Originally Posted by
Digger Goreman
I'm all for car-free cities... and don't think the oil + car industries will yield. Might they be behind (some of) the protests? Who knows? Power yields nothing without a fight....
Might be as interesting to speculate which will be the last city to go car free....
I recently posted to “So what's your beef with Multi-Use Pathes?”:
Originally Posted by
drlogik
There was a time not all that long ago when there were no bike paths, bike lanes or dedicated "exercise paths". We have it good now, really good....
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
10+ to that assessment. ...
Historically, back in the 19th century when cycling was a new, innovative mode of transportation, advocates like the League of American Wheelman were powerful enough to agitate for better roads, as Multi-Use Pathes, with the horses and pedestrians
Originally Posted by League of American Bicyclists: Mission and History:
The League was founded as the League of American Wheelmen in 1880. Bicyclists, known then as “wheelmen,” were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians
.
In an effort to improve riding conditions so they might better enjoy their newly discovered sport, more than 100,000 cyclists from across the United States joined the League to advocate for paved roads. The success of the League in its first advocacy efforts ultimately led to our national highway system.
https://www.bikeleague.org/content/mission-and-history
Then the automobile came along and new advocates could further agitate for even more and better roads, and cars became the predominant and overwhelmingly powerful users.
So now in these days I think it is unlikely that cyclists’ desire for an extensive segregated (and likely costly) bike system that serves many destinations will ever be fulfilled, unless:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
"The Breakdown of Nations"
...This variation of "Small is Beautiful" sounds like the feudal system of the Middle Ages, that arose during the Dark Ages after the Fall of the big, bad Roman Empire...maybe a post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" scenario.
Originally Posted by
FiftySix
I was thinking the same thing about ancient nation states. Then there was the unification of Germany and the unification of Italy in the 1800s, too.
Mad Max is about right, or The Walking Dead. The population of the world would have to be cut drastically to go back to nation states, IMO.
Now, maybe moving to a small country in today's world would achieve the desired effect?]
Originally Posted by
El Cid
If America was absolutely going to have a carfree city, I would bet on Detroit.
Everyone with enough money to move will be long gone, and the bankrupt city will look like a post-apocalyptic war zone.
Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
…I have to think that El Cid's imagination on the future first car free city is more reality based then this "stuff" from the NYU eggheads.
Last edited by Jim from Boston; 04-25-20 at 04:17 PM.
Reason: added quotes by El Cid and I-Like-to-Bike