Reply to D.C. needs to get a lot more car friendly

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are many European cities where you cannot bring your personal car into the downtown area or have limited schedules where it's allowed, as measures to reduce rush hour congestion, improve safety, improve air quality and promote bicycling, pedestrian and mass transit.  They've been doing it for decades.  And they are not "cratering" as a result.[/quote]
This is false. [/quote]

Yeah this is only a very recent phenomenon in Europe and there are only a handful of cities that have tried it. And honestly, because of Europe's superior public and mass transport systems, there are many cities that will never do it because they just don't have to -- they have the infrastructure and public buy-in for car alternatives, so they can permit cars wherever, and they still won't be the preferred means of transportation for most people.

Thinking about Ghent, where I spent a summer a few years back. Everyone there commutes by bike and those who don't use the buses. The end. I knew people with cars but they were used to drive to the countryside on weekends. Brussels is a short 14 euro train ride away and from there you can get to any major city in Europe, either by train or air. There is just no need to be car dependent and people are so accustomed to bikes that it feels extremely normal and easy, not daunting or scary like it is for many Americans. Me included! I was very intimidated by bike culture there and even though I like riding my bike, I walked and took the bus around town because I felt overwhelmed by the bike commuters. If I lived there long term I'd acclimate though. Three months was not enough time to feel comfortable.[/quote]

The US needs more mass transit options as well.  And we need to get away from the suburbia model of building inefficient cookie cutter subdivisions that don't have sidewalks and you couldn't even walk to the nearest store, restaurant, school or amenity if you wanted to - and where many of those are clustered in ugly strip malls.  NoVA and MD have tons of that.  Instead we need more town-center type development and more pedestrian, bicycle and mass transit friendly development in the suburbs.[/quote]

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