Subj : Re: 3.5 weeks to being la
To   : Vk3jed
From : boraxman
Date : Thu Aug 11 2022 23:31:31

 Vk>  bo> We've gotten so used to cars and roads, we don't realise how much the
 Vk>  bo> have taken away from us.  Right in front of our house, are rivers of
 Vk>  bo> black which are too dangerous for children to be near or on, and we a
 Vk>  bo> stuck to walking the edges, having to carefully navigate our way acro
 Vk>  bo> them to access our neighbours.  The cars drone day and night, and in
 Vk>  bo> some cases, the rivers are so large and wide that those across as are
 Vk>  bo> barely accessible.
 Vk> 
 Vk> It's particularly obvious in major shopping centres.  Ever notice how
 Vk> hostile many are to pedestrians, leaving them to run the gauntlet in car
 Vk> parks or at entrances?

Indeed I have.  A new centre near where I live has a large carpark out the front of the entrance, which you have to walk along the carpark to get it.  There really isn't any good way to get into it from the road.  It looks like a massive box in the middle of the carpark.  There really isn't anywhere for people to congregate which isn't by cars.

I compare this to the old Moonee Ponds Market, which fronted a street, and the carpark was on the other side of the main road.  There were more accessways to it.  The place wasn't an island in the middle of a car park and it was integrated with the surrounding urban area.  The new one near my place is in the middle of nowhere.  There is nothing across the road, nothing nearby, detached from everything else.


 Vk>  bo> Walking some European cities, like the centre of Amsterdam is a
 Vk>  bo> delight. People can walk freely, mingle, socialise and meander at wil
 Vk>  bo>  The car in these spaces, if it is there, is a second class citizen.
 Vk>  bo> These areas are for US, people, humans.  Car based cities by comparis
 Vk>  bo> seem hostile, inhuman, we are guests there, barely belonging.
 Vk> 
 Vk> Those European cities sound totally delightful places. :)
 Vk> 
 Vk>  bo> I've been tempted to make the move to a smaller town, but alas it is
 Vk>  bo> difficult in my profession.  I cannot really work from home, and the
 Vk>  bo> places I can work are in the big smoke.
 Vk> 
 Vk> When we moved, I was working remotely anyway, so no big deal.
 Vk> 

One design I liked, was having a town square which was pedestrian only.  Shops and restaurants would front the square, and the roads may be behind the shops.  This created an enclosed space free of cars.

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