LogFAQs > #971234503

LinkPizza posted...

The high front-end is what Im worried about. Chances are I wont get to see the savings on the back-end

As he mentions in that video, Amsterdam went from being as car-dependent as any modern North American city in the 70's to being the closest thing around to urban planning porn. On the flip side, another one of his videos talks about a $2.2 billion highway widening project in Houston that has resulted in travel times on that highway steadily increasing since it was completed in 2011 (because induced demand). You'll probably be around for at least another 30-40 years, so even if you don't see everything become perfected (really, it won't ever be truly perfected, because needs are constantly evolving), you could at least see some considerable improvements and opportunities to not piss away billions of dollars on a strategy that's been proven time and time again to not work.

Beyond that, "why should I want an improvement I won't see myself?" is generally a pretty terrible way to look at policies like this. Most policy changes aren't going to personally benefit you, but stand to benefit society as a whole. That's just the price you pay to not be a hermit.

LinkPizza posted...

That said, we dont have many parking spaces here. Barely enough as it is

You don't have many *empty* parking spaces. I can pretty much guarantee enormous amounts of real estate in your city's downtown core is dedicated to parking spots that are filled by regulars who use them for their everyday commutes (whether renting them monthly or just occupying them early enough that they aren't available for more sporadic parking). Most or all single-family residential lots will include enough driveway space for at least two cars (or driveway space for one and a garage), which increases how large they need to be, and multi-unit buildings almost invariably include their own parking (because street parking just isn't adequate for them, even if not every resident has a car). I may be mistaken in this assumption if you happen to live and work in a part of the US that's significantly less dependent on cars than is typical, but I think it's more likely that you just don't notice how much space parking takes up because you've been surrounded by it your whole life and never thought to consider how wasteful it is.

The reality of car ownership is that most private cars spend the vast majority of the time not being used. They have to go somewhere during that time, and that's space that could have been housing or something with commercial value.