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matthewtheninja t1_iun8q7m wrote

Walkable cities is the answer

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darexinfinity t1_iuq84sg wrote

I'd be amazed if urban areas had more accidents than suburban.

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Willie-Alb t1_iuqxpf5 wrote

Look walkable cities is a great idea, only problem is that I’m willing to bet that most of these occur in suburban areas, where that is significantly less viable.

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RevolutionaryGlass0 t1_iuqzcid wrote

Nah, sub-urbs just need to be better designed. I live in a town of about 40,000 people, which is actually a smaller population than most US sub-urbs. It's perfectly walkable.

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[deleted] t1_iupvowc wrote

[deleted]

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MashedCandyCotton t1_iuqhrlq wrote

>A.) population density

22 of US states/territories have a higher population density than Europe. So why doesn't Ohio have proper public transport?

> B.) they have a prime geography for it.

What? What is that even supposed to mean?

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leadenjerry t1_iuqhyjh wrote

According to census data more than 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas, as opposed to rural areas. People in Europe don’t walk from city to city. We (Europeans) also have cars. Walkable cities are supposed to offer other modes of transport WITHIN a city. Which is possible when you don’t have to spread out buildings to accommodate huge inner city arterial roads and giant parking lots.

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RevolutionaryGlass0 t1_iuqzo4t wrote

Plenty of parts of the US have a much higher population density than Europe. I live in a small, rural town. The countryside is only 200 metres away from me. Where I live is still fully walkable.

There's no reason that massive places like LA or San Diego shouldn't be better designed. Even sub-urbs, most of which have a higher population than where I live by the way, could be far better.

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dev-sda t1_iurai1x wrote

> This country has always been highly spread out and it’s simply not practical to adapt the entire countries infrastructure to change that within a lifetime.

Considering the country went from (mass manufactured) cars not existing to the majority of people owning a car, public transit system being demolished, urban freeways and interstate highways all within a lifetime; why is it suddenly impossible to do the reverse?

The USA was built on the back of rail. "population density" and "geography" are fundamentally a-historic excuses. Not only can it be built, it's literally already been done before. In a time when population density was significantly lower and geography significantly more challenging.

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Jaken005 t1_iurwprg wrote

Even in the arctic regions of finland almost all villagaes and towns have separated walking/cycling paths that kids kan use to go to school or visit friends. If you have enough money to build huge highways you have enough money to make a sidewalk and some safe crosswalks with speed bumps and pedestrian refuges.

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Spambot0 t1_iunlf9j wrote

Unless this plot is showing us that more children are walking around on Hallowe'en, in which case totally unwalkable cities is the answer.

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Verynearlydearlydone t1_iuo4duu wrote

Given what we know about chid death, probably not. But lol

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Spambot0 t1_iuo7u76 wrote

Oh, I wouldn't hazard a guess. Obviously the data fits both takes equally well. But we can see which one people want to be true.

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ar243 t1_iunbgia wrote

Can you r/fuckcars guys just... not annoy everyone else for five minutes on this sub

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matthewtheninja t1_iunlcss wrote

Never been to that sub. But this seems pretty fucking relevant in a statistic about pedestrian fatalities.

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ar243 t1_iunwxag wrote

You should take a look at what they actually believe.

The last post I saw was about putting nails in an intersection to get revenge for a pedestrian that got hit.

One guy I talked to literally said "it's a war" between pedestrians and cars, in defense of the whole nails thing.

They're lunatics, and they just parrot the same talking points from a popular YouTube video.

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matthewtheninja t1_iunycgi wrote

I have no interest in this subreddit, never been there and don’t care to go there.

I don’t see what that has to do with my simple assertion that we should strive to develop more walkable living spaces in this country.

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ar243 t1_iuo2cpe wrote

You should go there.

It's one of those things where the original intent was good, but that group in particular gives the whole thing a bad name.

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Hairy-Owl-5567 t1_iuopeq9 wrote

You're literally the only person talking about that subreddit. Dude literally just said we should have walkable cities and you're popping off about pedestrian wars like it has any relevance to the anything.

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thyme_cardamom t1_ius50p6 wrote

You: Please stop with the fuckcars nonsense!

Also you: Please go visit r/fuckcars!

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SuckMyBike t1_iung1gj wrote

When so many kids stop dying, we'll stop being annoying

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ar243 t1_iunz33v wrote

"Of the 6,205 pedestrian traffic fatalities, 181 (3%) were children in 2019." - NHTSA

181 annual child deaths in a country of 330,000,000 people is not "so many kids". That's 0.00005% in case you want a percentage.

140 children die each year from choking, should we get rid of every single thing that could cause choking too? Because the death of even one child is one too many, right?

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Verynearlydearlydone t1_iuo4mzt wrote

You’re acting like this isn’t the very top cause of death in children. At least until guns really stepped up their game last year.

