urbanists.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
We're a server for people who like bikes, transit, and walkable cities. Let's get to know each other!

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“Back in 2017, if you wanted a car that cost less than $20,000, you had 11 options. [In] March of 2023, and that list had been narrowed to only two. The average price of a new car is currently more than $48,000, up 30 percent over the last three years.”

Cars are now for the rich. Cities that support car-free living will be the winners.

jalopnik.com/new-cars-cost-mor

Jalopnik · New Cars Really Are Just for Rich People NowBy Collin Woodard

@markstos watch road agencies, particularly in major cities, double down on their "safety project" bullshit. Sitting there with what they think are shovel-ready plans to adorn cars-first designs with too narrow sidewalks and flashing lights, because they don't see more kids using the unmarked crosswalk on a 5 lane stroad to "warrant" some more significant reduction in car traffic or speed.

@enobacon I don't put traffic engineers in the box. Folks I work closely here in the City of Bloomington, Indiana are often car-free, car-lite or at least understand how cars relate to livable cities and the changing climate. The state agency here, INDOT, has historically been more car-oriented but at least here lately is helping fund and install some bike/ped infra along the roads they are responsible for.

@markstos do you have a complete low-stress bike network where 8yo kids can ride on their own, OR do you have yellow centerline stripes on 22ft of asphalt with a ditch on either side, no sidewalks or bike lanes, vanishing bike lanes at intersections where a left-turn pocket appears, flashing beacon maybe, etc? It's not enough to understand, or even be car-free if they adhere to cars-first-always-only standards where it counts, serving cars 24x7. Engineers need to own that or lose the capital E

Mark Stosberg

@enobacon Bloomington, IN is LAB Gold certified bike friendly city, working on Platinum. Yes, a 10 year old can safely ride downtown to the library, at least from my place. One of the traffic engineers here is part of a car-free family of four. Pretty sure he gets it.

@markstos nice. Triple the population and you will crack the list of top 100 cities. IDK if that total population and vmt / car buying per capita / average spend per car... has the interest of automakers enough (vs the long tail of rural US VMT) to put a thumb on the scale or is it just the nature of bad mayors and their handlers who own parking garages downtown. There probably is some political bike-ability magic in mid-sized cities but Portland Oregon is being held hostage in their cars.