Business Parks Suck (but they don't have to)

This video might be relevant to your described scenario: ▶ this video Notice how in The Netherlands, despite making bikes, transit, and pedestrians welcome in this suburban business park near the airport, you can still drive there if you want. Yes, if you lived in The Netherlands, you could drive to this business park shown in the video in your personal vehicle. There's a parking garage right there, and even though the infrastructure is pedestrian and bicycle focused and prioritized, the cars don't have to wait long at the traffic signal or endure crazy traffic. Why is that? Because there are fewer cars. Why are there fewer cars? Because there are viable alternatives. Essentially, having better public transit, pedestrian, and cycling infrastructure actually makes life better for drivers, too! The thing is, in North America, in most places you don't actually have any sort of choice on whether you want to drive or not. If you don't drive, your entire environment is hostile to your very existence, and public transit is just for the poor and desperate. You must buy a car whether you want to or not. That's not really choice or freedom. You're saying that you would choose a personal vehicle, but does that choice have the potential to change if the surrounding circumstances change? So, it's perfectly fine that you'd prefer to own an automobile. You're free to pay the close to $10,000 a year it costs for the average person to own a new car according to AAA. I personally wouldn't make that

in “Cruise’s Robot Car Outages Are Jamming Up San Francisco” · View on HN

This "Not Just Bikes" video[1] recently on YouTube makes a similar case for generic concrete business parks in the USA and Canada compared to one in the Netherlands. That nobody with any choice wants to live or work there, that they are full of hostile in-between space and strictly segregated from housing and shopping by 6-lane roads, and inhuman feeling. Designed with car access as the priority and bus access as an afterthought and without pedestrian or cycle access at all, as if the only reasons to be 'outside' at all are driving or parking. The Netherlands one in the video has dedicated roads for busses which get priority over cars at traffic lights, dedicated paths for bikes and pedestrians which get priority over busses and cars at traffic lights and are separate from the roads so people aren't walking right by vehicles, and a train station. It has narrow car lanes with both directions separated with an easier pedestrian crossing experience, floodwater management integrated as a nice looking canal feature rather than as a storm drain by a road; pretty building design and path design to make a more pleasant environment to walk in, and buildings having large and accessible entrances for pedestrians without forcing them to cross bits of mud or large expanses of car park. [1] ▶ this video

in “Le Corbusier's project Plan Voisin – a radical urban design for Paris from 1925” · View on HN

Or, you know, DO put offices in dense city cores, say within 5-15 minutes of a train station. (that or telecommute). ▶ this video And, a lot more stations are within say a 15 minute reach if you use a bike O:-) [link]

in “ICE test train reaches speeds of up to 405.0 km/h” · View on HN

Eh, that's a pretty big vehicle. Does that still actually count as a _car_? ;-) It's fine for regular European or Japanese vehicles, of course. But... people do drive American trucks like that out in the countryside as utility vehicles. Where there's a bit of room to maneuver, it can be done. And of course, outside Amsterdam city center: you've got all-paved-roads even in the countryside (well maintained with few potholes), reasonable speed limits, highways that stay dry even when it rains, traffic lights that let you through the moment they see you coming (at an empty intersection at least), traffic jam detector systems, highway entrances and exits that you can take on cruise control -as opposed to trying to kill you- (I'm looking at you, Germany ;-) ), and much much more! * ( [link] "The Best Country in the World for Drivers" ) * ▶ this video (business parks... people in the comments were kind of riled up about this particular traffic light. Would work fine with an F150 ;-) )

in “Balancing Outdoor Risky Play and Injury Prevention in Childhood Development” · View on HN

> Public transit is no good. It's easy and convenient: • ▶ this video • [link] > I don’t want to walk to a station and then share the space with other people. I don’t want to lug grocery bags around. Alright, use a bicycle then. I hear ebikes are pretty good these days. Or use a micro car if you must: [link] . > I want to make pit stops. A bicycle is better than a car for this. > I want to go off road. Bicycle again, but if you really wanna use a car the few times a year you may wanna go off road, go ahead. > Want to live in the suburbs or semi rural areas so I can have a lot of land. By all means, go ahead. Just as long as you pay in full for all the negative externalities you inflict on everyone else by doing so.

in “Cruise pauses driverless operations across all cities” · View on HN

So the actual challenge is to convince those car drivers that they really should be pushing for more bike lanes, since it really is in their best interest. O:-) For more arguments than can fit in this margin, see: [link] "The Best Country in the World for Drivers" (edit: +if you don't have time for an entire video, just watch this one traffic light for single example that exemplifies the story: ▶ this video ... comments on that video are good too!)

in “Bikes, not self driving cars, are the technological gateway to urban progress” · View on HN