Comment by Taywee | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Taywee | Hacker News Reader

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I think most people would be happier if they could drive less and had fewer cars to contend with while walking.

Forcing people to be pedestrians would be likely a significant improvement for their health and quality of life.

As an American in a major city, the alternative sucks. I'm forced to be a driver, car costs eat a significant portion of my income, my neighborhood doesn't even have sidewalks between the residences and shops (which are across a highway that has a cross walk with no sidewalk leading up to it), and I end up having to drive at least 5 hours every week just to work and get my kids to and from school. This increases pollution in my city and comes with a regular risk of injury and death from a car accident, which is one of the leading causes of preventable death.

I'd rather be forced to be a pedestrian than a driver. Having the choice would really be great.

There are a ton of pedestrian friendly cities in the US. Is it less viable/desirable to move to a new town than it is to force poor people back onto the bus?

There really aren't, proportionally. Most of the cities are not reasonable to live in without owning a car.

And I'd rather if the bus was an option at all. The bus is expensive and unreliable in most US cities. Getting somewhere by car that takes 20 minutes can take hours by bus due to scheduling. This is a stark contrast to London, which has an actual public transit system.

Maybe I'm biased by living in Colorado Springs, where it might be particularly bad, but cities with sprawling suburbs are usually terrible for living without a car, and the US has tons of suburbs.

proportionally, sure, but there are a lot of cities you can live without owning a car in the united states. Just about every metropolitan area and nearly any city over 150k people on the west coast seem to be navigable by at most a bike.

Point not without merit, but I’d say there are quite few pedestrian-friendly places in this country unless your standards for that are very low. Most pedestrian-friendly areas might be limited to a couple blocks downtown with a little or no decent non-luxury housing available.

I think adding more pedestrian-friendly places, or at least stopping building ones that are outright hostile to everyone but car-drivers, is very important.

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