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IMHO, if you stripped away all government meddling, taxes, subsidies, banking, etc, the most frugal, convenient and efficient form of development would result.
And that would NOT be suburbia.
Any way you slice it, suburbia wastes resources, uses too much land, adds costs, and is not viable over the long term.
Yeah, I picked the nastiest spot I could think of. But really, all the avenues are pretty dire.
clearly the solution is to ban to cars from Midtown
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And there's Times Square, where you could certainly walk... if it weren't for all the OTHER PEOPLE in the way. I take the subway to get from Penn Station to Port Authority Bus Terminal just because the crowds make walking it such a pain.
I've found 8th avenue manageable. Might depend on time rather than just personal preference.
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The other thing about the Park Avenue spot is it's listed by walkscore as having a bike score of "77: Very Bikeable". I've biked up and down Park Avenue, and I'm going to have to disagree with that. Strenuously. It's insane, and the parallel avenues aren't much better. Should be more like "15: You'll probably live."
I wouldn't go that far, but the avenues aren't fun. Only thing that makes it not completely insane is the traffic speed is so slow the cars aren't going much faster than bicycle speed; one can the lane and switch lanes... sorta. The bike lanes are nice.
I biked from Grand Central to Union Square once because I assumed it would be easier that dragging my bike up and down subway stairs and gate.
The person you originally responded to was talking about South Carolina heat and you basically blew him/her off.
My post was to IshootNikon about my A/C and heat habits, not to the South Carolina poster.
I don't think I blew him/her off [I thought the posts here's what your preferences should be were the type of posts you disliked?]; though I don't particularly care being told I wouldn't want to walk in heat & humidity. How does he/she know know my preferences? Maybe I'd rather be outside regardless of weather. Yes, my summers are much cooler than South Carolina but we do get hot days and weeks one summer that get their typical conditions.
[1] Compulsory taxation that benefits one industry but penalizes another is not "beneficial." In fact, it destroyed the world's best rail system and made millions dependent upon the automobile and its support industries who were the "REAL" beneficiaries. "What's good for GM is good for America!"
- - - GM’s CEO Charles “Engine Charlie” Wilson
[2] Actually, there weren't millions of acres of public land "gifted" to "those companies." (Heavy rail aka Steam). That was a one shot deal for the transcontinental railroad... during WARTIME. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_...ental_Railroad
Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 into law on July 1. It authorized creation of two companies, the Central Pacific in the west and the Union Pacific in the mid-west, to build the railroad. The legislation called for building and operating a new railroad from the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, west to Sacramento, California, and on to San Francisco Bay.
. . .
Note: These were FEDERAL CORPORATIONS, that later were transformed into state corporations.
. . .
The electric traction rail companies were rivals of the steam powered heavy rail, in case you didn't know. The heavy rail companies helped destroy them, too.
In 1963, Alweg proposed to the city of Los Angeles a monorail system that would be designed, built, operated and maintained by Alweg. Alweg promised to take all financial risk from the construction, and the system would be repaid through fares collected. The City Council rejected the proposal in favor of no transit at all. (thanks to Standard Oil)
....
The Streetcar Conspiracy The StreetCar Conspiracy
....
The Great American Streetcar Scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_City_Lines
We can thank General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum for their successful destruction of electric traction rail, and the imposition of our dependency on imported petroleum.
.....
PBS HISTORY DETECTIVES CLEVELAND ELECTRIC CAR
History Detectives S04E10
Season 4, Episode 10
New York City politics was not standing still, however. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who had taken office in 1933, was no friend of streetcars, of elevated lines, or of private ownership of transit. He pressed relentlessly for “Unification,” the City takeover of the BMT and IRT. The IRT was happy to go out of business but the BMT fought almost to the last.
After taking over the private companies, not only did the innovations of the BMT end, but the City lost its taste for subway building. The IND “Second System” of 1929 remains unbuilt. The private lines that attracted IND competition were abandoned, several immediately and more as the years went on.
...
Leave it to government to destroy the most efficient form of land transport...
Exactly! I fear government has so thoroughly destroyed transit markets in the last 60 years, beyond repair. Our cities used to be fantastic, walkable, urban, uniquely "American." Government has wrought horrendous policies that are the source of all the problems that so many progressives today want to, for some reason, delegate to government to "fix."
My post was to IshootNikon about my A/C and heat habits, not to the South Carolina poster.
I don't think I blew him/her off [I thought the posts here's what your preferences should be were the type of posts you disliked?]; though I don't particularly care being told I wouldn't want to walk in heat & humidity. How does he/she know know my preferences? Maybe I'd rather be outside regardless of weather. Yes, my summers are much cooler than South Carolina but we do get hot days and weeks one summer that get their typical conditions.
Here's the post:
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Originally Posted by kamban
Try walking even half a mile in hot, muggy S. Carolina summer and you will be dehydrated and have a fainting spell or give it up and go by car the next time or order from Amazon.
and your response:
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Originally Posted by nei
Ugh; I hate the "you can't do this cause the weather posts". Yes the few days we get Deep South like heat & humidity I've walked. Do people really want to be shut inside all season? Seems like it
I see what you mean, but very few people "like" the hot, humid, muggy weather of the east coast, particularly beyond a few days.
I see what you mean, but very few people "like" the hot, humid, muggy weather of the east coast, particularly beyond a few days.
Yes, I remember the posts. I don't like hot & humid weather either; didn't say I did. I stop doing long bike rides (which I do a lot of normally in the warmer half of the year). But it's a half mile walk, not a workout. Just because one doesn't like the weather doesn't mean I'd want to be inside.
My post was to IshootNikon about my A/C and heat habits, not to the South Carolina poster.
I don't think I blew him/her off [I thought the posts here's what your preferences should be were the type of posts you disliked?]; though I don't particularly care being told I wouldn't want to walk in heat & humidity. How does he/she know know my preferences? Maybe I'd rather be outside regardless of weather. Yes, my summers are much cooler than South Carolina but we do get hot days and weeks one summer that get their typical conditions.
nei
When I wrote try walking in the heat of SC it was not specifically directed towards you. Rather, it was a general "we the people". Yes there are some who will run in the 115F Scottsdale heat ( I saw that when we visited in 2009 and for all you know you might be one of them ) but generally people do not walk, let alone run in 115F heat. Same with 95F SC heat with > 90% humidity. It is a recipe for disaster
I can assure you South Carolina does not get 95°F with 90% humidity at the same time. Nowhere in the US does; that's likely a physically impossible combination.
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