He also did it within a single municipality where there was a single power structure to control (mostly).
The suburbs are all independent, and have a LOT of local power.
FWIW, I 100% want to bulldoze those suburbs to make trains.
Exactly, which is why I think the solution is to focus exclusively on the cities to start - make living, working, and spending time there more desirable, functional, and affordable without cars, and I think you’ll start to see the changes radiate out from there. I live 30 miles from Boston, but I rarely go because it’s a pain in the ass to get there. With the current commute situation, the city might as well be on the moon for how accessible it is. If it was fast and easy for me to get to the city I would absolutely spend more time there, especially if they opened up a lot of the roadways for more attractions and walkable space. If I could get to any point in the city within 45 mins, I would probably look into working there as well. But if you took away my main mode of transportation before installing those things as a replacement first, I would just be screwed.
You’re right that it probably will require federal intervention - use the Eisenhower interstate system plan as a guide for high speed rail travel. The bottom line is that you’ll need to put better options in front of people before you start taking things away, otherwise you’ll end up with huge swaths of people forced into extreme poverty and death. If you’re going to bulldoze suburbs for trains, the people living there need a place to go first. Ideally a place they choose to go willingly rather than be forced out because many will end up on the street.
If by single municipality you mean all of Long Island, NYC, Rockland and Westchester Counties, sure.
A lot of his evil works were done within the confines of NYC. That was probably the easiest part.
The rest was done with buy-in from the other municipalities whose local governments wanted the same (evil) things.
Now try to do this with like 11 different local governments upstate that are all in the way of your train and hate both you and trains.
Putting this in THIS thread for all the people who are don’t like anti-car policies that harm the suburbs.
Cars and suburbs are white supremacy.
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Oh, I want to harm the suburbs. Fuck the suburbs.
Just don’t underestimate what it will take to undo them.
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Imagine driving around all day every day in a giant uhaul because “you might need to move to a new house some day”.
When your society actually cares about increasing safety and is willing and able to implement creative ideas. Also relevant for game design, it’s a prisoner’s dilemma situation. If nobody speeds, there’s no prize to win, except of course the lives that were saved by cars going slower.
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I’d love to see a New York City where cameras 100% enforce speed limits without exception within the five boroughs on at-grade streets.
Safety = “Paid to play”
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No surprise.
Based on the drivers I see in Queens during the Quarantine…
- Lots of (illegally) modified cars driving at extreme speeds at night
- Lots of groups of motorcycles racing back and forth over the bridge at night
- Fucking motorcycles driving at full speed on bike paths (including separated ones/bridges)
- The dirtbikers are out more than ever
- A surprising number of minor collisions. I see one almost every other time I run.
I think it’s both people driving faster/riskier without enforcement happening, coupled with a lot of people driving who previously didn’t and probably shouldn’t.
I know from my experience in Philly that it felt like everyone was acting out on the road during that time period when everything essentially got closed. Just felt like a ton of pent up physical and psychological frustration directly translating into some of the most aggressive driving I’ve see in a city known for aggressive driving.
Society practicing for that wasteland dystopia
There are others, but I really think the biggest factor is simply emptier roads. People with a car and no other cars in front of them feel like they can just step on it.
The Onion
Not The Onion
There should be severe size restrictions on non-commercial vehicles.
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Honestly, I’m down with smaller cars. Those giant fucking things are pointless, everything they can do can already be done better by a more practical vehicle. Carrying kids? Minivan. Carrying cargo? Regular van. Getting place to place? Car or motorbike. Going fast? Sports car. Going offroad? Smaller and more capable 4x4s. Towing? Regular Utes.
I can not think of a single goddamned reason - unless you’re doing something incredibly niche, like you want an inconspicuous truck that you can put multiple armed men and a mounted minigun in without looking out of place because you’re a presidential security detail* - that you’d want some enormous thing like an Escalade over a more reasonable, practical vehicle.
*- Ironically, even they don’t use the Escalade for that, they use the smaller GMC Yukon XL.