- cross-posted to:
- upliftingnews@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- upliftingnews@lemmy.world
How it used to look:
A better world exists if you want it.
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Sick bike
It’s starting to happen in car heavy San Antonio, TX too and I’m here for it. It’s amazing how, once a city hits a certain population threshold, it’s feasible to have these central squares where motor vehicle transport can be rare and bike/walk friendly places can still thrive. Europe has adopted it for decades, if not centuries. Now, finally, the other half of the western world is learning from them.
Shout out to Mendoza, Argentina, designed with several plazas regularly spaced throughout its area. Pretty much anyone in the central area can walk to a park with a fountain and be isolated from car traffic; but it’s never too late start banning cars!
Adelaide, Australia is similar. The central city is surrounded by parkland which is mostly public with a central shopping street blocked off from cats. The city can be accessed easily by train, tram or bus!
Mendoza was rebuild after an earthquake with very wide streets to protect people from falling debris. I think it’s as walkable as it gets but I have never been to another city re-built so recently. I would like to see how it compares.
When was that earthquake? I never think of the streets as being particularly wide, and nothing like the clusterfuck of Buenos Aires. And they have canals along most of the roads, providing water for trees (and stray dogs).
There are some peatonales now, I think, but they are more targetted for shopping/relaxation than walking any distance.
And about width of the streets… where I live many streets look like this:
Designed for horses. Very narrow with tall buildings to offer a lot of shade. Compared with that typical street in Mendoza is very wide:
Beautiful
Nice ride.
it’s only impossible as long the majority accepts it as such
Since people usually quibble and kvetch about fair comparisons based on cloudy vs. sunny, or camera angles making the favored photo look better (as if a car sewer would be meaningfully improved with better lighting), I’ll get in on the action (tongue in cheek-style):
This comparison isn’t fair, as it makes the car-less space look empty and desolate. All of the people are far from the camera, tucked in the background, while the cars are in the foreground, making it look well-traveled and vibrant. Never mind that there are probably lots more people in the ‘after’ image. (It’s hard to say for sure, because of the bus, ironically. Clearly a lot more people strolling than in the cars.)
What a load of gobshite.
In your pants?
![This plaza in downtown Guadalajara, Mexico, used to be a noisy, polluted car sewer. Now it's a place for people, bikes, and life, with underground rapid transit [Before pic in description]](https://thelemmy.club/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Flemmy.world%2Fpictrs%2Fimage%2F638ed7a0-0816-4f13-ae11-96382c3c3078.png){kind=link}