Melbourne: A Pedestrian Paradise (highway, downtown, freeways, transportation)
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An absolutely amazingly beautiful, gorgeous city. I never knew such a fine example of urbanism could exist in a new world city. With world-class public transit, filled with miles and miles of picturesque pedestrian-only and bicycle-friendly streets beyond my wildest dreams.
It saddens me cities in America aren't like this. Even in NYC and 'Frisco, the streets resemble eight lane highways where pedestrians and cyclists are an afterthought to the endless car congestion and parking lots that dominate the cityscape. Things might be slowly beginning to change in recent years giving pedestrians and cyclists more room to breathe, thanks to the new urbanist movement, but cities like Melbourne are way ahead of the curve and we are way behind it advancing at a glacial pace.
Swoon! I'd say that's pretty close to paradise for me. Man, my city feels just pathetic compared to this and it is actually quite walkable with trolleys, plazas etc... and has a beautiful setting not unlike Melbourne to start with.
All I know is that whenever these types of ideas or changes are suggested around here- and there are a number of similar ones being promoted- there is a phalanx of angry protests, letters to the editors etc... from those outside of the city unwilling to make the investment to foster this more urban type of lifestyle and destination centers here. Instead, they rail from their car based lifestyle and want to stop spending money on those damn public transportation systems, walk and bike lanes, pedestrian plazas and instead just demand we widen the freeways and build more parking lots like we always have- sigh...
...and we wonder why we have no cities in this country represented in recent top places to live ratings.
Regardless, I'm going to be showing this to local planning groups where I participate- thanks for sharing cisco.
Melbourne really seems to have their act together... A lot of American/Canadian cities have narrower streets like the ones in Melbourne, but the problem is that they usually act as service streets and mostly just have parking lots, parking structures, dumpsters, loading bays and blank walls... but hopefully as cities grow, they'll run out of retail space on the major streets and will turn to placing retail on these smaller streets.
Wow I checked the video of Melbourne and that looks great. I think that they definitely need to make places like that again, but unfortunately too many Americans will then get angry over the reasons like they say it will make it too hard to park cars in the city.
It looks very nice! The street running rail in the downtown reminded of very dense and busy version of Portland
Notice almost all the buildings had street level retail, little land was used for parking, and other than the public spaces no vacant land and space between the buildings.
Swoon! I'd say that's pretty close to paradise for me. Man, my city feels just pathetic compared to this and it is actually quite walkable with trolleys, plazas etc... and has a beautiful setting not unlike Melbourne to start with.
All I know is that whenever these types of ideas or changes are suggested around here- and there are a number of similar ones being promoted- there is a phalanx of angry protests, letters to the editors etc... from those outside of the city unwilling to make the investment to foster this more urban type of lifestyle and destination centers here. Instead, they rail from their car based lifestyle and want to stop spending money on those damn public transportation systems, walk and bike lanes, pedestrian plazas and instead just demand we widen the freeways and build more parking lots like we always have- sigh...
...and we wonder why we have no cities in this country represented in recent top places to live ratings.
Regardless, I'm going to be showing this to local planning groups where I participate- thanks for sharing cisco.
You're very welcome! I think visual aids definitely helps people to see and understand the benefits of good urbanism and helps them overcome their objections and biases. Because truthfully there really aren't many examples of great urbanism in the US so people are understandably biased against it. I used to be one of the naysayers myself. So definitely show it to your planning groups and see what they think. It would be interesting to see what their reaction is. Let us know!
If the dazzling display of first-rate urbanism on display in this video doesn't convince them, maybe nothing will. Good luck!
I had no idea Melbourne was like that. Very nice! There's a user on Youtube, can't remember his name, who posts videos from Japan (and other places), and I specifically recall his videos from Tokyo, walking through a seemingly endless array of narrow little streets for pedestrians, all lined with tiny, unique, and interesting shops and cafes. It was one of the most pleasant things I've seen, and this video reminded me of it quite a bit.
I had no idea Melbourne was like that. Very nice! There's a user on Youtube, can't remember his name, who posts videos from Japan (and other places), and I specifically recall his videos from Tokyo, walking through a seemingly endless array of narrow little streets for pedestrians, all lined with tiny, unique, and interesting shops and cafes. It was one of the most pleasant things I've seen, and this video reminded me of it quite a bit.
^^Different video, but I'm pretty sure that's the same user (and that was a great video, too!) Looks like I have a lot of videos to watch now.
Edit: Come to think of it, I watched several of the videos from Japan so it may not have even been Tokyo, I just know I watched several showing Tokyo.
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