Why I Cannot Understand Witold

[walkitout]

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/carless-in-america/

"There are only six American downtown districts that are dense enough to support mass transit, which you need if you’re going to be carless: New York City (Midtown and Downtown), Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco.That’s it."

So, other downtowns don't _have_ mass transit? Funny. I could have sworn Seattle had mass transit. Maybe it only counts if it has rails under it? Then what about Portland, OR?

I'm just going to leave alone the whole idea that without cars or mass transit, you can't possibly survive anywhere. I mean, what? Walk?!? Like, live close enough to the places you go to _walk_? Inconceivable? And don't get me started on human-powered vehicles.

Comments

[kaneda-khan.livejournal.com]

I've found San Francisco's buses and trains to be much more frequent and much more full, and I could believe it's simply because so many people are packed into townhouses a couple of blocks off a useful route. Seattle has a lot of tracts of detached houses in walking distance of nothing except more detached houses, maybe a grade school, and that one corner which sees eight (empty) buses per weekday.

not arguing with any of that

[walkitout]

_You_, unlike Witold, make perfect sense.

However, Witold very specifically said:

"downtown district" -- that wouldn't include the tract housing you mention (which the greater SF area includes even more of than Seattle has).

I actually knew more than one person who had a strategy of living in an apartment within walking distance of the free ride zone in Seattle. The idea was that living within the free ride zone was a whole lot more expensive, so being just outside it, walking into it, and then riding wherever you needed to go had all the benefits and none of the downsides.

About ten years ago, it was still tough to buy certain categories of groceries within the free ride strategy. That hasn't been the case for a while now, however. And that's basically a never-pay mass transit approach. I knew a lot more people who lived further out and had a bus pass and/or one or more bicycles.

Re: not arguing with any of that

[kaneda-khan.livejournal.com]

Hm. He seems to be talking about housing density, and even here there aren't that many people living right off Market St. I wonder if he regards neighborhoods like the Mission (picture Capitol Hill but half as far away and no houses, only blocks of big apartment buildings packed together with ground floor storefronts) and the Castro (similar though the apartments are rows of converted Victorian townhouses) as part of his "downtown"?

Re: not arguing with any of that

[walkitout]

I think you've made my point for me. It's tough -- if not impossible -- to figure out what Witold actually means. Especially if you eliminate the variations which are obviously incorrect on the face of them, which tends to leave absolutely nothing reasonable at the end.

I've been reading a Dutch (in English) blog

[walkitout]

And here's what the guy who runs WorkCycles has to say about getting around SF:

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2009/04/08/back-from-the-usa-thoughts-on-public-transport/

(Other US cities mentioned as well.)

Re: I've been reading a Dutch (in English) blog

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Tangential, but this was hilarious (last comment on the Dutch guy's post):

[NYC] single parent with stroller comes to a halt at either the top or the bottom of the stairs. Anonymous passerby — typically w/o breaking stride or making eye contact — reaches out and grabs the front strut of the stroller and the whole conglomeration hustles to the other end of the stairs where — still w/o breaking stride — it decouples and the pieces go on their way.