Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be?

Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by mc on Monday July 27, 2009 @01:38AM (#725441)

Human travel.

You know those moving walkways (Trav O lators?) that they have in airports to speed up travelers?

I'd place those everywhere.

Want to go to the grocery store? Walk there in 5 minutes. Living in LA and need to visit SF for the weekend? Get off your ass and walk there.

The thing that bugs me most about cars, in addition to wasting gas, is that they're isolating devices. They prevent me from admiring scenery, meeting interesting people, and walking more often.

(This idea is more a revolution than a reinvention.)

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Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by ryanwaggoner on Monday July 27, 2009 @02:32AM (#725474)

Living in LA and need to visit SF for the weekend? Get off your ass and walk there.

Umm...what? Are these moving sidewalks going to travel at 50mph?

The thing that bugs me most about cars, in addition to wasting gas, is that they're isolating devices. They prevent me from admiring scenery, meeting interesting people, and walking more often.

Suggestion: ride the train. You can talk to people, admire the scenery, and walk around.

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Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by ersi on Monday July 27, 2009 @06:26AM (#725654)

I somehow think of the 'expressways' or whatever Isaac calls them in his book 'The Caves of Steel'. Basically just what you described, I think.

(They're some kind of walk-escalators that stretch all around towns, cross towns, cross land. Which you move onto the slower one, escalate your speed for the next strip, jump over to the next strip, etc. )

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Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by jrockway on Monday July 27, 2009 @02:56AM (#725508)

Want to go to the grocery store? Walk there in 5 minutes.

It's called a bicycle.

(It also makes it significantly easier to bring 50 pounds of groceries home; saving you from having walk there before every meal.)

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Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by david927 on Monday July 27, 2009 @03:28AM (#725543)

It's called a bicycle

No, it's called elimination of zoning laws.

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Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by jrockway on Monday July 27, 2009 @03:36AM (#725553)

This seems to be a problem with the suburbs. If you want to live within walking distance to the grocery store, move to somewhere within walking distance of the grocery store. I can walk to three (different chains), and take the L to one more. (I still take my bike, though, much easier!)

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Re:Ask HN: If you could 'reinvent' anything what would it be? by david927 on Monday July 27, 2009 @06:06AM (#725641)

I agree. If you get a chance, James Howard Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" is an interesting read about this and other travesties of modern architecture and infrastructure.

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