The one thing it seems to be lacking, unless I’m missing it, is a “cost” variable. Since what we’d like to see and what we can afford to build are often very different, it would be nice to have a cost variable to play with!
My US city put one in in downtown. It would be fine should they have their own lane that bypassed traffic, but no thoughts were given to it’s actual implementation. They picked a loop path that goes from two lanes to one frequently. They simply placed the track on the road and kept car street parking on the other side. So you get the pleasure of waiting in traffic on the tram and the tram getting stuck because someone poorly parked their monster truck. Top that off with it was open 10am til 6pm when it first started, but downtown doesn’t have much going on during the day. They’ve changed times now but it barely scratches the surface of use issues. As someone fully for public transportation, this has been so poorly done it’s very frustrating. I do hope they have more fixes in the future.
Well, the shape of the wooden thing it’s been thought to provide shade at noon while allowing sunlight at dawn and dusk, while maximising the energy collected I think. Also there’s an underground terrace that it’s protected from rain by it, since it rains a lot here. Maybe it’s easier to visualise from the maps model: https://i.imgur.com/n2sQShx.jpg
Not very punk, but a step in the right direction I think. The garden it’s good enough to get some strawberries as a snack or complete your salad with a fresh tomato from time to time. Of course it would make much more sense to have all the surrounding park planted with vegetables… but it’s something.
I love the texture and purpose that visible mending gives things. It reminds me of kintsugi-- repairing ceramics with gold. It makes the object feel so much more special and loved. Like that thing has a history and a complex life story.
Different note: does anyone know if there is a visible mending community already on lemmy?
My city had a problem in a street near me where they planted the wrong type because the roots of the trees were popping up everywhere. They absolutely destroyed the sidewalk and every bit of concrete around them, as well as falling over during strong winds, to the point that one tree destroyed someone’s roof. Eventually the city cut down every last one tree along the entire street, and planted new ones.
People need to be careful with trees, they’re not a flower in a pot that in the worst case dies and you buy a new one. Besides the damage that was inflicted, the street looks terrible now with almost no shade and small trees that will take decades to grow to the point where the old ones were.
I’m thinking if it would be better to make sidewalks as boardwalks offset from the ground just a foot or so. Obviously in places where it’s possible, which is far from everywhere.
It’s hardly surprising that the roots will break through concrete or tiled pavements, so the question is really why we prioritise the concrete over the tree. Maintaining a boardwalk does seem more expensive at a first glance, but a concrete sidewalk isn’t maintenance free either. It just appears to be for a while, but eventually the trees and other plants will break through and frost will cause it to break it down too. A concrete sidewalk still only lasts 10-20 years in good conditions, and even shorter in places with frost or trees etc. I’ve seen perfectly fine concrete break down in less than 5 years.
Anyway, my point is that I believe it would make perfect sense to use other materials for sidewalks. Materials that would be better to coexist with plants and trees or be easier to modify to tree trunks and whatnot…
Overall I think proper sidewalks design is generally a completely underappreciated discipline. I miss the desirepath subreddit. There are soo many things that could easily be done better.
Exactly - also, cars are a symptom of a lack of urban planning but with remote work on the rise, car emissions will fall. I am hopeful that more communities will rise as a result as people live and work in the same place and get personal time back to invest in their surroundings
So even if we lump in commercial transportation with personal vehicles, it's still only 14% of ghg emissions or roughly half that of electricity generation.
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