How fast is too fast?

[LanghamP]

Skip to two minutes in to see how drivers and walkers used to share spaces in an easy and respectful manner.

It's actually almost heartbreaking to watch because streets used to be made for all of us and not just for cars going from one place to another as fast as possible. You'll notice a lot of people just standing in the street socializing, even talking to others in cars or trolleys. Note the children playing in the middle of the street; streets were very much shared spaces for everyone. Note also just how much wider those sidewalks were; they were chopped in half a few decades later.

The insane thing about that video was that cars travelling today in NYC are slower than the horses and trolleys of 1900.

Some time ago, because why not, I took a modern NYC photograph and counted up the people using cars. It looked something like this.

--Around 40 cars, lets say half carry passengers, so around 60 people.

--At least 400 people covering the sidewalk to the end of the street. So these 400 people occupy 1/10 the space of those 40 cars.

This is bonkers! This shows how marginalized walkers are as we've kicked walkers off the streets, accusing them of "jaywalking" or, worse yet, irresponsible if they dare intrude into car spaces (ie streets that used to be public shared spaces where children could play).

What does that kind of area feel like in the 21st century? 

Augustaplatz in Liepzig.

Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

I was pretty disoriented when I was in these places, as initially I kept looking around, much as I imagined a soldier on leave expecting bullets to fly at him. THIS is a better life, to walk around in an area where you won't be killed or injured from a slight miscalculation for you or the driver. There is a certain amount of background stress being in car-centric societies, but it's hard to realize it until you're safe from cars.

Most of these areas, by the way, have these weird lego blocks surrounding them; evidently Muslims like to take autos and run people over, I guess it's a passtime, whatever floats your boat.

[Marty Backe]

10 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

Skip to two minutes in to see how drivers and walkers used to share spaces in an easy and respectful manner.

It's actually almost heartbreaking to watch because streets used to be made for all of us and not just for cars going from one place to another as fast as possible. You'll notice a lot of people just standing in the street socializing, even talking to others in cars or trolleys. Note the children playing in the middle of the street; streets were very much shared spaces for everyone. Note also just how much wider those sidewalks were; they were chopped in half a few decades later.

The insane thing about that video was that cars travelling today in NYC are slower than the horses and trolleys of 1900.

Some time ago, because why not, I took a modern NYC photograph and counted up the people using cars. It looked something like this.

--Around 40 cars, lets say half carry passengers, so around 60 people.

--At least 400 people covering the sidewalk to the end of the street. So these 400 people occupy 1/10 the space of those 40 cars.

This is bonkers! This shows how marginalized walkers are as we've kicked walkers off the streets, accusing them of "jaywalking" or, worse yet, irresponsible if they dare intrude into car spaces (ie streets that used to be public shared spaces where children could play).

What does that kind of area feel like in the 21st century? 

Augustaplatz in Liepzig.

Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

I was pretty disoriented when I was in these places, as initially I kept looking around, much as I imagined a soldier on leave expecting bullets to fly at him. THIS is a better life, to walk around in an area where you won't be killed or injured from a slight miscalculation for you or the driver. There is a certain amount of background stress being in car-centric societies, but it's hard to realize it until you're safe from cars.

Most of these areas, by the way, have these weird lego blocks surrounding them; evidently Muslims like to take autos and run people over, I guess it's a passtime, whatever floats your boat.

Love that video.

Of course that laissez faire attitude did get a lot of people killed. My grandfather was killed by a street car in Chicago, I think around 1915. I always imagined the street scene like what's shown in this video - masses of people criss-crossing the streets with all kinds of mechanical contrivances sharing the space, and some being run over 

[Dingfelder]

On 10/17/2018 at 8:00 PM, LanghamP said:

Skip to two minutes in to see how drivers and walkers used to share spaces in an easy and respectful manner.

 

Good point about the sidewalk width.  I hadn't even noticed that when watching.  Funny and so often sad how much we miss simply by being turned slightly in a different direction ... 

... and in the other direction, heads might be rolling which we in our leisurely inattention have missed ... or perhaps suspected but hastily and comfortingly discounted ... mustn't muss the soul before brunch, after all ...

Speaking of heads, I'm nostalgic for hats.  Am I the only one who thinks that each and every one of these hats is better than today's backward-baseball-cap style?  There is no goober like a modern goober ...