[flyingpenguin]

The amount of public real-estate we dedicate exclusively to enabling peoples usage of their private property in the united states (and to lesser extents all other countries really) is absolutely absurd.

I have considered just walking slowly in random lanes of traffic while in downtown areas recently. On what grounds do you need thousands of acres of space? Speed limits should often be 4-5mph and space usage should be shared.

[komali2]

I do this in the small alleys of Taiwan. I find it more safe, actually. Cars and scooters have a habit of flying down these narrow alleys with way too much speed. I simply walk in the middle to force them to slow down, then get to the side so they can pass. Obviously I keep an eye out so I don't get hit lol.

My general theory has become "the harder it is to drive, the better." Turns out we give cars way more leeway than is even legal, like here people will wait to let them finish a right turn they no longer are legally allowed to do (no right turn on red here). Or in a tiny alley, everyone will scooch out of the way if a car shows up. Why? If a tremendously huge person showed up and was is no emergency or particular rush, but just blasted airhorns in people's faces so he could get by a little faster, why would we all do so? Screw that guy lmao you came to a walking area you can go at walking speed like the rest of us. Take the mrt next time.

We just had lantern festival where there were lines of cars snaking out of the city for the few parking lots we have, all of which filled up in the first hour of course. So now just a bunch of cars idling around with nowhere to go. Thought about getting a sign and carrying it around that says "you'd already be here if you took the MRT."

[lostmsu]

How would you deliver furniture and maintenance machinery to your place?

[ultrarunner]

These arguments always follow the same pattern:

>> I don't want to be brutally killed by a car on unsafe infrastructure

>> Oh yeah? Well how are you going to have a refrigerator delivered or get your sick grandmother to the hospital?

I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just hyper-logical thinking that it has to be all-or-nothing and implemented solely by force. But man, grandmothers and refrigerators are going to be just fine if we stop giving cars priority over people. Maybe better.

[lostmsu]

The idea is just not as obvious as you think. Take, for example, Manhattan in NY. If you compare the ratio of car/bus on its streets to a smaller city (I live in Seattle), it will be significantly lower. To the point that I am unsure removing cars altogether would change road conditions.

Now suppose we take all or majority of Manhattan's roads, let pedestrians in, and only allow buses, trucks, and utility vehicles. Suddenly buses are much slower than they are now, because the pedestrians have the right of the way.

[Schroedingersat]

Same way they do everywhere that gives pedestrians priority. On a truck that has more room to manuever because there aren't cars parked everywhere.

[avianlyric]

Does furniture deliver and maintenance machinery only fit down 6 lane highways, or do you think it might fit down a single lane road?

[lostmsu]

I don't think the person above is complaining about 6 lane highways.

[ragebol]

Fine, delivery vehicles only, in the city center

[lostmsu]

How much of the "public property" mentioned above the "city center" is?

[komali2]

I mean if you genuinely wanna game theory this out, what's wrong with wheel barrows or carts?

[lostmsu]

Extreme labor inefficiency. Today Amazon's driver can deliver an order of magnitude more packages than a person with a wheel barrow could. There are 100,000+ Amazon drivers in the US. You'd need at least 1,000,000 people with wheel barrows.

[komali2]

That's true if we decide it's a good idea to continue to deliver millions of packages of small plastic goods every day. A big part of that is probably also due to the USA's massively isolating suburb design and poorly layed out roads.

[lostmsu]

So you think Amazon brings no value? I guess you never ordered anything from there?

[komali2]

I think in aggregate Amazon does more harm to our society than adds value. Its "value add" and service requires the degeneration of labor rights, a massive carbon footprint, and unethical shadow-UX practices on its own website.