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MitGibs 🇬🇧 🇮🇲 🇪🇺

@stux
A bit disingenuous. Cars aren't our Evil Robot Overlords. We re-purposed the space to people.

People in horses and carts... and cars, and buses, and bikes, and trams.

It's where we are as a society. It wasn't always that way, it won't always be that way.

32 comments
ez

@mitgibs @stux

Cars are animals that borrowed humans for brains.

CO Dom

@ezchili @mitgibs @stux in that case, cars are the most economically contributing animal and we are the most dependent on it. It has defeated the horse, and so far no replacement is in sight, I think the biggest failure point of cars is the actual “brain”, the advanced primate driving this machine, multiplied by billions of other primates, will cause a significant amount of problems.

PaulYyz

@CODom @ezchili @mitgibs @stux Just to be very clear. Most people didn’t have a horse or have access to a horse. Cars defeated walkable cities, transit including intercity trains, bicycles and density.

CO Dom

@PaulYyz @ezchili @mitgibs @stux Comparing feudal times with modern capitalism is not a sensible thing to do in the first place, demand is still roughly the same, but supply improved a lot over the years.

PaulYyz

@CODom @ezchili @mitgibs @stux I don’t know where feudal entered the car conversation but for the past 100 years, cars have dominated North American development, planning and society. We live to support the automobiles appetite for space, energy, and human lives. I’ll leave this conversation as I need to DRIVE to my job. I didn’t always think this way but the #OrangePill has come for me.

CO Dom

@PaulYyz @ezchili @mitgibs @stux I’ve forgotten about the American side of this problem, here in Europe it’s much closer to the optimal car to non-car transport ratio, and considering this is a Swedish artist, I don’t think there is a lot you can do by anti-car policies here in europe.
Often I am quite shocked when I look at US cities on google maps and see the area designated for parking.

Alex Granford

@mitgibs @stux Absolutely this. Also another angle to drive people angry and upset about other people, even though we are one society and we won’t be able to maintain our living standards without transportation.

1 3₂+7

@alexgranford You claim that we won't be able to maintain standard of living without transportation, but cars are nowhere near the most space efficient, fast, or reliable form of transportation. The art shows how much public space where interactions and exercise and such have been given up to inefficient hunks of metal that low quality of life.

Alex Granford

@leet Next art would surely portrait someone appalled with cars, delivering few pallets of groceries to a local shop on a bike. Even if from a local train stop, not a logistics hub… Can’t wait.

1 3₂+7

@alexgranford This does not seem a bad thing, and you forget the idea of public transport, he might even get a special license to drive a truck or something safely to deliver the goods. The reduction of cars, not the abolition of transportation, mate.

Alex Granford

@leet No problem to use a car less if public transport allows us getting around. in fact we do already a lot, train to work, bus to school. But buses in rural England is a flipping disaster costing a fortune and almost never on time with an hour interval in between - between 7am to 10pm.

Also, same public transport and trucks will use the same road infrastructure and will keep pedestrians on pavements still. So that picture is very misleading and misguided, hence the challenge.

1 3₂+7

@alexgranford No, when there is a tram and a truck, you can still walk in the street. When there is 500 cars lined up and ready to hit you a 60mph, you can't. There is a big difference between a pedestrian city with services and a car hellscape where if you step out of a 1m area you die (only a slight exaggeration is some cities.)

Gambitpawn13

@leet @alexgranford This is the point of the drawing and the argument imo. Street infrastructure for thousands of cars is very different than for dozens of busses and daily deliveries to businesses.

Herma

@leet @alexgranford

Trams & pedestrians sharing the same space in Leidsestraat in Amsterdam
(Photo: Roeland Koning)

Alex Granford

@hermatenseldam @leet I go to Netherlands a lot on business, and while I never stop admiring their outstanding cycling infrastructure and culture, I am somewhat a bit afraid of cyclists when crossing busy streets in Amsterdam or Den Haag, where they can jump on you from anywhere, at any moment.
But I would agree with the overall notion, consider me half converted.

Herma

@alexgranford @leet
Alex, I know what you mean about cyclists in those cities. I used to be one of them. I always thought I was a nice cyclist, until I moved to a somewhat smaller and quite different city. The looks some people gave me 🤬Apparently I wasn’t so nice after all. I changed my behaviour (except when I’m in Amsterdam) 😇

Herma replied to Herma

@alexgranford @leet
Alex mentioned lack of public transport in rural England. I’m going to the UK quite regularly. My family in law live in a small English village. Public transport over there is horrible. I don’t drive a car, and I’m afraid to cycle there. I feel so dependent whenever I’m visiting. There are no shops, nearest bus stop is a few miles away and the bus schedule is irregular. I can walk a few miles, but I don’t feel safe walking along a busy road.

