Huge Plans for Lawrenceville (Bethel Park: renting, house, taxi)

[eschaton]

In general the following have been pretty well established in urban planning.

1. No neighborhood in the modern era goes into a decline in desirability due to lack of parking. Indeed, the norm is for any urban neighborhood with a vibrant commercial district to have a parking shortage no matter the supply which is provided.

2. On the other hand, cars and pedestrians are somewhat zero-sum in terms of their interactions. You cannot come up with the ideal business district design for both. If a commercial street has traffic which is too high speed, it will be unpleasant to walk along. If you build too much parking fringing a business district, it will form a "moat" which makes it not a nice walk from the closest residential areas. These mistakes are typically not made by urban planners today, but many made them in the mid 20th century - and found that no matter how much parking you crammed into a traditional business district, it would not turn it into a shopping mall.

I do agree that you need to have sufficient transit available in an area to begin providing disincentives for car usage. I think it's arguable that Lawrenceville isn't there yet. It's quite walkable, but still lacks some essentials like a grocery store. In addition, the only transit connections are rather slow surface buses, which are quite clearly less convenient than a bus. If you use the bus for work commutes you're fine, but you wouldn't want to rely upon it for shopping and socialization if you had access to a car. So I really don't think the one space per unit parking minimum was too far off in this case.

I do think there are other examples however where it is quite wrong. For example, the Eastside III apartments being built right by the East Liberty busway station. These units were being built with the explicit purpose of increasing transit utilization. You have immediate access to an express bus to Downtown or Oakland. There is a Target right across the street, and enough essentials within a 15-minute walk there would really be no need to ever drive. I have no doubt a lot more of these apartments would rent without any parking spaces, yet they are being built to the one space per unit minimum as well. Technically speaking, you couldn't even build an apartment building in Oakland without one unit per space without a variance, even though a lot of potential residents will either not bring their cars with them to Pittsburgh, or not drive at all. Pittsburgh does need to loosen parking requirements in areas like these.

All of this is before even taking into account the way automated cars are going to revolutionize cities, utterly collapsing car usage for casual drivers. The estimates I have seen are a 40% reduction in car ownership within 20 years, most of which will undoubtedly be concentrated in cities. That's why I find it especially foolish to plow more money into parking infrastructure today, when we're likely only about 5-10 years or so from "peak parking."

[tclifton]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Do you leave town every winter? It doesn't take much of a snow at rush hour to make it so that walking is faster than driving for most routes.

Of course that's true for short distances for a few days in the winter. But who's going to walk 15 miles in the snow? You're limiting your range by not owning a car.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by tclifton

Of course that's true for short distances for a few days in the winter. But who's going to walk 15 miles in the snow? You're limiting your range by not owning a car.

Why would I need to walk 15 miles in the snow? To go to Olive Garden? As said, I have everything I need within *easy* walking distance.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by tclifton

Of course you are. You're dependent on the schedule of a cab or a bus or an Uper or Lyft driver. You're waiting until their schedule allows them to pick you up. With bikes and walking, you're dependent on the weather, and you're also not able to go long distances in a reasonable amount of time.

Having a personal car gives you freedom from all of that.

I've seen studies which have concluded that cars are faster than mass transit for commuting in every single American city (even NYC). Bikes frequently beat cars, however, and door-to-door commutes don't include the time to find parking, which can add significant hassle.

Really, the choice to drive versus use transit, in most cities, comes down to the relative difficulty/cost of parking. In a lot of car-centric cities (like Atlanta) parking all day in a garage downtown is actually cheaper than a round-trip transit fare. No one with a car would choose to use transit under those circumstances. In contrast, in cities where parking is expensive, and you must circle blocks several times searching for a space you can use, being a driver is often enough of a hassle to want to ditch the vehicle entirely.

[tclifton]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Why would I need to walk 15 miles in the snow? To go to Olive Garden? As said, I have everything I need within *easy* walking distance.

That may be, and that's fine. But your'e dependent then on whatever is within an easy walking distance.

