And the big trucks that some guys roll around in. It’s truck abuse when that truck bed is empty! I’ve got a mini-SUV for carting my kids around and it’s enough.
Depending on how far you want to stretch it, you can count the proportion of mines, rubber plantations, oil fields that contribute to fabrication and running of cars.
Though I must point out, surface parking makes the actual density of cars lower than if it were in multistory garages. For the sake of the post that's not important, but one thing I want to happen is the redevelopment of surface lots, leaving the remaining legacy stock of garages for limited use.
Agreed. Something I don't see often but really appreciate are buildings (commercial, residential apartments/condos/townhouses) with their parking entirely below the buildings.
Oh yes, all of that too! It's insane I think. We could have HIGH SPEED TRAINS between cities with all traffic lanes bike lanes instead of the gutters people think cyclists should be riding in. But no. Instead, Americans are buying BIGGER trucks and--not coincidentally--driving like bigger assholes.
As a long-time resident of Hong Kong (small space, lots of people, relatively few cars), I agree wholeheartedly.
Living in a city where you do not NEED a car is wonderful.
And in Australia nobody wants to live along car sewers (rightly so for health reasons) so these places are full of derelict commercial buildings and new child care centres (go figure). So much prime easily connected land is going to waste rather than as interconnected urban villages thanks to cars.
Most of my resistance to going to a big event (and why I ultimately cancel so many times) is because parking is always going to be a nightmare. If we had decent public transit, or walkable cities, I might leave the house a little more.
Just walked to the grocery store and back today, there's always more cars than people! From the brief glimpse I get at cars they almost always have one rider... On the plus side, Bus/train ride stats are up, hoplefully weekend routes get priority soon!
this never fails to amaze me that the amount of cars that exist per person or family isn't 1 or less. i don't even drive and my yard is part parking lot! i know some people don't have cars (me) but my wife had one or two. she has passed and i didn't keep them. i still have a parking lot for family.
One wonderful thing I've always been happy for here in Japan is the low density of parked cars. On-street parking here in the cities is still very rare.
I also don't like the shoeboxes that we call apartments, there should be minimum allowable sizes, people need space for hobbies, entertaining, and life in general
also a lack of quiet green spaces where you can zone out
The anti-density lobby wants to dedensify all cities to the point where there's a comfortable number of cars rather than figuring out more appropriate ways of getting around in dense cities
The problem is that cars require low density. We need high density so that mass transit works and the things we need day-to-day are close by. There are a host of psychological factors that politically empower the suburban mindset, and I don't know how you overcome it.
You overcome it with affordable housing units you can buy into your forties that can accommodate two people. You get that by building frantically to drive and cap prices down, offer tax incentives and first-buyer bonuses.
You can also reach environmental goals this way.
Where I live (Toronto, for now) any attempt at anything other than more roads, more cars, is fuel for a mass-delusion called 'the war on the car' ... and a lot of people are on board. I despair. I hope it's better where you are.
Honestly, if there's a problem in most cities, it's that the density is *way too low* and, as a result, people and businesses have to pay a fortune on both transportation and rent/mortgages.
Yeah thinking about it in real terms, every piece of car infra that isn't a multistory garage or a bumper-to-bumper road has a really low density of cars.
Comments
-Roadways (obviously)
-garages, carports, driveways
-parking lots, roadside parking, parking decks
-gas stations
-automotive repair/retail shops
-car dealerships
-car manufacturing plants
-car washes
Am I missing anything?
Certainly, it has other uses, but we need more of it because our transportation system is so grossly wasteful.
And the waste: junkyards, tyre dumps...
Living in a city where you do not NEED a car is wonderful.
Thus if you double density, you double traffic, parking etc. Obviously....
also a lack of quiet green spaces where you can zone out
You can also reach environmental goals this way.
It's being done this way?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-to-remove-tolls-on-publically-owned-highway-407-if-re-elected-1.7451327