jewayne (u/jewayne) - Readit News

jewayne commented on Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/Anon84

jewayne · 5 days ago

> The secret sidewalks also radiate outward from the elementary school, approximately.

That is awesome. City planners should take note.

jewayne · 5 days ago

Also, I just realized that the tiny path I take to get into the next neighborhood only exists because of the elementary school there.

jewayne commented on Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/Anon84

stetrain · 7 days ago

I'm suggesting not limiting foot and bike traffic just because we choose to limit car traffic. There are lots of routes between places in my town that would be much more direct, and safe, on a bike if there were small connecting paths between neighborhoods, including those built at different times by different developers, instead of being forced out onto the arterials.

jewayne · 5 days ago

Yeah, I think that's the part that I was suggesting should be "banned". All neighborhoods should connect with all adjacent neighborhoods via pedestrian or multiuse paths. And yes, that means across arterials as well -- either have an official surface crossing with appropriate traffic calming measures / pedestrian islands, or build a tunnel.

jewayne commented on Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/Anon84

analog31 · 7 days ago

My neighborhood was platted in the late 50s, and it has what the kids call "secret sidewalks" that cut between the houses and connect the streets. It's the best of both worlds: Minimal car traffic, but easy to get around by walking. The secret sidewalks also radiate outward from the elementary school, approximately.

jewayne · 5 days ago

> The secret sidewalks also radiate outward from the elementary school, approximately.

That is awesome. City planners should take note.

jewayne commented on Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/Anon84

jerlam · 8 days ago

Rural doesn't mean walkable, unless you mean either pre-automobile or physical jobs.

jewayne · 7 days ago

True. I grew up in the country, along a busy road. I never walked or biked anywhere, and it was very isolating. Moving to a city that had quiet residential streets, wide sidewalks, and actual bike paths was a game changer for me.

I wonder how much damage that did to me, to have that lack of physical activity during my formative years.

jewayne commented on Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity nature.com/articles/s4158... · Posted by u/Anon84

amanaplanacanal · 7 days ago

It might depend on what you mean by urban. Are there a lot of places your kids can walk to from your residence? I'm thinking of schools, parks, stores, etc. or are you in a place where they really have to be driven everywhere?

jewayne · 7 days ago

True. Older (in the U.S., pre-war) neighborhoods actually provide kids with far more opportunities for walking than newer, cul-de-sac based suburban neighborhoods. I keep wondering when we're going to stop allowing such immobilizing, isolating neighborhoods to be built.

jewayne commented on Geneva makes public transport temporarily free to combat pollution spike reuters.com/sustainabilit... · Posted by u/kristjank

qcnguy · 12 days ago

Eh no, that is an actual failure mode. Germany is experiencing it right now. What it means is everyone ends up being forced to use horribly broken public transport and it screws up everyone's business and personal lives.

It is possible for public transport to be too popular. It looks like overloaded, crowded and constantly broken lines that can't get better because they're starved of funding.

jewayne · 12 days ago

I don't know much about what Germany is experiencing, but even Germany's neighbors in the Netherlands and France seem to be having a renaissance predicated upon getting people out of their personal automobiles. Perhaps the problem is actually the outsized influence of the auto industry in Germany?

jewayne commented on Geneva makes public transport temporarily free to combat pollution spike reuters.com/sustainabilit... · Posted by u/kristjank

lupusreal · 12 days ago

Most ghettos aren't built to be ghettos. They were built as nice neighborhoods and have nothing structurally wrong with them, but then had criminals and shitbags wreck the place. Ghettoification can in fact be reversed without any changes to infrastructure by simply having nice people move in who give a shit and make an effort to clean up and maintain their properties. This is derogatorily called "gentrification".

Also, your ratios are absurdly out of wack. 79% of the country doesn't live in a ghetto and you don't need to be economically or socially privileged to maintain a nice neighborhood. Most working class neighborhoods are not ghettos, nor even resemble one in the slightest.

jewayne · 12 days ago

The ghetto is that bottom 20% living in Hell, not the 79% who merely deal with things that suck.

Although I was more referring to our systems more broadly (health care, education, transportation - the topic of this post), let's go with neighborhoods. Are you really trying to pretend that red-lining didn't happen? Or that de facto sundown towns didn't exist at least into the 1980s?

jewayne commented on Geneva makes public transport temporarily free to combat pollution spike reuters.com/sustainabilit... · Posted by u/kristjank

mvieira38 · 12 days ago

We have dedicated bus lanes where I live, and they don't really work during heavy rush hour, unfortunately, due to merging and turns. For example, most of the time the bus lane needs to be on the right so it can pick people up, so cars turning right will have to cross the bus lane somewhere. The opposite happens if the bus needs to take a left turn, or if another bus is stopped for maintenance or something and overtaking is necessary.

Not to mention a lot of people figure out where the cameras are for the bus lane auto-fines and just dodge them when appropriate, but I guess that's a third world problem.

jewayne · 12 days ago

Actual Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems are in place all over the world, where there are physical barriers protecting the bus lane, and transit signal priority along the entire route. They work extremely well when they don't rely on motorists being on their best behavior.

jewayne commented on Geneva makes public transport temporarily free to combat pollution spike reuters.com/sustainabilit... · Posted by u/kristjank

bluGill · 12 days ago

> Public transportation should always be free in cities, with car commuters paying the operation costs

Strongly disagree. There are too many perverse incentives that work against transit. If there are a lot of car commuters (which there will be - plumbers taking their tools to the job for example) they have inventive to pressure politicians to reduce that tax - any voting block will always be more powerful than the distributed masses. Your transit operators need to ensure transit doesn't become too popular: the more people taking transit the less cars there are paying that tax.

Besides almost no transit rider is worried about costs. They are all interested instead in better service, so use all the money you can get - including fares - to build better service. This is long term what everyone needs.

Yes you do need a program for the poor. However the majority of your people shouldn't be in that program.

jewayne · 12 days ago

I'm going to guess that you're a fellow American. That's our answer to everything - build a ghetto. Why make anything nice for everybody when you can make it suck for 79% of us, Hell on Earth for another 20+%, and nice for the privileged few?

jewayne commented on Baltimore Assessments Accidentally Subsidize Blight–and How We Can Fix It progressandpoverty.substa... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

hopelite · 18 days ago

You are somewhat correct, even though I’ve never heard anyone say that or allow it to affect their decision in a major way. I do also suspect you may be in a place that is under rather oppressive government regulation.

The problem is a far more fundamental one, because just as I’m trying to get people to understand related to this movement or initiative to do away with property taxes, certain government and asset holder support for that is likely more about personal enrichment and/or expanding total tax receipts by other means, i.e., ulterior motives.

The fundamental issue here is the very premise of how the tax system functions not what kind of taxes are stolen and extracted where; and then redistribute to whom, usually for corrupted reasons and purposes.

The effectively unlimited and unbounded, detached, and inconsequential nature of the tax system now is really the core problem. It’s currently other people’s money and mostly even future people’s money, squandered without any meaningful limits, barriers, or even rules regarding conflicts of interests; and there are virtually zero actual and real, immediate consequences for malfeasance by people charged with the duty of responsible allocation of funds. It’s a corrupt and rotten system from the very top to the very bottom.

Unfortunately not enough people care, understand, or might even like it because they benefit from it and think they will die before the music stops. That’s how we get $37 trillion in national realized debt, another $74 trillion in unfunded liabilities, and another $9 trillion in state and local debt for a total national debt of $120 trillion in America’s public debt burden as of today.

jewayne · 18 days ago

I'm convinced that only people who have no idea how things get done in the real world can go on rants like this.