Thursday, March 23, 2023

Unsafe At Any Speed

Even before we get to actual individual behavior (which isn't entirely independent)and whether that has somehow changed, the bigger and taller vehicles are just incompatible with pedestrians.

There was a time when I was a bit more optimistic that car dependency, and all of the various policies which necessitate it, was at least starting to trend in a better direction for various reasons. Pretty pessimistic now! Electric cars won't save us, kids.

I know "smug urbanist" has become an annoying online type, and I get that, but while I don't need to live in "Paris" or "New York" or even a major city of any kind, necessarily, I can't fathom living somewhere I can't walk or take a quick bus ride for most of my regular wants/needs.

When I was in LA recently, some old friends had a party so we went. We were staying in DTLA and their party was around Silver Lake somewhere. I actually had a car for some of the time I was there, but public transit from DTLA is actually pretty good, and it was a quick bus ride, so we took the bus.

That was seen as a very strange thing to do!