But why not? Rural areas cover a much smaller expanse of travel space. Wouldn’t it be easier to build an alternate transport system in an area of a few miles versus the large expanses of the big city. The funding might be tricky but it’s not impossible.

You may have read it, but you clearly didn’t understand it. You’re jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions left, right and center.

Any city supports effective mass transit, because it will have to. Our continued survival on this fucking planet depends on not depleting our natural resources on frivolous things such as driving cars out of convenience and complacency.

Well, no, they wouldn’t, because “screeching halt” is exactly what they’ve come to right now, and they’ve been in that state for decades, and it will only get worse and worse unless drastic measures are taken.

Why do you live 15 miles from work?

Typical trollish forum poster.

what doesn’t work about building small towns in a way that favors walking-distance to all things? why is that nonsense?

this isn’t true and hasn’t been for a very long time. decades.

It is wildly inefficient and incredibly infuriating. Have you noticed how every car you’re stuck in gridlock traffic with has one person in it? Its ridiculous. And yes, off all the shitty options, its the least shitty. What the author is proposing is no longer accepting the shitty options and building a new and better…

Depends on what you mean by disabled. I’ve seen more than one person missing part or all of a leg biking. People with balance issues use tricycles. There are handcycles. And electric assist is no big deal — downsizing the battery to bicycle size gets rid of most of the charging problems that cars have.

How close do you think you need to be? Six miles is not too bad on a bike (it is my commute). NYC, Boston, and SF, that’s still damn expensive; the other half of the picture not addressed in this article is getting rid of snob zoning and allowing greater density closer in. (Do note, a stone’s throw from where I sit at…

Then the place where you live is likely not going to do a ban of private vehicles entering the city limits. But the building up of public transportation infrastructure in cities around the country would eventually find its way out there, possibly bringing things like a passenger rail stop, more inter-city bus lines…

The cost of an immense public transportation infrastructure that would completely replace cars and allow people to use personal transportation that much would still be cheaper than what is currently spent on cars. But you don’t need that. You barely need ANY replacement for a car. You do need your community to adapt…

If 70% of poeple will live in cities within a decade or two, then banning cars within cities would make an ENORMOUS difference for all people - lowering emissions from cars by about 70% would benefit us all. And as the need for a car is downgraded, more smaller towns would work to implement infrastructure to make it…

Which is addressed in the article by raising building height limits and converting some parking lot and road space to housing, bringing the cost of city living down. It's not like the author is suggesting we all pack up and fuck off with cars tomorrow - the time line described is consistently around the 50 year mark,…

Steps to being that guy:

And, as the author points out, part of the reason living close to work is so expensive is that in cities such as LA 14% of land is set aside for parking cars.

Maintenance on your car, depreciation, and buying it outright are all also costs you bear. Add those in, plus having a likely smaller house with less of a yard, and most Americans could afford to live much closer in. Not all, but most.

Most of the time it’s because people aren’t doing the math. The insane car/insurance/gas payments are usually less than the difference in more expensive living combined with public transit.

If the United States relied more on bicycles, it could help in five ways. (1) Emissions (2) Reliance on foreign oil (3) less credit debit per citizen (4) obesity reduction (5) more people living within cities where they work instead of commuting in, revitalizing neighborhoods.