Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
If you drive a car into the city center of Oslo next month, you shouldn't plan on staying long: There won't be any parking spots.
The Norwegian capital is in the process of eliminating the remaining 700 street parking spots in its city center by the end of 2018 as part of its plan to turn the area into a car-free zone.
"We're doing this to give the streets back to the people," Hanna Elise Marcussen, Oslo's vice mayor for urban development, said during a recent phone interview. "And of course, it's environmentally friendly." (The Scandinavian country, recently recognized as one of the world's most ecologically progressive nations, has plans to become carbon neutral by 2030 and halt the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2025.)
And it's not just Oslo that is turning away drivers. Popular tourist destinations across the globe are removing cars from heavily trafficked areas to reduce congestion, cut down on pollution, and make streets more welcoming to bikers and pedestrians.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @04:34PM (19 children)
Heaven forbid if you have medical issues and can't walk or run. Or not feeling well, or in a hurry...
Eventually this will backfire and will cause more harm than good. The streets belong to cars, not pedestrians. The pedestrians are there just to slow down traffic, jump in front of cars and cause accidents. The pedestrians should walk on a bridge on top of the streets built specifically for them, where they can enjoy their walk and look at the scenery and smell exhaust fumes.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 26 2018, @04:57PM (18 children)
Roughly 3, maybe 4 generations of Americans, and Euros, who live in large towns and cities, have accepted that as fact. Only 5 generations back, even in major cities, the streets belonged to pedestrians, horses, street vendors, children playing, and all the rest of normal, everyday people. The attitude never has become universal. In poorer countries, those backwood third world countries, automobiles are much rarer than they are in the US. Instead of every family owning a car, there may be a car in the village, or not. A medium large town might have a half dozen cars. Watch videos of many places in Asia, and there are few cars on the streets. The majority of street traffic is bicycle, moped, scooter, motorcycle, all accompanied by buses and trucks, both large and small.
Scandinavian countries are rather wealthy, and they can probably afford cars just as easily as any American, but they don't seem to want, or need them.
If you have medical issues, and you can't walk or run, maybe you need a wheelchair. Manual, or electric, a wheelchair can take you just about anywhere, just about as fast as most people can walk. And, I suspect that buldings are accessible anywhere in those northern countries. They were probably accessible long before we mandated accessibility here in the US.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by legont on Wednesday December 26 2018, @05:46PM (1 child)
While I am all for no cars cities, I can't help noticing consequences.
For example, people will get disability papers to drive electric wheelchairs galore. One just have to visit any large event to see it.
Bicycles would have to be heavily regulated. Currently Singapore criminalizes bicycle hacking and all bikes are sealed by the government.
Basically, people would have to give up more personal freedom and privacy to implement such restrictions because the technology to break it is easily available.
Perhaps, a better approach is to have less city regulations which would make leaving in them unbearable for most and naturally push people countryside. Yes, it is more expensive. but arguably more enjoyable. Let's go back to city ghettos mixed with ultra rich dwellings?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 26 2018, @09:10PM
Nah, it does a pretty good job of keeping the idiots away from me. Anyone living in a big city voluntarily has made some really incomprehensible life choices.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @07:14PM (3 children)
As someone who actually does have medical issues that make walking difficult, I assure you I am not about to start using a wheelchair one moment earlier than I absolutely have to. It's probable that I will end up in one in time as I age, but I will forestall that event as long as possible.
So instead of using a wheelchair to get to some city center that won't let me use a car to get as close as possible to my destination, I simply won't go at all. Congrats, now all you normal people won't have to look at very many of us handicapped people in your glorious new pedestrian paradise.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @07:19PM
Awesome. None of us wanted to see your sagging, wrinkled baby-boomer ass anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @08:59PM (1 child)
That's wise, there's a reason why they still sell canes and walkers. It's less than ideal to use those, but it is far better than moving directly to a wheelchair or scooter.
(Score: 1) by NateMich on Thursday December 27 2018, @01:59AM
You're suggesting a cane or walker to someone as a means to get around an entire city?
No, this entire idea will just lead to people never going to that city, which is probably what the people proposing these ideas actually want anyway.
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Wednesday December 26 2018, @07:50PM
I know a couple (two doctors) that got permission to have a second car as they might both get called at the same time.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 26 2018, @08:13PM (1 child)
I suspect that buldings are accessible anywhere in those northern countries.
What, they offer tire chains for your wheelchair now?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 26 2018, @09:07PM
I'll put in a plug for Kenda tires here - it's what I run on my motorcycle. https://www.sportaid.com/wheelchair-tires-tubes-parts/wheelchair-tires/all-terrain-wheelchair-tires/ [sportaid.com]
https://www.unitedspinal.org/wheelchair-snow-tires/ [unitedspinal.org]
Sorry, don't see snow chains anywhere! But, you can get decent traction on almost any ice, other than black ice. What we Americans refer to as "black ice" only forms under certain conditions, which aren't prevalent that far north.
https://weather.com/science/weather-explainers/news/black-ice-winter-weather-explainer [weather.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 26 2018, @09:18PM (8 children)
It's worth noting at this point that Scandinavian countries are
Europe's wangvery, very small compared to the US. We have individual metropolitan areas that could cover more than an eighth of Sweden's entire land mass and it's the largest of the bunch.My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 26 2018, @09:26PM (2 children)
I thought the Wang was American? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Laboratories [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 26 2018, @09:48PM
We have one too. We just call it Florida.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday December 27 2018, @01:38PM
Wang [wikipedia.org] used to be a computer company.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 26 2018, @10:22PM (4 children)
Not as small as you think, in your braindead state. First of all, Sweden's landmass alone is around 420 000 km2(Yes, Sweden is larger than California). Second, Sweden has municipalities that are larger than some of your states, especially when you only factor land mass.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 26 2018, @11:04PM (2 children)
Precisely as small as I think. I checked its size and the sizes of some of our larger cities before I posted. The Los Angeles metropolitan area covered over thirty-three thousand square miles in 2010. It hasn't shrunk since then, I guarantee you. Sweden covers 173,860 square miles. That makes LA one fifth the size of Sweden, give or take some small change.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @12:08AM (1 child)
So you are illiterate then, or only capable of ideologically motivated selective reading:
US Census Bureau data:
Los Angeles Metropolitan Area(aka Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area) landmass: 12 562km2 (Which is just a a bit less than twice the size of the Stockholm Metropolitan Area)
What you're talking about is the megapolitan area, the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area (CSA), more commonly known as the Greater Los Angeles Area a megapolitan area consisting of three metropolitan areas, which includes Riverside, Ventura and San Bernadino.
Given that the latter is based primarily on commuting patterns, we'd have to do the same in Sweden, where daily commuting happens as far south as Linköping and as far north as Gävle, and all of the towns and cities around Mälaren, which would massively inflate the numbers until it becomes absurd(and if you include weekly or monthly commuting it becomes utterly ridiculous)
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday December 27 2018, @12:34AM
Call it by whatever name you like, it's still over thirty thousand contiguous square miles of city. And I was never comparing cities to cities. I don't particularly care how big your cities are. You can be city from one end to the other and it makes no difference. The point is you are tiny and we are large. You might get away with not owning a vehicle. It's not quite as easy when you can drive for over three thousand miles (five thousand kilometers if you prefer) in your nation without getting off the shortest route and without crossing an international border.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:39PM
Include Greenland, an icy wasteland, which is comparable to the interior wastelands of the US. Then the sizes are more comparable.