I guess I'm just trying to understand how having a car makes one dependent. From what I can tell it provides complete independence.

[tclifton]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I've seen studies which have concluded that cars are faster than mass transit for commuting in every single American city (even NYC). Bikes frequently beat cars, however, and door-to-door commutes don't include the time to find parking, which can add significant hassle.

Really, the choice to drive versus use transit, in most cities, comes down to the relative difficulty/cost of parking. In a lot of car-centric cities (like Atlanta) parking all day in a garage downtown is actually cheaper than a round-trip transit fare. No one with a car would choose to use transit under those circumstances. In contrast, in cities where parking is expensive, and you must circle blocks several times searching for a space you can use, being a driver is often enough of a hassle to want to ditch the vehicle entirely.

That makes sense...and again, I'm not advocating everyone owning a car. I was just trying to understand the thinking behind the statement that those with cars are dependent.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by tclifton

Of course that's true for short distances for a few days in the winter. But who's going to walk 15 miles in the snow? You're limiting your range by not owning a car.

Obviously, I'm not going to walk 15 miles in the snow regularly, but I really enjoy walking past all the traffic when it does get shut down by snow. So much more peaceful than sitting with the rest of the traffic. Of course, I don't travel 15 miles in a normal day anyway. My commute is three miles and by not living very far from my job, I have several extra hours a week. It's proven to be the difference between having a life as opposed to work/housework/sleep/repeat.

Anyway, I own a car. It's very nice. State of the art CD player. But not having to drive it every day to work does give me a very great sense of freedom in terms of worry, finances, and time.

[Blackbeauty212]

Originally Posted by tclifton

Of course you are. You're dependent on the schedule of a cab or a bus or an Uper or Lyft driver. You're waiting until their schedule allows them to pick you up. With bikes and walking, you're dependent on the weather, and you're also not able to go long distances in a reasonable amount of time.

Having a personal car gives you freedom from all of that.

I get that you may not like (to own) cars, and you may like to use public transportation instead, and that's fine. But don't try to sell the argument that it gives you some sort of independence, when pretty much the opposite is true.

No I'm not, I can walk out of my apartment a go to a whole hosts of entertainment, dining, and shopping with just my 2 feet. Can folks living out in Wexford, McCandless, Murrysville, Bethel Park do the same?

Uber and Lyft are NEVER more than a 5 min wait where I live, and almost anywhere I'm trying to get from. even coming from Robinson, shopping, I get an Uber in like 10 mins because of they're frequently running the Parkway to and from the Airport.

Like I said previously, I bet I get around easier than many Car-Huggers. I know all my options available to me. I'm not dependent in any way, I have a host of transportation options available.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by tclifton

That makes sense...and again, I'm not advocating everyone owning a car. I was just trying to understand the thinking behind the statement that those with cars are dependent.

I don't think the point generally is merely owning a car makes you dependent on the car. It's that unless you live in a neighborhood with decent transit access to your job, along with walkable amenities like retail and restaurants, you will be dependent upon a car to get around. Ending car dependence thus isn't about ditching the car - it's about choosing to live somewhere where ditching a car is actually conceivable.

If you live somewhere with good transit access and walking amenities, these days you'll pay a pretty big premium for the privilege. Perhaps enough of one that the added costs of owning a car (payments, repair, insurance, parking, etc) no longer seem worthwhile when you could spend that money on something else, like uber trips or a nicer apartment.

[tclifton]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

No I'm not, I can walk out of my apartment a go to a whole hosts of entertainment, dining, and shopping with just my 2 feet. Can folks living out in Wexford, McCandless, Murrysville, Bethel Park do the same?

Uber and Lyft are NEVER more than a 5 min wait where I live, and almost anywhere I'm trying to get from. even coming from Robinson, shopping, I get an Uber in like 10 mins because of they're frequently running the Parkway to and from the Airport.

Like I said previously, I bet I get around easier than many Car-Huggers. I know all my options available to me. I'm not dependent in any way, I have a host of transportation options available.

Ok...I suppose we have different definitions of dependence.