The 15-Minute City: Where Urban Planning Meets Conspiracy Theories
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
Pointing out that the authorities implementing such schemes are attempting to reduce individual freedom of movement and action is factual, not a conspiracy theory.
In Oxford, the ability to drive on particular existing streets (streets, not parkland) is to be turned into a privilege, allegedly at certain times on certain days, and those who use those existing roadways without having new, specific permits will be automatically fined.
From the article:
Officials in Oxford approved a plan last year to install “traffic filters,” which would limit access on six roads in the city during certain times of day. The filters are cameras, not physical barriers, that take photos of vehicles’ license plates. Fines are then issued to those without a permit.
And it is standard for roads to stop being roads, to become limited or no access to vehicles etc.
Suddenly we're meant to think the illuminate are behind the fact only the park staff can drive through the park or only local residents can park in some places. But it's not true.
Just say "I like driving and want to drive a lot". There is no need to pretend that the UN and GoldmanSachs are plotting against you!?
Plotting against me? Nonsense. At best I'm just a number to them. In reality I'm probably not even that, I'm part of a statistic. They don't give two shits about me, about what god I worship, about what drugs I do, about how I spend my day, about any of it, so long as the dollars flow.
I am far, far more concerned about some jerk in some high class neighborhood who lives 15mi from me who has delusions of thinking they know what's best for the world and the money to take a good crack at implementing their fantasy to the detriment of everyone outside their bubble.
(The above is in general and is not specific to urban planning or any other social or economic issue)
There is a fundamental trade-off between favoring people transiting through an area and residents. As someone traveling through you want wide straight roads with high speed limits. As a resident through traffic burdens you with pedestrian danger, air pollution, noise, and more crashes. So you lobby your council member to lower speed limits, add stop signs, and add traffic calming.
(Invented by Maurice Gatsonides many years ago as a rally training tool, of all things)
This is where the culture war comes in: there's no reason why people in Nevada should care about traffic planning in Oxford!
The bulk of the commentary on this website consists of people who are not directly affected by a thing opining about that thing.
Why the double standard? What makes your interest legitimate while others is illegitimate?
Trucking causes 99% of damage to roads, but pays only 30% of the bill.
> ALPR-camera-triggered automated fines for driving on certain roadways at certain times of certain days to those "without a permit"
This is basically the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_congestion_charge system which has been in operation for twenty years.
> and actual blocking of other streets using bollards
Yes, this is a standard anti-"rat run" technique to prevent through traffic in residential areas to improve safety.
Yes, there are people against driving! No, it's not a globalist conspiracy, it's people who want to be able to cycle or walk safely or take their kids to school.
A road increases freedom of movement for people in cars and decreases freedom of movement for people on foot. A busy enough road is an impassable barrier.
The issue with these scheme, is that they are pushed and implemented by bureaucrats rather than innovators. What a bureaucrat knows how to do (and what's beneficial to him) is to create new regulations, bureaucratic processes and levy taxes, fines, fees and so on. Where the money's actually going? Some opaque budget where it's redistributed to fund, among other things, salaries and generous pensions for the bureaucrats that have to be hired to manage this extra regulation!
The real solution to incentivize using the ring roads is to make them more efficient and a faster, better alternative to going through the center of the city. That requires understanding why people are still driving through.
The other issue is that anti-car activists are often idealists rather than pragmatic. Their approach to selling the 15 minute city should be to make it so that it's cheaper than driving everywhere, faster and more convenient, while leaving the option for people to still own a car and use it. Naturally, if not taking the car is the better option, people will leave them in a parking garage most of the time.
Still, it was kind of wild to be implicated in a conspiracy. Except for the few scary times where I encountered people who were true believers, it was maybe even a little fun. After all, the first thing you learn as a planning student / planner in the US, is that you have absolutely no power to do anything.
