> “Why wouldn’t you bike? It’s stupid not to bike.”
This article seems aimed at Americans. After all, it's our paper of record.
America doubles down on cars over and over again. Building roads and widening them intending to reduce congestion, causing more congestion. Ride-sharing intended to reduce congestion, causing more congestion. Now self-driving cars intending to reduce congestion, will cause more congestion.
We spend billions making the same mistakes. New York's biking infrastructure, while laudable, pales in comparison to the roads we build everywhere else.
We have so much potential. Instead we create obesity.
“we” don’t double-down on cars. Some billionaire activists in the country have an anti-public transportation agenda and lobby hard against mass transit projects.
If I asked all the people I know if they would prefer a detached house with a front yard, backyard, two car garage, driveway, or if they would prefer living closer to other people in smaller residences so that bicycling and walking places was possible, I’m willing to bet everything I own that pretty much everyone will choose the first option.
The obesity statistics alone would make it hard for me to believe most people would vote against de prioritizing travel by cars. Hopefully it is possible to get some change on a city level though.
We have culturally ingrained the idea of a nice suburban garden home for the better part of a century. If you just ask them directly of course everyone will say they prefer it.
Of course, framing of questions also matters. “Do you want your child to have a safe walk to school”, “Would you like to have an alternative to sitting in traffic”, “Would you like a grocery store within walking distance” are all essentially questions in the same vein that would garner different responses.
Average house soze in the US has also gotten comically large over the past few decades. Square footage per person has basically doubled in the last 50 years, but it’s not like furniture has doubled in size. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/new-us-homes-today-are-1000-s...
It’s also worth noting that even if a majority of people want the nice suburban big house, it’s not 100% of people, and yet it is the overwhelming majority of new construction. This is reflected both in housing prices (urban areas command much higher prices per sq ft) and complaints about gentrification in historic areas that have the bones to support these kinds of environments.
This article seems aimed at Americans. After all, it's our paper of record.
America doubles down on cars over and over again. Building roads and widening them intending to reduce congestion, causing more congestion. Ride-sharing intended to reduce congestion, causing more congestion. Now self-driving cars intending to reduce congestion, will cause more congestion.
We spend billions making the same mistakes. New York's biking infrastructure, while laudable, pales in comparison to the roads we build everywhere else.
We have so much potential. Instead we create obesity.