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I've often wondered what it would be like to experience a city without that constant roar of motorized traffic. I know it would probably still be loud from all the other sounds, but it seems it would have to be significantly quieter. Even in my fairly small city (100,000) you'll hear a constant, very loud roar all day long and most of the night. Very early in the morning is the only time you can escape it anywhere near the city, but it's extremely pleasant.
Visit Mackinaw Island (Lake Huron, Michigan) at least once in your life.
Just bicycles and horses. If you stay overnight, try one of the bed and breakfasts "downtown." We woke up to the sound of horses clip-clopping on the cobblestones.
But the whole place is sort of make-believe land -- tourist, as it were.
For a real reading of Ye Good Olde Days -- try this link -- discusses the realistic case of "horse exhaust" and even dead horses -- just dumped and abandoned on the streets >>>
IN 1898 , DELEGATES FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
gathered in New York City for the world’s first international
urban planning conference. One topic dominated the discussion. It was
not housing, land use, economic development, or infrastructure. The
delegates were driven to desperation by horse manure.
The horse was no newcomer on the urban scene. But by the late
1800s, the problem of horse pollution had reached unprecedented
heights. The growth in the horse population was outstripping even the
rapid rise in the number of human city dwellers. American cities were
drowning in horse manure as well as other unpleasant byproducts of
the era’s predominant mode of transportation: urine, flies, congestion,
carcasses, and traffic accidents.Widespread cruelty to horses was a form
of environmental degradation as well.
The situation seemed dire. In 1894, the Times of London estimated
that by 1950 every street in the city would be buried nine feet deep in
horse manure. One New York prognosticator of the 1890s concluded
that by 1930 the horse droppings would rise to Manhattan’s third-story
windows. A public health and sanitation crisis of almost unimaginable
dimensions loomed.
And no possible solution could be devised. After all, the horse had
been the dominant mode of transportation for thousands of years.
Horses were absolutely essential for the functioning of the nineteenthcentury
city—for personal transportation, freight haulage, and even
mechanical power. Without horses, cities would quite literally starve.
All efforts to mitigate the problem were proving woefully inadequate.
Stumped by the crisis, the urban planning conference declared its
work fruitless and broke up in three days instead of the scheduled ten.
It is unrealistic to expect no cars but I still think places should be built mixed use and dense like Manhattan. In Manhattan I still don't like when the horses for the tourists that go along Central Park or inside of it poo. Not something you'd want to step on. Some good things like street cars and bike lanes added would definitely help to reduce the cars, as well as turning liquor stores into full fledged (if small) grocery stores.
I've often wondered what it would be like to experience a city without that constant roar of motorized traffic. I know it would probably still be loud from all the other sounds, but it seems it would have to be significantly quieter. Even in my fairly small city (100,000) you'll hear a constant, very loud roar all day long and most of the night. Very early in the morning is the only time you can escape it anywhere near the city, but it's extremely pleasant.
Maybe this isn't that relevant to this thread, but Venice, Italy provides this to an extent. You only have the sounds of motor boats near the canals.
Maybe this isn't that relevant to this thread, but Venice, Italy provides this to an extent. You only have the sounds of motor boats near the canals.
I imagine that would be quite nice. I'm used to experiencing near silence if I'm out in the country somewhere, but to be in a fairly quiet large city would be extraordinary.
I imagine that would be quite nice. I'm used to experiencing near silence if I'm out in the country somewhere, but to be in a fairly quiet large city would be extraordinary.
It's especially nice after coming from Florence, where the Vespa is king.
Louis I. Kahn's 1957 vision for a car-less central Philadelphia.
(the car-crazy 1950's, needless to say, were not buying it.)
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