1 3₂+7 replied to Herma

@hermatenseldam @alexgranford Yeah, infrastructure really needs to be built up in places.

Sieva 🚴🚇🏙️🌹

@mitgibs @stux Maybe that's a clever way to put it, but it doesn't contradict the initial statement.

VAF

@mitgibs @stux i have an exemple for you. This the same place in Prague, before the cars there was public transport walkable streets and space for people. Now it's a place always filled with trafic. Cars will always be needed because public transport isn't suited for everything (ex:a remote village where 6 people live). U can greatly diminish cars in city thanks to public transport. AND NO we didn't re-purpose space We created a horrible place for cars.

1 3₂+7

@xVAF @mitgibs @stux
These are from different time periods with different tech and the scale of population difference in the city through the 2 pictures is immense. Also you claim public transit can't service a remote village, sure it can. A road is more costly to build than a train track. And the claim at the end doesn't make any sense.

1 3₂+7

@xVAF @mitgibs @stux
Wait, realize you were saying the inverse of what I thought you were, take what I said back. Whoops.
(except for the part about cars being necessary, that's wrong.)

VAF

@leet @mitgibs @stux yes public transport can service remote villages but there are some that just can't be serviced by it (villages in: mountains, hardly accessible places. Would like trains to fix everything but it's not possible). Cars are needed for all sorts of things (not everyone needs one), there are jobs that especially need one (plumber,electrician,ambulance,police) that isn't the bigger part of the population, it's like 5% of the cars on the streets, there is also disabled people.

1 3₂+7

@xVAF @mitgibs @stux
Inclines, monorail (not the kind your thinking of, see "youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6LKHNFpe"), and cable car are all solutions to this first problem, it doesn't just have to be trains, that was an example. Yes the disabled exist, yes motored wheelchairs exist. That one was easy. And finally you bring up services, yes, services need vehicles, but I, personally, believe that sticking them on tram lines is best to make them completely predictable, except ambulances, which I do not know.

1 3₂+7

@xVAF @mitgibs @stux For an ambulance you might use a car-type, or a little push cart you load on a tram/bus/rail. Something like that could work, though that I would leave to state medicare officials to know about. (by state I mean nation, not provincial, maybe municipal could work to help in weird situations like Quebec.)

VAF

@leet @mitgibs @stux Ambulances are made to quickly take care of people who need it. Disabeld people doesn't always use motored wheelchairs and sometimes they have to park the closest possible to a certain places. Sticking services to tram wouldn't work, it would create clocked up lines. Services also park the closest possible to a certain place because most of the time they need to take with them a lot of tools.

Goth Dino

@xVAF @mitgibs @stux there can be more of a proper balance in regards to cars and public transport. So far, that balance is overall improper, as illustrated and discussed. Other places could benefit plenty from more public transport, however funding and design goes against it. This also would create less hostile environments overall - the case now with the current layouts.
More focus on public transport would also help people like me, who cannot drive due to disability

Goth Dino

@xVAF @mitgibs @stux and when I say balance, there are too many places that should be putting public transport first, but don’t. Though people in the country who can’t drive should still have equal access. Car first transport makes it difficult for those, no matter the reason, who cannot drive

Ryan

@mitgibs @stux the problem is that the spaces in cities and towns that used to be for community with businesses, schools, homes and parks that were all walkable distances from one another are now roads and streets and parking lots. It hurts any sense of community you might have and makes poor people hurt because they need a car or public transportation in order to get anywhere. The entire model of a car-first city was built because of lobbying by car manufacturers.

Niklas Vanhainen

@mitgibs @stux Before cars took over, the streets were shared between pedestrians, carts, streetcars, etc. Now, we've surrendered most of our streets entirely and pedestrians are relegated to tiny areas called sidewalks. In some cities in the world (the US especially), there aren't even sidewalks and pedestrians are simply not welcome.

Pat Clements

@mitgibs @stux most of us spend our lives inside metal cages because it’s too dangerous even on the sidewalk. “Only the poor or the heroic will use the space outside our cars”

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