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A comment on Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars. Parent comment

Re:Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back fr... by CrackpotGonzo on Saturday August 06, 2016 @04:46PM (#12239838)
I think your problem is that you live in Hyde Park. It is quite isolated from the rest of the city. I agree with you that CTA should step up service to the south side, but living on the north side or west side you would much more easily live without a car. Source: lived on north and west sides for past 5 years and don't have/don't want a car.
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Re:Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back fr... by pessimizer on Sunday August 07, 2016 @01:53PM (#12242885)
It's both isolated and largely residential. Not a lot of large stores, just a lot of University of Chicago buildings. It's the most isolated place in Chicago where white people are willing to live. Source: 40 years old, born in Chicago, live in Chicago, attended Ray School and Kenwood, sister taught at UofC, never had a driver's license.

Also, Chicago is a designed garden city, enforced by zoning. It's largely and intentionally built up of huge residential arrays of city blocks, a half mile to a side, separated by boulevards where all businesses are packed. So, if you live in the middle of one of these blocks, it's 10-15 minutes of walking to see any business. If taking away drivable areas were accompanied by changes that allowed businesses to be built within those areas, like corner stores, I guarantee that groceries wouldn't be a half-hour away.

edit: that's what I get for reading comments before the article. Chicago is perfect for superblocks. It pretty much has them already.

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Re:Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back fr... by superuser2 on Saturday August 06, 2016 @06:51PM (#12240246)
I agree that there are places where this isn't a problem.

Taking the cars away from places like Hyde Park won't magically make it one of them.

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Re:Superblocks: how Barcelona is taking city streets back fr... by tbihl on Saturday August 06, 2016 @07:30PM (#12240362)
I can't speak to Chicago specifically, but the problem in tons of places is that there's enough of the transportation budget spent on roads that you can never achieve a decent level of service.
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