Now we have a set of existing conditions. Including a set of conditioned people, many of whom have arranged their life in light of those conditions.
I think where a lot of proponents of density go wrong is they ignore telling the story of how the transition will work (meaning “not suck”). It’s the urban planning equivalent of skipping step two and just writing down “3. Profit”
“It could all be better once we’ve completed these massive changes.” I agree that’s possible, but while a lot of people have existing conditions that they understand and are basically comfortable with (or even comforted by), I think proponents still have some convincing to do that “their way will be better” and a whole lot of convincing on “and here’s what that would look like in 2023, 2028, 2033, and 2038”.
“First we take away the parking and make these particular roads slower.” “Ok, then what?” “Then it’s ‘better’.”
Sure, it’s hard to get from A to B. But you can have plenty of incremental improvement along the way.
> “First we take away the parking and make these particular roads slower.” “Ok, then what?” “Then it’s ‘better’.”
Vancouver added a ton of protected bike lanes over a handful of years and doubled their bike mode share. It obviously made a big difference in how nice it was to bike there.
You generally don’t remove parking for nothing, you replace it with something else, like a bike or bus lane. Ideally, you have a coordinated plan, so that you don’t end up with one-off infra improvements that have little impact on the network as a whole.
I think where a lot of proponents of density go wrong is they ignore telling the story of how the transition will work (meaning “not suck”). It’s the urban planning equivalent of skipping step two and just writing down “3. Profit”
“It could all be better once we’ve completed these massive changes.” I agree that’s possible, but while a lot of people have existing conditions that they understand and are basically comfortable with (or even comforted by), I think proponents still have some convincing to do that “their way will be better” and a whole lot of convincing on “and here’s what that would look like in 2023, 2028, 2033, and 2038”.
“First we take away the parking and make these particular roads slower.” “Ok, then what?” “Then it’s ‘better’.”