[johnnymorgan]

Great post, in our city for a few years they stopped clearing side walks in the winter (dumb mayor, he didn't last).

I carried an old lady with a walker stuck in the middle of the road. It was brutal on them even with the plowing, without zero ability to move around.

[human_person]

I think that speaks more to environmental hostility due to social/governmental choices. The woman lost her mobility because the mayor didn’t clear the side walks. Not because of winter.

If if we designed public transportation so it was convenient and usable by everyone older people would have more options in all weather.

If we had consistent (24/7), frequent, high coverage public transportation that was subsidized at the same rate as car infrastructure, everyone would use it. If it was faster than driving in traffic rich people would use it and support it as well.

We choose to build a society that only works for a tiny segment and makes all of our own lives more difficult (and eventually impossible).

[schuke]

This brings up scaling up good governance and city planning (essentially politics) VS scaling up an industrial product. Democratic governments are generally much responsive to needs of minorities and disadvantaged people, yet it’s not doing particularly well in changing how cities are built. Non-democracies aren’t gonna do any better if not worse. Wouldn’t it be much easier to improve mobility by autonomous driving and improved car design?