- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
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I have a friend that works in Texas and his IT department literally forced all their employees who have been WFH since COVID to start coming into the office 5 days a week again. So literally the opposite of what this article is stating. Companies need to be held liable for this shit, especially if they have infrastructure in place to easily adopt WFH.
Oh! They’re building more public transportation?
Texas is what happens when conservatives have unchecked power to govern. People governing on complex issues like climate science based on nothing but “gut instincts”
My gut instincts tell me that the people who are smarter than I am and actually checking out the cause of and what might happen because of global warming are probably at least 95% right about the things they say and the other 5% is just semantics.
If by"gut instincts" you mean “gets me paid”
It’s ok Abbott will reassure us it’s all nonsense and defund anything environmental before they can do anymore damage to the god fearing Texan minds that depend on his leadership.
Weren’t they supposed to use horses in Texas anyway? When did they switch?
We did, but OPs mom moved away.
I used to live in a very car dependent city and now I’m somewhere that I can easily walk or bike anywhere I need and get there within 15 minutes and I am very grateful for that. Our biking and public transport infrastructure keeps getting improvements, too, which is awesome.
If they want people to use their cars less they need to start making that an actual option. This is not on the individuals but the government.
People are pretty predictable ultimately, we take the path of least resistance most of the time. If it’s quicker or cheaper or easier to do something one way then we’ll do it that way.
I’m calling bullshit. Walking for 15 minutes puts you in a circle about 1-2 miles in diameter, a bike, maybe like 5-6 miles in diameter. You simply cannot pack every place you would want to regularly go to, into an area that small, and still have room for people to live unless you severely restrict your lifestyle and become a hermit, or live in Kowloon Walled City.
I appreciate your maths but you’d be pretty surprised how much stuff can fit in that area. I probably also live in a very ideal spot in my city, it’s certainly not the case for everywhere. I’m pretty much right between a suburb full of housing and our ‘nightlife’ area. And the inner city where I work is just next to that. I am not exaggerating that I can get to work on my (e) bike in 15 minutes. And there’s heaps of things in that area. It’s a big place, though, so sometimes I do need to get an uber but I often go weeks and months without needing to.
Rules for thee but not for me.
Maybe all should use 1 big ass monster truck with the biggest diesel engine they can find in it?
Also, can you guys cut back on the BBQ?
Yes. Please. Dispose of it all in some sort of pneumatic tube system that sends it straight to Canada please.
As a former Texas resident: The Texas government can fuck alllllll the way off with that. Design a city that doesn’t need cars and people won’t need to use them. Residents HAVE to use cars because the place is so fucking unfriendly to pedestrians.
As a fellow former Texas resident, I can confirm and endorse this statement.
The Texas government can fuck alllll the way off with that…and many other things cough cough women’s rights cough cough
As a pedestrian in one of the mentioned cities, this is accurate. We have an ok bus network but the schedules are terrible and getting around on foot is dangerous and it’s like 100 degrees out with 90% humidity. Very few people put up with it and literally no one will because of this.
Houston is one of the worst cities I’ve ever been to. Fuck you if you’re trying to walk anywhere, fuck you right in the heart. That includes if you’re walking to and from your
car.massive truckAlso fuck you are you trying to drive? You fucking crazy?
I’ve hated only a small number of cities I’ve visited. Denver comes to mind, Los Angeles, Wichita Kansas, and if you took all the hate I have for those three cities, injected it with hgh and heroin, it would be a small shadow on the wall for the pure unadulterated rage I have for Houston Texas.
Gary Indiana wasn’t as hostile. Fucking Ferguson during the protests wasn’t as hostile. And I saw a carjacking 10 minutes after stepping off the fucking plane thé last time I was there.
Fuck Texas. Give it back to Mexico.
I think you mean meth, not heroin. Heroin would have the opposite effect
I will very slightly disagree. You can live without a car in Houston in some areas so long as you work in the same area (or from home) or one nearby with bus service. I lived in the Montrose and could mostly walk/cycle to anything I needed.
That said, most places in Houston are going to be a lot more difficult for that or impossible. Had I lived that close to the job that moved me to Houston, it would have been in one of the higher-crime-rate areas and not good for walking.
Mexico doesnt deserve that burden, lets just burn it down and declare it a national park.
Unfortunately there are only a few cities where this is a reasonable ask in the United States, and none I know of are in Texas. Most are in colder parts of the country.
The Texas state government’s path forward here is to do what they can to pedestrianize and densify their cities, but that’s a long term project.
The Texas state government’s path forward here is to do what they can to pedestrianize and densify their cities, but that’s a long term project.
I know you probably didn’t mean it as them actually doing it, but good lord, that statement made me laugh. The governments in texas are so focused on bullshit that increases the problem. A friend just sent me an article his city put out with the headline “YY city is XX% developed, with plans to finish it out by year 20ZZ!” Their “finish it out” means removing 95% of the remaining greenspace and paving it with concrete businesses that have just enough plants to be aesthetically pleasing when the landscaper crew cuts it.
Shit, texas is literally trying to make “one more lane!” a constant thing. When I had to drive through any of their big cities, it’s just a massive construction sprawl, because as soon as they finish one section’s extra lane, they start on the next section.
Seriously. I had to drive through Texas a few months ago, and not only was I shocked at how you can have 6 lanes in both directions STILL being in bumper-to-bumper traffic with constant ‘construction zones’ that were adding another lane into the shoulder.
I wasn’t sure if the construction was to actually help, or just so they could charge double fines for speeding ALL the time.
They don’t want people driving cars because they want them driving big dick TRUCKS. With legally mandated truck nuts of course.
What kind of liberal bullshit is this, asking us PROUD AMERICANS to stop using OUR FREEDOM CARS for some bullshit liberal environmental WOKEISM?!
/s
In Texas?
You know God damn well the response to this is going to be everybody getting in their 12 valve Cummins diesel trucks and cranking the fuel pumps up to the point where they “roll coal” sitting at stoplights.I’m sure the gas companies appreciate the extra business.
Is it even possible to get around USA without cars? There’s not even proper paths everywhere for pedestrians.
It’s possible, but it’s a challenge, and it often involves hiring a car (like an Uber or a taxi) for at least “the last mile” anyway.
You can pretty easily do it in lots of large cities. Here in Seattle it’s not hard at all going North-South with public transit. East-West is another story…
This is still harder in Seattle than in a lot of major cities, but far better in Seattle than in many other US cities. The thing we have going for us here is that we are constantly expanding and improving our public transit.
In certain cities yes, but not many places.
Electric vehicles. Did you forget?
Also, the reason why walking, running, or even biking to get around 99% of the US isn’t feasible is because the distances are too vast. The average commute time for people in the US is 26.7 minutes and most of that will be on a highway. Covering the same distance on a bike would take 3-10x longer (why 10x? Because of soooo many bridges that don’t allow bikes or pedestrians!).
Lol, you do realize you debunked your own claim by the end of the paragraph, right?
The claim that USA has extremely lackluster pedestrian and public transport infrastructure? No, I don’t think I did. I merely pointed out steps are being made in the right direction.
Sorry, that was meant for someone else, lol.
Then it’s a public transport failure, USA has horrible train infrastructure.
But even suburbs lack paths for pedestrians, even if you wanted to walk into town it’s dangerous from the get go. The whole country is designed for cars and nothing else, there have been projects I have seen though in some cities where they tear down highways and build pedestrian areas instead, so it’s not an unsolvable problem if they can beat the lobbying.
for a country that supposedly values freedom its amusing to note how few things are considered freedoms:
driving = freedom*
walking = not freedom
clean air = not freedom
quality public transit = not freedom
*with purchase of expensive vehicle
driving = freedom
*with purchase of expensive vehicle
And legally-required insurance, and being licensed by the State to operate it…
It’s entirely consistent with freedom. Freedom to build with little thought to long term effects. Freedom from paying for infrastructure that benefits everyone.
To do things correctly you need to restrict and regulate.
Suburbs have great pedestrian paths - if your only goal is to exercise. Those paths don’t go anywhere, but living in the suburbs I many people using them for exercise.
Even for exercise they tend to be non-existent or suck, which means people end up driving to the few that are good rather than starting their jog from their front door.
Not in the suburbs near me - they are all new suburbs build in the last 3-10 years though. (3 years is important as sidewalks are built last so until the houses are all done the sidewalks don’t connect). Older suburbs though, rarely have sidewalks.
That’s because of urban sprawl. People prefer to drive farther and longer rather than living in higher density housing.
People prefer to drive farther and longer rather than living in higher density housing.
If that were really true, it wouldn’t be necessary to restrict residential zoning density by law because people wouldn’t choose to build multifamily housing even where it was allowed.
In reality, it’s the opposite: dense housing is severely restricted by law, but because so many people do want to live in it, the price gets driven up to the point that they can’t afford to anymore and are forced to drive farther and longer instead.
Disagree. Just gave up on the nightmare of living in a food desert of a Midwest city of nothing but long drives to move to a city three times the size using roughly 50% the space.
It’s a selection effect. Those that remain are those that prefer that kind of isolation.:-) (or are trapped bc they don’t know how to move away)
If you wanted to e.g. own animals like horses it can legit be better to live in a more rural area.
Electric vehicles. Did you forget?
They are still cars.
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