Several new major developments in my area have done this. They have underground parking for residents and businesses only and for everyone else you get 5 slots of street parking and nothing else.
The problem is that public transit in my city is horrible. It is expensive, unreliable, slow, and has poor service coverage. These developments are 100% completely inaccessible to me both by car and by transit unless I’m willing to blow away the next 4 hours busing there and back for what would be a 10 minute car ride.
Cars are a cancer on the world and I hate them as much as anyone else here, but cities must give proper alternatives if plans like this are to work properly. Slow, stinky buses that only come every 50 minutes and spend 80% of their time stuck in traffic help nobody and yet they are all our politicians are willing to provide.
I’d much rather they do away with votes for transit. There are never votes on road widening, new bridges, new interchanges, etc. But it always seems that transit must be put to a vote.
Taking away parking must be done while also providing alternatives, or you just have a bunch of homes and businesses that are inaccessible. This is especially the case if you want to integrate something like rail/tram access which has to have infrastructure considerations before construction even begins.
“Build now, “fix” later” is exactly how we ended up in the situation we’re in now where they just keep throwing more and more buses at the problem.
“We can’t reduce parking until alternative transportation infrastructure is perfect” is inevitably paired with “we can’t build alternative infrastructure because there’s no demand for it [because of too much free parking].” It’s a dishonest tactic by concern-trolling reactionaries and “moderates” (in the “great stumbling block” to progress MLK sense) to manufacture an excuse to do nothing, every single time.
I’ve been doing bike/ped/transit activist stuff for over a decade, and that’s the bullshit I’ve heard over and over and over and over. Y’all gotta stop falling for it!
You can’t though. People won’t let you raise taxes to pay for it unless it makes them absolutely miserable. Even with this move I’ll give it a 70/30 chance the municipal gov gets booted and minimums are reinstated.
Several new major developments in my area have done this. They have underground parking for residents and businesses only and for everyone else you get 5 slots of street parking and nothing else.
The problem is that public transit in my city is horrible. It is expensive, unreliable, slow, and has poor service coverage. These developments are 100% completely inaccessible to me both by car and by transit unless I’m willing to blow away the next 4 hours busing there and back for what would be a 10 minute car ride.
Cars are a cancer on the world and I hate them as much as anyone else here, but cities must give proper alternatives if plans like this are to work properly. Slow, stinky buses that only come every 50 minutes and spend 80% of their time stuck in traffic help nobody and yet they are all our politicians are willing to provide.
Taking away the parking is how you get alternatives. They won’t ever happen until the public is properly motivated to support them.
I’d much rather they do away with votes for transit. There are never votes on road widening, new bridges, new interchanges, etc. But it always seems that transit must be put to a vote.
Just build the damn thing and stop asking.
They put it to a vote because they don’t want to build it and are looking for an excuse not to.
Oh I’m well aware. It’s just very frustrating is all.
Yup. Perfect is the enemy of good. If you wait for everything to be just right, nothing ever happens.
Taking away parking must be done while also providing alternatives, or you just have a bunch of homes and businesses that are inaccessible. This is especially the case if you want to integrate something like rail/tram access which has to have infrastructure considerations before construction even begins.
“Build now, “fix” later” is exactly how we ended up in the situation we’re in now where they just keep throwing more and more buses at the problem.
“We can’t reduce parking until alternative transportation infrastructure is perfect” is inevitably paired with “we can’t build alternative infrastructure because there’s no demand for it [because of too much free parking].” It’s a dishonest tactic by concern-trolling reactionaries and “moderates” (in the “great stumbling block” to progress MLK sense) to manufacture an excuse to do nothing, every single time.
I’ve been doing bike/ped/transit activist stuff for over a decade, and that’s the bullshit I’ve heard over and over and over and over. Y’all gotta stop falling for it!
“Can’t do a congestion charge until…” Is another I’ve heard lately
You can’t though. People won’t let you raise taxes to pay for it unless it makes them absolutely miserable. Even with this move I’ll give it a 70/30 chance the municipal gov gets booted and minimums are reinstated.
Sounds fine. Buses aren’t perfect but they are flexible and don’t require much infrastructure (ideally, they have a dedicated bus lane).