Like for example having a traffic restricted at certain times road is fine and all. But implementing it with surveillance cameras knowing full well that "gotcha" tickets will be issued to out-of-towners, the system will be laden with all the perverse incentives that red light cameras are known for and that there's some yet to be defined permitting process (i.e. avenue for graft, preferential treatment of various types of uses, etc).
Just put a fucking gate on it during the times you want it closed and call it good. Why do they always have to go 1984 like this?
Like imagine they did this with a park or some other taxpayer funded resource that's equally open for public use. People wouldn't stand for it.
They aren't switching to EV because they want to, it makes no sense for them as businesses, in multiple ways. An EV is a commodity vehicle - that's why Apple can build a car without a hundred year history of auto building.
The car makers are being forced to do this by policy regulators. The government is essentially managing the auto industry now to force their outcome.
Yes, there's a long history of safety and environmental regulation, and the migration away from fossil fuels is just an extension of that, regulating the impact of cars.
It's the equivalent of the Chewbacca defence but for public discourse: no one can make any progress if someone just screams nonsense constantly and that suits the person screaming...
I don't know these as 15 minute cities, I know these as anti-urban sprawl, pro-environment, anti-car neighborhoods. And the push has been on for over a decade to make this happen.
Now that it's here, it's worse than thought. It's not just planning these things and letting people live and work close to home or not. It's more of a forcing function where the entire system is built as a turn-key totalitarian physical prison.
Only a fool would buy into this. And yet the places where these decisions are made (city council), nobody cares about and big money will pour in.
It only takes 6 figures in a 5 figure race to buy a couple seats and implement radical environmental anti-human policy.
I have to give you credit: at least you are just up front about not wanting this. That's fine. You're a citizen with a right to a view etc. I only object when people start pretending it's all part of some shadow government, new world order, lizard people plot...
And anyone that gets in the way.... Fired, defunded, shunned, labeled conspiracy theorist etc.
And just you wait. The money isn't flowing yet, but it will. For a city of a million people, maybe buying 8-10 councillors for $100,000 each will accomplish any goal. And noone cares enough about city politics to stop that kind of thing.
It was a lie. They only want to ban half of them, and it wasn't even the President, it's an agency -https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-rule-may-block-50-of-new...
There are other ways for people to get downtown. Parking can be pushed to the periphery of the business & entertainment districts. Walk, take a shuttle, or taxi in from there. Parking in a parking garage and walking two blocks is reasonable. Pedestrianized main drags are more lively as people don't feel the pressure of cars bearing down on them as they cross the street.
Cars are great tools. We've just gone overboard and don't even throw pedestrians (and dismounted motorists) a bone in the form of sidewalks, safe ways to cross the street, reasonably useful mass transit, and ways to cross over highways without walking an extra mile.
Suburban sprawl (though they had different words for it) was very much the "15-minute city" urban planning buzzword of its day.
As an aside sidewalks are SOP these days in all but the most rural of road projects so progress is being made.
Dismissing all opposing views as "hateful misinformation" like the WEF and governments do isn't useful either. It convinces those who were suspicious of your motivations that they were right about you. The WEF videos never really explain any of the potential for good, they just exclaim with glee that this is a great opportunity to change the world the way they want. Completely tone deaf, I'd say some of these causes would receive less resistance without WEF "helping".
When it comes to the walkable neighborhood issue, the real conspiracy is that automakers "convinced" governments to create infrastructure that's miserable to nagivate without a car. If you've never been to cities outside of north america then you probably don't even know what you're missing. Those who think freedom and privacy are important (I certainly do) might want to consider that a car results in licensing, insurance, license plate tracking and gives cops an excuse to detain you arbitrarily.
The last but probably most important issue that gets left unsaid is that the current system won't continue to work. North American cities are broke from (re)building roads to subsidize trucking companies and mcmansion developers, they can't afford to continue doing so without raising taxes 300%. Even bigger: we'll run out of oil in 50 years. We won't run out of energy, just the cheap and easily transportable form that we've become accustomed to. The options are build railways, or quit bothering with silly things like "trade", "travel" and "manufacturing".