undefined | Better HN

0 points4ad11y ago0 comments

Moving goalposts, are we? First of all, this article is about San Francisco, and second of all, you complained that the described world can't possibly function in real world. The described world does exist, as mentioned by myself and other people in this sub-thread. Whether it exists everywhere or not is inconsequential. A single instance is sufficient to prove that your statement was in false. I gave one example, other people gave their own examples, in reality in Europe you can pretty much chose any German or Austrian city to pick your examples (I'm sure it's good in other western countries too, I just pick on what I know).

Second, you are wrong. Medium cities are just like the big cities except without the metro system. Trams and busses are just as good and effective, and the metro is not needed (I hope the reason why not is obvious). Also, here in Austria at least, the trains are really good, really fast, and really, really frequent, and you can just take the metro to the big city center with the same ticket (something you can't do with cars, because cars are not allowed in the center).

Very small towns and don't need public transport because it takes 10 minute to cross them by foot.

This notion that you need a car to move around town or buy groceries is an american concept and seems preposterous to us, europeans. Cars have their uses, obviously, but these are not their primary use here.

0 comments

ars11y ago

> First of all, this article is about San Francisco

My comment wasn't. These rants about getting rid of cars are evergreen, and they always ignore the same issues.

NY for example is exactly like your comment - you can do just fine there without a car. But there are only about 10-15 cities like that in the US.

> Medium cities are just like the big cities except without the metro system. Trams and busses are just as good and effective

Only if the population density is high. Otherwise there is not enough demand for constant service.

> Very small towns and don't need public transport because it takes 10 minute to cross them by foot.

Have you ever been in the US? It can take 20 minutes by car to cross a small city because they are very spread out.

The whole reason to live in a small city is so you get a lot of land. No one is interested in living in a small village type city which is small (in population) but you only get small piece of land - cities like that are dying constantly in the US because people don't want to live there.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse