“Lots” of American cities seems like an exaggeration.
Some American cities have certain areas which are car-free.
Comment on The American mind cannot comprehend this
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 months agoThere are lots of American cities with large open-air commercial areas which are car-free.
For example, the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade.
Which has a farmer’s market.
yiliu@informis.land 8 months ago
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
How many European cities are 100% car-free?
dragontamer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Wasn’t Paris’s speed limit set to like 15mph?
Multiple cities in Europe are becoming ‘Walking First’ cities where cars are effectively 2nd class.
Alborlin@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not car free but i can definitely tell you there is possibility to walk, public transit in MOST of EU cities. Starting from Scandinavia, almost any city with pop , 10k or more will have generally bus transport, and probable connectivity to nearest big city by train/bus, big cities have metro (Stockholm) that I know of Germany has vast network of rail(although it’s schisse at moment with DB) , within cities its bus , that I know of . France almost any big city will have bus, tram and/or metro and long distance trains Same for spains cities , Netherlands is famous for its Public transport This is from what I know
Cars are severely slow and given less prio in these countries, in any of big city e.g. Barcelona, Paris, Hague, you can see you can go faster by public transportation or almost same time as car for same destinations , check it out in Google maps with comparisons
dragontamer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Spain has 195mph trains as well connecting huge swaths of the country. I fortunately was able to experience this.
The American concept of a “road trip” is just not the same in Europe. The Trains are far faster than your car would ever go. No reason to putter around at 80mph on a fast American highway when Europe just has faster modes of transit.
dragontamer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Oh I’ve been to New York and the Wash DC Smithsonian, likely the two best public transit systems in the USA. BART in San Fran also is fine.
But I’ve also gone to Madrid, Tokyo and some other cities around the world. There’s no comparison. Best in the USA is closer to average of Europe, while average of USA is pretty bad public transit wise.
Ex: I’ve also gone to big cities like Nashville, Manilla Philippines, Los Angeles where things are closer to bus-only.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
And yet plenty of American cities still have large, car-free areas.
dragontamer@lemmy.world 8 months ago
But all cities are car-first designed. As opposed to European model where cars are actively being de-prioritized on a city level.
bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Moreso cities on the west coast are more car centric. East coast cities predate cars by quite a bit. Sure many east coast cities modified themselves to accommodate cars, but their layout originally was suited for walking and horse travel.