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A comment on What happens when a city bans cars from its streets?. Parent comment

Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by jandrese on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @04:31PM (#21275200)
The idyllic dream of vendors lugging their wares through the subway and city streets every day... When construction companies hire armies of people to walk individual I-beams through the city for every project... Where I get to haul my garbage a dozen blocks to the nearest accessible trash pickup location...

In the end you still need roads. You don't get to convert all of that space into a park even if you ban cars.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by username90 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @07:07PM (#21277033)
You can ban cars but still allow cargo trucks to drive through pedestrian streets, that is what Zurich in Switzerland does. People and cars can share space just fine if the cars are few and slow enough.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by hutzlibu on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @10:51PM (#21278510)
"You don't get to convert all of that space into a park even if you ban cars. "

Not all the car space maybe, but lots if it.

You don't need parking spaces anymore. No more than 2 lanes for most roads ... that sums up very big.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by dan_quixote on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:15PM (#21275816)
Meh, just watch how construction happens in the central district of any European city. It's not as simple as just backing a flatbed up to the door, but they get by just fine.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by jcranberry on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:21PM (#21276611)
They do, with roads. The point GP was making that it's not feasible to convert roads into bowers.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by johnday on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:31PM (#21276714)
On the other hand, it would be feasible to convert roads into normally-pedestrianised areas, which you need a permit or a one-day pass to drive through.

There are numerous city centres in the UK which use this method. The central portion of Canterbury, Kent, is a great example.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by jdc on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @09:16PM (#21278035)
And you could probably do with only one lane.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by jcranberry on Thursday October 17, 2019 @09:45AM (#21281976)
Yeah, that sounds great. The amount and size of roads (and parking space) definitely can be reduced dramatically. Although I imagine this would be a massive endeavor for cities whose urban planning has been based entirely around driving/people owning cars.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by Al-Khwarizmi on Thursday October 17, 2019 @04:01AM (#21279871)
Another alternative is allowing driving only at certain times, for example in Spain (and I guess in other places too) it's common to have pedestrianized areas with a few hours (say, from 8 to 10) where vans are permitted to enter for loading and unloading.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by zpallin on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:33PM (#21276735)
That's not at all necessary. Redesigning roadways into pedestrian areas does not have to exclude utility and construction equipment, just traffic.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by opportune on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:28PM (#21276692)
I agree we will still need roads in the foreseeable future, probably the rest of our lifetimes, but it’s not out of the question for materials to dropped into a construction site using drones. Maybe even entire prefabbed buildings or segments of buildings

There are significant benefits to this approach other than not having to use roads, but of course the tech isn’t there yet

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by journalctl on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:41PM (#21276795)
I mean this really nicely: it is 100% out of the question for entire buildings or even just materials to be dropped into a construction site with drones. Also, how are you going to get large digging equipment in? Or things like wrecking balls?
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by opportune on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:57PM (#21276938)
Something like an Ibeam could, it would just require something closer in size/larger than a helicopter. A 50 foot Ibeam is a bit over 2 tons; a small modern military helicopter would be able to carry that easily. When I say drone I just mean a remotely controlled copter-thing, not specifically a small one.

An entire building is less feasible unless it is small, but it could be done using modular components

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by ericd on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @11:09PM (#21278587)
If building costs go way up, so do rents for normal people (and less gets built). Just something to consider.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by abduhl on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @11:31PM (#21278684)
For building construction that is substantial, a 50 foot wide flange section is probably going to be 1.5 to 4 times heavier than your 4000 lbs, in my experience.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by benj111 on Thursday October 17, 2019 @02:51AM (#21279534)
Are we discussing this as a hypothetical, or as a practical building method?

Plus I don't really want my town to sound like the set of Apocalypse Now.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by bluescrn on Thursday October 17, 2019 @04:03AM (#21279877)
Fleets of large and noisy helicopters hauling cargo over a city all day sounds way worse than regular road traffic...
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by Dylan16807 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @09:56PM (#21278264)
It's a waste of money but it is not at all "100%" out of the question. If you're willing to pay for the extravagance of air travel, you can make it happen. There are many many people and organizations capable of paying it.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by arpa on Thursday October 17, 2019 @11:24AM (#21283027)
The main drawback i see straight away is the vastly different failure modes: trucks' engine gives out, the truck stops. Not much potential for damage in most scenarios. Drones' engine gives, and you have tonnes falling out of the sky. Very dangerous in most scenarios.
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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by Robotbeat on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @10:49PM (#21278504)
Do it with tunnels.
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[dead]
Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by jcranberry on Thursday October 17, 2019 @09:42AM (#21281935)
>My dream is that one day most streets in Manhattan will be closed to car traffic and replaced with green space full of trees, flowers, children playing, and usable public space.

This is the hypothetical that GP responded to by saying it's not realistic...so you're acting like he was the one who constructed a straw man argument when he was making a reasonable point directly relevant to what another poster said.

If there's any hysteria in this conversation it's from your unreasonable response.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by Symbiote on Thursday October 17, 2019 @04:45AM (#21280067)
Actually, where it can work, London may restrict a new development to having a certain proportion of its materials delivered by rail or water.

This might require restoring or even constructing a jetty or small siding. Any cost is balanced against the disruption and danger of taking many large vehicles through residential areas.

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