Transportation

www.youtube.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1367812 > 0:23 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=23s > > > But there's one lame excuse that is so common, so prevalent, so ubiquitous, that I want to talk about it and that's ***the excuse that "My country is too big to have trains, bicycle infrastructure, walkable neighborhoods or whatever."*** > > --- > > 1:27 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=87s > > > So when someone new to walkable cities sees an example of a great City and they realize it's clearly better than where they live, their first gut reaction is to grab any difference between the two and make that the reason as to why their city can't be the same. > > --- > > 2:26 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=146s > > > So why is this argument so stupid? Well, quite simply, Americans aren't traveling from Fluffy Landing to Hump Tulips every day. Canadians aren't traveling from Dildo to Spasm every day, and Australians aren't traveling from Chinaman's Knob to Useless Loop every day > > --- > > 2:55 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=175s > > > They travel within their city, so the only thing that really matters to most people is the design of that City. > > --- > > 3:05 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=185s > > > For example, [in the United States, over 45 percent of trips - all trips - are three miles or less](https://files.catbox.moe/0od4as.png) (that's five kilometers for the rest of my audience). These are distances that could be easily done by walking or cycling. So despite the size of the country, and the sprawliness of the cities, Americans don't actually travel that far for most trips, but unsurprisingly, almost all of those trips are taken by car because it's too dangerous to walk or cycle, and public transportation is non-existent, which again is the whole point. > > --- > > 4:18 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=258s > > > The problem is not cars, it's car dependency. We need to give people the freedom to not to have to drive. > > --- > > 4:35 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=275s > > > This is where Americans will claim that America is too big for trains, which is absolutely comical, because America was literally built by the railroads, and so was Canada. > > --- > > 5:01 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=301s > > > Nearly every town, city and village in the United States and Canada had a train station and was connected by rail, with very few exceptions. And almost every city and town had a streetcar line too, with very few exceptions. And every one of those places was built to be walkable, as every one of those places was built before automobiles were common. Again, with very few exceptions. > > > A hundred years ago, you could get a train from almost any city to just about any other city on the continent, and even many towns and villages, too. The reason those train stations don't exist anymore is because they were bulldozed, often to make room for highways, along with the walkable downtowns they were connected to. > > --- > > 5:46 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=346s > > > American cities were not built for the car, they were bulldozed for the car. > > --- > > 6:03 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=363s > > > There are [dozens of city pairs in the U.S that are the perfect population and distance for high-speed rail or high frequency rail](https://files.catbox.moe/3x0wct.png), and [CityNerd has made a video about this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlxohbiQG6Y&t=232s) if you'd like more details. > > --- > > 6:16 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=376s > > > Canada may be a huge country, but about 50 percent of the entire population lives in this little area, which is literally in a line. > > --- > > 6:27 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=387s > > > [This is Japan to scale](https://files.catbox.moe/x3oq3l.png), the country famous for all it's trains. So yes, Canada, you can build a high-speed train between Toronto and Montreal. > > --- > > 6:37 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=397s > > > Here's [China with it's high-speed rail map](https://files.catbox.moe/0weo5j.png). > > --- > > 7:17 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=437s > > > The Schengen zone is not constant and new countries are being added every few years. For example, Croatia was just added in 2023 and Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Montenegro plan to join in the near future. But if that happens, will Amsterdam need to tear up all their bike lanes, because the Schengen zone is too big? No, of course not, that would be stupid. Which is the same reason why saying America is too big for bike lanes is also stupid. > > --- > > 7:45 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=465s > > > The fact is, it is possible to build walkable neighborhoods everywhere. They have existed in every country on Earth for thousands of years, and it is possible to connect those walkable places together by high quality public transportation, to make it so that people can go from any walkable area to any other walkable area regardless of the size of the city the country or the continent. > > --- > > 8:18 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=498s > > > Even if size did matter, then [why isn't Maryland covered in bike lanes and train tracks, or Hawaii, or Prince Edward Island](https://files.catbox.moe/w7vvat.png)? > > --- > > 10:22 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=622s > > > [The United States destroys over 750'000 acres of natural and agricultural land every year](https://www.farmprogress.com/business/urban-sprawl-erodes-rural-lands) [*note: the source talks about 1,200 square miles*] to build sprawling suburbs. And Ontario, Canada (where I'm from) [destroys 175 acres of farmland *per day*](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/urban-development-disappearing-farmland-ontario-1.6044620) to build more car-dependent suburbia. That is a *choice*. > > --- > > 10:43 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=643s > > > When Americans say something like "U.S cities are too big and spread out to do - *whatever*" then yes, that's true. But that is literally the problem that urbanists are trying to solve, so it's not really helpful to restate the problem, and then use that as the excuse as to why it can't be solved. > > --- > > 11:26 > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REni8Oi1QJQ&t=686s > > > The Dutch make great places, while North Americans make excuses.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/90727 > > National Bike Month is a celebration of cycling held every May in the United States. It is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists and celebrated in communities from coast-to-coast. Established in 1956, National Bike Month is a chance to showcase the many benefits of bicycling and to encourage more folks to giving bicycling a try.[1] > > > As part of National Bike Month, National Bike to Work Week is usually held the third week of May, with Bike to Work Day being on that Friday.

culdesac.com

> Culdesac designs, builds, and manages walkable communities. > Culdesac is a real estate developer and property manager. We build neighborhoods that embrace community, open space, and mobility. We offer residential units at a variety of price points integrated with local retail, commercial uses, and open space for nature and public plazas. > Our communities prioritize biking, walking, and transit over cars and parking. We partner with leading mobility companies to deliver convenient and affordable transportation services. This creates a vibrant urban lifestyle without the need for a private vehicle.

There's a guy that travels around on foot with mules and apparently brings attention to how this used to be a commonly accepted right to travel on a lot of roads, and now they're trying to restrict access to cars only in certain places without creating travel routes for people on foot, by horse, by bicycle, and so on, so he's filed a lawsuit over it to bring attention to the issue. Whatever is to be made of it, he's engaged in an interesting experiment of travel and living outside nomadically.

pjmedia.com

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79878 > Because this bureaucratic change was made in secret, there was obviously no explanation offered for the change, but, speculatively, there is a high probability that it has to do with the documented cardiovascular side effects associated with the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA gene therapies deceptively marketed as “vaccines.” > > The FAA, responding to an inquiry, reportedly claimed that “no evidence of aircraft accidents or incapacitations caused by pilots suffering medical complications associated with COVID-19 vaccines” exists.