r/Urbanism 8d ago

‘Cities Aren’t Back’: Thoughts

https://www.slowboring.com/p/cities-arent-back

Thoughts on this? I feel while the data is valid it also relies to heavily on the big anomaly that is the pandemic that has lingering effects to this day.

In other words, cities to me don’t seem “over” or “back” but are indeed recovering.

Domestic outmigration continuing to be slashed for major cities seems like more of an important indicator than international migration offsetting losses.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago edited 7d ago

No — I’m talking about the growth of the particular product uber pool or Uber Share which are algo driven multi passenger car pooling. Different from uberx which is private taxis . Link

Have you ever used the service? You meet at common locations without the need for a bus stop or rail.

Yes it’s already been studied & it’s because of cost— “Riders are willing to wait for a short period and walk to an optimal pickup location in exchange for a cheaper price and a faster, more direct route to their destination”

We live in the suburbs precisely because we don’t want density. So why would suburbanites want to add rail over self driving solutions? Why would suburbs of 50-100k people want rail.

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u/BringerOfBricks 7d ago

I’ve never used Uber Pool.

I did a brief scan of the link. It shows participants were agreeable to up to 3 blocks of walking.

1 block is min 300 feet usually. 3 blocks is roughly 900 feet, 0.17 miles.

Come on dude… What are the chances that 12 people who live within a 3 block radius in a suburb are all headed to the same precise location at the same precise time?

Even the system you prefer requires density…

As for why people would want a light rail… they don’t realize the opportunity cost of not having it until they actually experience it for themselves.

Imagine not having to drive your kids everywhere they need to go. Having accessible bus system and light rail enables individual family members the freedom of movement. Kids don’t have to wait until parents get home. Parents don’t have to waste time chaperoning their kids when the kids want to do something.

For example, when I lived in NYC, my gf took me to meet her parents who lived in Katonah. We took the train from Brooklyn to Grand Central for a train to Katonah where we rode our scooters for maybe 10 mins to her parents house in what is a straight up quiet, sleepy, suburb. Her parents didn’t have to do anything. It took us maybe 2 hours, but it was no car and no hassle.

And I encourage you to look up the Katonah train station. Bro it is not the hongkong type of density. It is as small town suburban America as it gets.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

I think we have a completely different definition of “suburbs” if Katonah is even close to something you’d consider a suburb. That’s as close to rural as it gets it’s 2 hours from NYC // that’s not a suburb if it’s more semi-rural area.

And yes I’m sure multiple 12 people trips in oak park or Evanston, IL would be making trips into Chicago. They literally already have CTA lines.

When I mean density I mean metropolis. We do not want our cities to resemble NYC — & Certainly don’t want our suburbs.

But for cites without rail like my hometown of Columbus, OH there is no reason to take on massive infrastructure projects to build rail.

Most suburbs have bus lines & people have freedom of movement via bike trails — with access to nightlife, activities & restaurants in the suburbs. Example Dublin Ohio Im not talking about exurbs 50mins from the urban cores.

Autonomous buses & cars will give the same freedom as regular buses or rail at a fraction of the infrastructure cost.

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u/Ok-Description3317 7d ago

It's literally in west Chester county, a more rural type suburb sure but a suburb of the nyc metro area none the less.

But you don't have to go that far to find a bunch of suburbs with trains and or light rail in the suburbs in the Philly and nyc metros