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matthewtheninja t1_iuo6qd6 wrote

Technically the majority of children killed in traffic accidents are the occupants of those vehicles, but the cause is ultimately still our car dependent society.

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schorschico t1_iuogpmw wrote

I don't know about you but I have had to walk by the pediatric cancer section in one of the city hospitals and I wish I didn't have to do it ever again. It's devastating. I never think "Hey, it's not that bad. The percentage is almost zero".

Car crashes are the FIRST cause if death for kids (not just as pedestrians, but as a consequence of a car oriented society we live in). More than cancer. Allow me to at least feel like shit about that fact.

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RufusLaButte t1_iuug7pd wrote

My older sister was one of those "181" in 1993. It matters.

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NookSwzy t1_iunu6go wrote

They didn't even say anything crazy, all they suggested was making cities safer for pedestrians. Kinda weird that you're reacting like this.

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ar243 t1_iunwdvk wrote

In the past few days I've interacted with two people from that sub.

One person suggested "we need to put nails in intersections to stop cars" after someone got hit at a crosswalk.

The other suggested we should just remove highways.

It's annoying to hear the same insanely impractical talking points parroted by some redditors who watched a YouTube video.

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matthewtheninja t1_iunxsht wrote

A lot of highways should be removed, or at the very least minimized. The American experiment in paving our cities to make highways and parking lots has proven to be a bad decision in a million different ways.

I’d be interested in hearing your counterpoints against developing walkable cities and reducing our car dependence.

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ar243 t1_iuo24jn wrote

I never said it shouldn't. I think public transportation and mobility should be a higher priority.

But the people from r/fuckcars are incredibly annoying. It's a constant barrage of dumb ideas ("let's put nails in the intersections to stop people from driving") and the same 5 parroted talking points they got from a YouTuber repeated ad nauseum.

Like, we get it, you've all said the same five things a billion times. Shut the fuck up already.

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Verynearlydearlydone t1_iuo4ugm wrote

You sound like you’re going to have a seizure. Maybe you need a break from reality if it upsets you that much.

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ar243 t1_iupgpu5 wrote

Damn dude I'm not the one that left 90 comments in the span of a day, I don't think I'm the one you should be worried about here

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matthewtheninja t1_iuo67hv wrote

Well I’m sorry that subreddit is full of extremists, but it has nothing to do with me or the point I’m making.

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weeeuuu t1_iupoyg5 wrote

Log off. You are throwing a fit over an internet community. Go outside.

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NookSwzy t1_iupn0yd wrote

That's great but the person you responded didn't say any of that stuff.

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awawe t1_iurvejp wrote

Can you carbrains just... not kill children every five minutes?

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ar243 t1_ius6q9t wrote

It's once every 3000 minutes, only 182 kids die each year in pedestrian car deaths. The data is very misleading.

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ibajag t1_iunsazn wrote

That sub is the largest echo chamber on reddit

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NookSwzy t1_iuntyr9 wrote

Nah that's antiwork, politics, and conservative

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ar243 t1_iunwhge wrote

This is denial, for folks coming into the conversation just now.

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NookSwzy t1_iupngbg wrote

It really isn't. I despise a lot of things about that sub and have completely stopped participating in it once they decided to start advocating for hurting drivers' property to spread the message. However, antiwork literally complains about any form of work, politics downvotes anything remotely conservative, and conservative bans anything that isn't a trump talking point. I haven't seen anyone get banned on fuckcars.

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OuidOuigi t1_iuocgbg wrote

Yep. Wait until they damage a tire and it comes apart killing a family or lose control hitting someone else/another biker.

Then they can't imagine having a family to shop for, disabled people who need specialized vehicles just to get to public transportation, weather extremes in many places, the extra time it takes, and many other situations where a majority of people will prefer a car.

Their obsession with trains reminds me of Sheldon from their favorite show Big Bang Theory.

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Sea_Phrase_Loch t1_ivm3qmi wrote

The reason all of those things need cars right now isn’t because they inherently need cars. For groceries, you can easily wheel around a small cart if the grocery store is a 5 minute walk away. (If your neighborhood is designed for walking.) A lot of disabled people who can’t ride on public transportation without specialized vehicles probably can’t drive cars either. (Some common types of disabilities where you need a specialized vehicle are probably like disabilities where you faint (which is quite the liability driving a moving vehicle) or disabilities where your legs don’t work or are weak (you do need reliably working legs to drive a car, afaik. There are modified versions to solve that but depending there’s likely still the difficulty of getting out/in of the car each time as well))

I’m not saying bikes are less dangerous than cars, but they’re not more dangerous either.

It’s also not about nobody owning a car. Cars will always be necessary for some jobs or locations. Just owning a car should not be a requirement to live.

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