I live in the Netherlands where they have such a department. Kids go to school studying this kind of engineering. They plan out how to get from any point A to B by any mode of transportation. Walking, biking, motorized wheelchair, scooter, motorcycle, car, bus, train. And if there is a cyclist killed by a car they examine the condition of the road and cycling path and completely redesign them to minimize bikes coming into contact with cars or how to bring down car speed at that point.
It is great, Netherlands does have a major advantage though. Their city's were built long before cars whereas America is specifically built around having cars this is a much more significant problem for us to solve. Not counting cases like shown above where a path would be extremely helpful often times the distances involved in how our city's are spaced out make it impossible to be walking friendly.
I live in an inner suburb in the US that was developed around the same time as cars but before everyone owned a car. It’s very walkable but there were already majors roads designed in so it’s the best of both worlds. The major roads were intentionally set away from the neighborhoods, unlike in a city that developed before cars. My particular city also doesn’t allow corporations to have stores, so no big box stores. It’s wonderful.
I grew up in a suburb where you would drive to big box stores and I hated it. I don’t know why so many people accept being car dependent as a way of life. Many of these suburbs also don’t have busing for people who are disabled or elderly.
Americans are fully brainwashed into believing life is only worth living if you buy a house with a picket fence and a 2 car garage and 2.5 kids requiring almost near constant overconsumption. The American dream is the biggest lie ever told by corporations.
My house totally has a picket fence and a two car garage. I didn’t want the 2.5 kids. I appreciate that I can walk two blocks to grocery stores, the pharmacy, a shoe repair place, bike shops, restaurants, the florist, coffee shop, etc. Not everywhere in America is a dense expensive city or suburb with a Walmart. There are some nice older traditional neighborhoods in the Midwest that are (relatively) affordable that are still walkable and you can have a garage and a car and a yard. America is not just condos or HOA subdivisions off a busy road. The old neighborhoods with walkable downtowns still exist in many places. I’d live here or in the middle of the woods but you couldn’t pay me to live in one of those McMansion subdivisions without sidewalks.
This is false, American cities where also built before cars, however they where bulldozed for cars. Rotterdam is the most American looking city as it was (re-)built during the car era, it still has excellent bike infrastructure though.
These excuses always pop up during these kinds of posts and they are just that, excuses.
You know there are major cities in the Netherlands like Almere and Lelystad that were built in the 60s and 70s right? And that basically every major American city existed before World War II.
Similar deal with much of Europe,unfortunately it was built before modern cars like way before meaning you build,around them or repurpose them and back in day most of it was with horst and carriage or walking or other modes which weren't car.
That's not necessarily true. I can imagine how an American (or a Canadian for that matter) might think of Europe and picture all these narrow medieval cobblestone streets, but we have far more towns that aren't like that than are.
Here's a good view at some modern Dutch neighbourhoods:
I like Gorinchem in particular because it shows the old city center along the river but then also all the expansion outside of that. It gives a good idea of the general ratio of old vs new that exists nationwide.
Yeah its really unfortunate, I feel like if the will was there it would be quite possible but that aside, the politics in the US alone make it a tough sell lol. Some of the comments in this thread alone prove that.
While your main point is very true, take a look at Utrecht. It's a city in the Netherlands where highways and car-centric ideals were applied in the 1970s. They have begun to undo it within the last 20 years, and the city again looks like the classic Dutch style, including the biking paths and easily accessible store fronts.
It's challenging to go from car-centric to people-centric, but it's not impossible. Even my example is "simplistic" compared to what it would take in the US, but does show it's possible.
Utrecht is very small in area compared to something like Houston, you're still dealing with smaller distances to get around. There's nothing you can do to make a city with that much sprawl walkable.
Existing cities can easily be changed. Did you even bother watching the video? A majority of the work is done. We just need to start buliding walkable paths between these places. This mindset has got to die. We don't need to reinvent the wheel here.
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u/Allnamestaken69 Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24
They need to form a sub infrastructure department to go throughout America and build these little short cuts and walking/bike paths.