Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by Tor3 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:09AM (#18014499)

I was visiting a customer site near Miami, some years ago. I opted for not renting a car, I could easily go to the customer's site by taxi. But then some components got stuck in customs, and I had to stay the weekend. It turned out that the hotel was its own enclave if you didn't have a car! I couldn't walk to the shopping mall, or a nearby restaurant, I tried everything. Just couldn't get there. It was like being in a Kafka novel. Nightmarish, and utterly unnecessary.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by m_mueller on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:46AM (#18014772)

You mean there were no sidewalks?

That's the thing, often in the US I felt very boxed into a place, simply because I couldn't just do a Cartman and 'go home' (or someplace else).

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by AstralStorm on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:56AM (#18014836)

It is probably more than a few miles to get anywhere which makes what in EU would be a simple walk into an expedition.

Reminder: originally one (Roman) mile was a measure of thousand paces, while a Dutch, Russian and such miles were related to an hour of marching. (later rescaled in feet)

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by ghaff on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @11:00AM (#18015871)

You definitely have areas that are not designed for walking at all. I've been in a situation where I could see a shopping mall and restaurants from my hotel across a busy multi-lane road and there was literally no way to get there on foot.

That said, it's not the US vs. everywhere else. For example, the UK has lots of charming little villages where you can walk to the pub and a few stores. Once you get out of the village though, some public footpaths notwithstanding, you're mostly talking very narrow roads with no shoulders, much less sidewalks, and no real way to walk off the road.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by m_mueller on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @11:12AM (#18015960)

In Switzerland one of the things we'd learn in primary school age was to walk roads without sidewalks - always on the left side such that incoming cars are in front, and by paying lots of attention and walking in single file. Since cars expect at least cyclists anywhere they generally should be mindful of slow traffic.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by hfdgiutdryg on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @11:43AM (#18016212)

I could see a shopping mall and restaurants from my hotel across a busy multi-lane road and there was literally no way to get there on foot.

This is almost exactly the situation described by Bill Bryson in I'm a Stranger Here Myself. I believe he wanted to visit the shops across the street while his wife was at a mall and there was effectively no way to get there without a car.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by Tor3 on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @04:15AM (#18022670)

There were sidewalks, but only for a limited range around certain landmarks (malls, hotel, etc). I managed to cross an eight-lane street, but that section (with malls) was also closed off to the next 'island' (i.e. the sidewalk stopped. There were some car-only tunnels here and there also.) All those islands, and only cars could go between them. Yeah, quite similar to what poster @ghaff described in a post below.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by m_mueller on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @04:26AM (#18022721)

That's just nuts. You'd think that there are at least state-level regulations to have sufficient sidewalks, car culture or not. I mean at some point it's a health and safety issue (when you can't even get to the doctor's office across the street).

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by hannasanarion on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:07AM (#18014490)

It's because of the geography. Southern California and Arizona especially were impossible to live in until after Air Conditioning became cheap and widespread in the 1950s. At that time, modernism in architecture and city planning was at its peak: build it big, build it simple, and build it for cars.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by dfee on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:01AM (#18015364)

This thread is filled with strange ideas. I live in San Diego. I know people who don’t have air conditioning, and they’re fine. The weather is mild unless you get 15-20 miles off the coast, and then it’s still not that bad 90% of the time.

Where did you get this idea?

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by danans on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:16AM (#18015492)

A lot of the post WWII building in Southern California was in areas 15-20 miles inland where A/C helped, i.e parts of OC and the inland empire.

Much of the this was spurred by the aerospace and oil industries.

Even in LA itself, the urban heat island effect is enough that many homes have A/C.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by djrogers on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:34AM (#18015662)

Southern California? There are tons of places in LA and San Diego where AC is entirely optional and often not installed. 72 and sunny is a stereotype for a reason...

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by hfdgiutdryg on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @11:44AM (#18016221)

Those places are limited to a strip running along the coastline.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by village-idiot on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:14AM (#18014540)

The good news is that droughts will forcefully solve this problem in places like Arizona and SoCal. The bad news is that droughts are coming.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by bryanlarsen on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @09:45AM (#18015225)

Desalinization is expensive compared to pumping water out of the ground, but it's dirt cheap compared to ubiquitous air conditioning and/or depopulating cities.

The coming droughts will affect agriculture, but not the cities.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by strictnein on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:24AM (#18015578)

California is the ultimate example of car dependency. There are many, many other places to live in the US that aren't like that.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by Keyframe on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:48PM (#18017512)

Of course, that's why I've mentioned California explicitly. Mentioned Texas is similar, and is also notable for my only time when I saw a car tire explode due to the heat.

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Re:Life in the Spanish city that banned cars by hfdgiutdryg on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @11:45AM (#18016232)

California has the better "car culture", but Texas or Arizona has to take the cake for car dependency.

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