The Dumbest Excuse for Bad Cities [video] | Hacker News Reader

The Dumbest Excuse for Bad Cities [video]

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9 pointsGeoAtreides4 comments

Having volunteered on the campaign of a pro-transit, pro-cycling candidate in a recent mayoral election in Canada, I've heard this excuse more then a handful of times when speaking with (a certain segment of) the public. When pressed to elaborate, I found that many of them are simply unwilling to give up their car-centric life style and believe that attempts to improve alternative public transit will come at the cost of their commute, or ability to get around by car. They see public transit as an inferior form of transportation, and cycling as a hobby to pursue exclusively on sunny days.

> attempts to improve alternative public transit will come at the cost of their commute

It does, every 4 lane road we have changed to a 2 land road with cycle lanes has done that here.

> They see public transit as an inferior form of transportation

Well, it is. It doesn't go where people want to go any time they want to go there. Periodically people are assaulted using it, something you can avoid when using a car simply by locking your door.

> and cycling as a hobby to pursue exclusively on sunny days.

They're wrong about that however.

Public transport sucks, it is unsurprising that people won't give up their car-centric lifestyle for it.

> It does, every 4 lane road we have changed to a 2 land road with cycle lanes has done that here.

Which is, while some may disagree, an overall positive change. Road widening has shown time and again to have little impact on congestion. If you widen roads, more people will choose to drive; if you narrow them, more will choose alternative modes of transit.

https://www.nber.org/papers/w15376

> It doesn't go where people want to go any time they want to go there.

Mainly due to chronic underfunding and low ridership. The vicious cycle of "funding drops -> service quality drops -> ridership numbers drop -> funding drops -> ...".

> Periodically people are assaulted using it

On the topic of violence, many more injuries and deaths are attributable to passenger vehicles then all other forms of transit combined. Not to mention the long term health effect of exhaust on air quality with a city.

https://www144.statcan.gc.ca/nats-stna/tables-tableaux/tbl3-...

> Public transport sucks, it is unsurprising that people won't give up their car-centric lifestyle for it.

Unfortunately I'm one of them, and the reason why I bought a car in 2018 and haven't taken transit in town since.

The root cause isn’t what he mentioned, it’s simply corporates own North America and the government won’t do anything beyond the bare minimum for the infrastructure, and it’s in corps interest to have it car dependent, mix that with obesity of you average North American, nothing will change in that regard.

For example in Ontario Canada where he is from, the roads can get really bad with potholes and bumps, and only fixed after it’s classified as an off-road one.. and of course the excuse is as he mentioned, “it’s the snow!!”, so yep I agree, North Americans are professional at making excuses!

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