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A comment on People work longer and different hours under lockdown. Parent comment

Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by chiefofgxbxl on Sunday August 09, 2020 @02:47PM (#24101859)
Except that cars have influenced the way we build towns and cities: separate everything by non-walkable, non-busable distances because the basic assumption is that everyone has a car.

Public transit "sucks" for a number of reasons, many of them car-related: (-) buses have to share roads with cars, so they have to put up with the congestion they are trying to solve, (-) money that would have been spent on public transit is being spent on road expansions to "solve traffic", and others.

> cars are the worst solution except for all the others.

This doesn't explain cities that have successful public transit systems...

We wouldn't have built our offices and homes so far from each other if the expectation was to walk/bike/bus everywhere.

Unfortunately this is a chicken-and-egg problem, where things may need to get worse temporarily for things to get better.

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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by closeparen on Sunday August 09, 2020 @07:23PM (#24103810)
Which public transit system enables the median earner to own a 2,400sqft single family detached house on a quarter acre in a socioeconomically homogeneous school district?
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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by kqr on Monday August 10, 2020 @12:38AM (#24105606)
No system of any kind allows that. With public transit, you pay for it in personal discomfort and rigidness of schedule. With personal automobiles, you simply externalise the negativities – but there's still a huge cost, only no longer paid by the individual.
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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by rtlfe on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:10PM (#24116522)
> the median earner to own a 2,400sqft single family detached house on a quarter acre in a socioeconomically homogeneous school district

Why would that be the goal?

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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by iateanapple on Sunday August 09, 2020 @07:23PM (#24103809)
> This doesn't explain cities that have successful public transit systems...

Do these cities simply have terrible private transit options?

I don’t know anyone who would prefer to take public transport except in cities with poor car infrastructure.

I do know lots of people who would rather walk or bike to work.

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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by devdas on Sunday August 09, 2020 @09:47PM (#24104685)
You have to explicitly optimise the city for public transit. Quite a lot of European cities do that.
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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by iateanapple on Monday August 10, 2020 @03:55AM (#24106682)
> You have to explicitly optimise the city for public transit. Quite a lot of European cities do that.

Even in those cities very few enjoy taking public transport - and would drive if they had free parking, didn’t have to pay tolls, didn’t think it was terrible for the environment, etc

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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by rini17 on Monday August 10, 2020 @03:58AM (#24106703)
This is not true, driving in european cities is stressful (narrow streets with irregular layout, high density of pedestrians/cyclists, not enough parking places). The public transit, when done right, is way more convenient.
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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by rtlfe on Monday August 10, 2020 @10:15PM (#24116549)
> would drive if they had free parking, didn’t have to pay tolls, didn’t think it was terrible for the environment, etc

So basically your argument is that people would drive if it weren't terrible in every way? By that logic, people would eat plutonium... if only it were more available, tasted good, and didn't kill you.

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Re:People work longer and different hours under lockdown by devdas on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @08:28AM (#24131330)
That would still make things worse, because cars need roadspace. Getting rid of the road space for cars and making public transit good enough is a pretty good solution.
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