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This is perhaps true, but I am talking about Le Corbusier and not some model named after a fellow named Le Corbisier. If you can cite me original source material by Le Corbusier that says about how much of a fan of sprawling suburbs he is, I'd be interested.
not a fan of sprawling suburbs but neither of the traditional city. Stuy town doesn't fit the description because it doesn't have the associated auto infrastructure, but that require demolishing most of the city.
Some of the reasons segways failed are the same reason electric cars did. They are way to expensive. Energy density of battery powered vehicles is really low when compared to Ethanol, Methanol, Gasoline & Diesel. They also take way to long to recharge. Poor reliability.
not a fan of sprawling suburbs but neither of the traditional city. Stuy town doesn't fit the description because it doesn't have the associated auto infrastructure, but that require demolishing most of the city.
I prefer original sources. It's a moderately long read and should be at your library. True, Stuy town isn't the radiant city. It's density is far too low. It's far too monolithic in nature. It's has no elements of transit beyond the pedestrian level (something your link wildly misrepresents, there would be no "sidewalks" because the entire ground level would be a sidewalk, complete grade separation of cars and pedestrians).
Some of the reasons segways failed are the same reason electric cars did. They are way to expensive. Energy density of battery powered vehicles is really low when compared to Ethanol, Methanol, Gasoline & Diesel. They also take way to long to recharge. Poor reliability.
This is perhaps true, but I am talking about Le Corbusier and not some model named after a fellow named Le Corbisier. If you can cite me original source material by Le Corbusier that says about how much of a fan of sprawling suburbs he is, I'd be interested.
To me, Hong Kong perhaps best epitomizes contemporary Le Corbusier towers in the park development. Segway on Hong Kong sidewalks o_O
For towers in the park in the US, check out this post here on city data: http://www.city-data.com/forum/22577065-post11.html
Apparently Stuy Town is 100,000+ per square mile. Quite dense as far as I'm concerned, certainly not much denser in the US than Manhattan. But I guess that's the suburbs you are thinking of that the Segway was designed for?
I'll refer you to the Athens Charter. It is pretty much THE textbook which modern suburbanism and sprawl is based on and it was authored by Le Corbusier
"tripled the distance one could cover in the same amount of time"
Bicycles do that at a lower expense.
With the added benefit that they are easier to "park" with less risk.
The whole idea is delusional nonsense... only someone surrounded by a suburban wasteland would even consider it.
The Seaway was designed to mimic body action. Lean forward it moves forward. Lean backwards, it moves backwards. Lean right or left and it moves right or left. In its original concept there wasn't even a handle because if one had normal balance it wasn't deemed necessary. It truly is an ingenious technology and has since been adapted for other more specialized and industrial uses.
It did fail however in a real-world environment. I'm sure that Kamen learned from his failure and is working on something else as his interests involve finding solutions to many of our world's problems in the medical and environmental areas. He is currently working on solutions to clean water in third-world countries, low cost, clean power generation, and many others. He invented the portable dialysis machine among many other modern medical devices that have improved the lives of many people.
I was gonna ask for one for Christmas in 2010 till read this in October of 2010. I got a bicycle instead.
"The British millionaire businessman who owns the firm Segway has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff with one of the two-wheeled electric scooters near his body, police said on Monday.
Jimi Heselden, 62, who bought the U.S.-based firm, and who was also chairman of Hesco Bastion, was discovered in a river near Leeds, northern England, on Sunday."
I'll refer you to the Athens Charter. It is pretty much THE textbook which modern suburbanism and sprawl is based on and it was authored by Le Corbusier
Umm, well... I haven't actually read it, so maybe the Wikipedia article is completely off and you are correct which would be a complete 180 course change from Radiant City. Athens Charter seems to call from high-rise housing tower in the park with near by industrial/commercial buildings to minimize commutes. Precisely nobody in my suburb of just under 300,000 lives in a high-rise building, unless they're illegally squatting in some unused room in one of the few high-rise office buildings that are downtown. Commercial and industrial building aren't designed with any thought to being nearby. Also, they're nearly all one-storey.
And while I find Le Corbusier's ideas more worthwhile than most here, I've got to say, you're giving him way too much credit as far as the influence he had. Suburbs really have little to do with the Garden City movement or Le Corbusier's writings. Suburbs were to some degree influenced, but not really that much -- they're rarely made with any attempt to be self-containing, a fundamental necessity of a Garden City. Le Corbusier's limited influence is seen exclusively in cities, and mostly in public housing projects or slum clearance projects like Stuy Town.
Umm, well... I haven't actually read it, so maybe the Wikipedia article is completely off and you are correct which would be a complete 180 course change from Radiant City. Athens Charter seems to call from high-rise housing tower in the park with near by industrial/commercial buildings to minimize commutes. Precisely nobody in my suburb of just under 300,000 lives in a high-rise building, unless they're illegally squatting in some unused room in one of the few high-rise office buildings that are downtown. Commercial and industrial building aren't designed with any thought to being nearby. Also, they're nearly all one-storey.
And while I find Le Corbusier's ideas more worthwhile than most here, I've got to say, you're giving him way too much credit as far as the influence he had. Suburbs really have little to do with the Garden City movement or Le Corbusier's writings. Suburbs were to some degree influenced, but not really that much -- they're rarely made with any attempt to be self-containing, a fundamental necessity of a Garden City. Le Corbusier's limited influence is seen exclusively in cities, and mostly in public housing projects or slum clearance projects like Stuy Town.
Look, you're dead wrong on this. Any serious discussion or critique of suburbanism starts with Le Corbisier' ideas of the Radiant city the disaggregated elements, work, housing, civic, industry that it espoused. The Athens Charter, the Radiant City...these are at the very heart of suburbanism. I'm not making this up, this isn't something novel...ready every serious critique from Jane Jacobs to Andres Duany and you will find Le Corbusier and the Athens Charter to be extremely relevant to any discussion on sprawl and suburbanism.
Last edited by Komeht; 02-23-2013 at 09:40 AM..
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