It is unconscionable that a city of 900,000 people has a downtown that's essentially a parking lot. (Columbus, OH) pic.twitter.com/xJsMSOByKd
— Hayden Clarkin (@the_transit_guy) September 7, 2022
Eye Popping thread from Hayden Clarkin, (@the_transit_guy).
50% of ALL the surface area of Downtown Tulsa is dedicated to streets or surface parking. At some point, you knock down and build so much parking there's no reason to park there anymore. 50%… wow. pic.twitter.com/ouSeO06tEn
— Hayden Clarkin (@the_transit_guy) July 18, 2022
You know what this neighborhood needs? Surface parking lots. A TON of surface parking lots. And a big highway cutting right through it. Now *this* is progress. 1955 vs 2022 pic.twitter.com/s7N3c0y5wZ
— Cycle Cbus (@CycleCbus) June 6, 2022
Below, Columbus in 1900.
Note streetcar and tracks.
Looking at the intersection of High Street and Broad Street, circa 1900 (colorized)
— Cycle Cbus (@CycleCbus) September 4, 2022
From the Library of Congress https://t.co/kSbvDt7Pef pic.twitter.com/WCrgbAtexk
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/08/world-on-brink-five-climate-tipping-points-study-finds
The US mindset is so very thoroughly car based that this will be very hard to change. So much needs to change that it will take many decades.
It is however entirely doable. It just requires the political will to start. Once the benefits start to emerge there will be less resistance.
I loved public transit when I was young, and used commuter rail for my first job out of college, but back then working from home wasn’t much of an option, so my next jobs had me commuting by car.
I’m an old, and I’m too fond of the freedom my private car gives me to give it up. Even after I quit driving myself I’ll depend on regularly cleaned, roach-free automated time-shared cars or hire someone to start Driving Ms. Ditzy.
There is a good song about this problem: Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi
Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone?