Parking in America
 

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20...ng/index1.html

I thought this was a good article about parking in America.

I am very big on making the person park in a central location.

Ever wonder where to get more farm ground to raise more food on could
be found?? Well, here it is.........

Ya, our national/city planners are a smart bunch! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

It's an interesting, if depressing, subject. Roads are bad enough, but when you think about all the incredibly useful space cars take up from rural farmland to downtowns it really throws their evil into stark relief. Future generations, if there are any, will look back on us as a unique breed of loonatics.

Every study , every article (including this one)
point to the user as the source of the problem. Yet we keep pumping money, death, and technology into the problem. Rather than fixing the problem at the source.

One day we will wake up and elect leaders who are going to make driving a motor vehicle more responsible and efficient.

Excuse me a second while I die laughing. ;)

Mee too. That will never happen.

+1

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!!! I wish you luck with that pipedream.

America has a problem. Sooner or later the acres of parking spaces will vie for land with the acres of land being devoted to growing corn for Ethanol. Then which one wins?

I'll turn that around on you and say our citizens, who demand the most parking from each and every development and refuse to walk more than 100 feet at any given time, are a smart bunch :rolleyes:

Maybe if this sub-forum started its own jurisdiction and held elections, we WOULD see those changes.

Wow...simply...wow.

Well, a man can dream...

It's possible even if not likely in real life. For an interesting theoretical exercise, check out the Wooten Park Drive area in north central Austin. Currently a two-block stretch of dilapidating 1970s fourplexes and 8-plexes, it's right in the middle of one of the best areas of Austin for car free living. I could imagine (in theory) a zoning overlay for car free living in that area and a few not too expensive infrastructure improvements. Is the demand there? I don't know, and that's the key problem when we talk about any possibilities for car free urban development.

So, would this be the norm in this fictional community? Somehow I think so.

Here in British Columbia, farmland in the province has been set aside in the Agricultural Land Reserve since 1972. If land is deemed as agricultural, it's extremely difficult to get it taken out of the land reserve for development of any sort. The commission that oversees the land reserve is set up in such a way that it does not have to bow to the government of the day. And the provincial government cannot overrule a decision by the land commission.

It's not that far-fetched... this on a larger scale: Cohousing

I'd point you to the Cohousing website as well.. they're DOING things like this!

That's an excellent link, thanks very much. I hadn't made the connection.

As I mentioned, Wooten Park Drive is a two block long stretch of nothing but old 4- and 8-plexes. The neighborhoods surrounding are in mostly a grid layout with wide, low traffic residential streets. There is excellent old style small-box urban retail nearby. The distances are just a bit longer than ideal for pedestrian living but absolutely perfect for bicycling. It's crawling with cyclists and there is good transit nearby, including a commuter rail line scheduled to begin operating next year. I think sufficient employment exists nearby and on the transit lines.
Wooten Park Drive is actually the northern extension of a street called Woodrow, which is very close to being a bicycle highway to north central Austin. Also, it runs parallel to the arterial Anderson Lane, which is lined by small-box retail.

Here's what could be done with Wooten Park Lane in a cohousing context. You could close it off to traffic and move all the existing parking to one or two lots in the middle of the strip. Turn Wooten Park Drive into an urban plaza with of course bike lanes and sidewalks. Connect the plaza in several places to the retail and parking facilities one block over, on Anderson Lane.

Aerial photo (Google Maps)

I've never advocated critical mass.

I've always liked this idea. I think many gentrifying urban neighborhoods are often very much like this, although not on the explicit level that cohousing is. It's a shame that this idea is seen by many as such a fringe thing. It shouldn't be. Americans are so disconnected and isolationist, it's appalling.

Fascinating development pattern there. Seems like 183 does what you would expect - tears apart the well-connected street grid. Interesting mix of densities. When was this originally developed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo4MpO3kBRE

wow, attacking an handicapped elderly couple. Way for Critical M*******s to respect their elders. Great way of getting your point across. I'm surprised they did'nt pull the elderly lady out and **** and torture her.

:rolleyes:

The area to the south was developed around 1960, the one to the north around 1975.

The Burnet Road / Anderson Lane area is a good location for car free cycling mainly because the traffic grid lets you avoid the arterials. Real estate and rental ads sometimes say "you don't need a car in this area." The old small box retail in that area is being recycled into funky little shops and small restaurants. Most importantly the neighborhood still seems to support local grocery stores, pharmacies, five(!) bike shops, post office, etc.

The best thing about small box retail is how it can pack so much variety into a small area.

Hwy 183 in that particular area isn't a bad barrier to bikes. It's elevated. There are several places to cross under it as a ped or on a bike.

**********?

I fail to see the relevance to this thread....