improve local traffic volumes and take a step toward making everything work better. The goal doesn't have to be "no more cars anywhere," just to employ options that aren't cars in situations where using cars (and especially forcing cars to be used) is a bad idea.

Heck, even the park & ride idea isn't altogether necessary for visitors. The vast majority of traffic within cities is a consequence of city residents driving to their jobs somewhere else in the city. Traffic coming in from so far out that transit solutions aren't viable is such a small minority that you don't really need specialized solutions for handling it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Part of the problem is that US infrastructure (and multiple facets of our society and culture) grew up at the same time cars did, so cars are so integrated into our infrastructure at a deep level that you'd basically have to social engineer and deconstruct dozens of different and seemingly unrelated aspects of our lifestyle to undo it. Not just streets or transport or delivery, but things like the literal concept of dating and our shopping preferences.

Again, it's not just pre-automobile medieval European cities that have developed effective alternatives. Yes, cars have been integrated more deeply into American culture and city design than they have for Europeans, but change is still possible, as demonstrated by cities that were just as car-centric as America but have since been fixed. Most of the "I need a car to be independent" and "stop trying to take away the freedom that cars give me" attitudes that make so many people vehemently opposed to the idea of moving away from them are a consequence of completely reversible zoning laws that prohibit low-rise multi-family residential buildings and the mixed commercial/residential developments that are needed for healthy, walkable neighbourhoods. It's completely expected that people feel like they can't be independent without a car when the nearest grocery store is four miles away and you have to cross eight lanes of commuter traffic to get there, with no sidewalks anywhere on the route. Have a grocery store within a quarter mile of sidewalks, and suddenly that stops being a problem.

Fixing America's (and Canada's) dependence on cars is absolutely possible. Nothing about the country presents an insurmountable barrier to doing so. The only thing that's lacking is the political will, both in the form of voters that don't realize just how possible a better system is and in politicians that are too afraid to rustle the feathers of those ignorant voters and the lobbyists that are quite happy to have a hundred million unnecessary cars that spend the vast majority of their lives idling or parked. No, changing the fundamental culture of the entire country isn't something that can happen overnight, but that's no reason to give up entirely.