Solarpunk Urbanism

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A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.

Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City — In brief, the right to the city is the right to the production of a city. The labor of a worker is the source of most of the value of a commodity that is expropriated by the owner. The worker, therefore, has a right to benefit from that value denied to them. In the same way, the urban citizen produces and reproduces the city through their own daily actions. However, the the city is expropriated from the urbanite by the rich and the state. The right to the city is therefore the right to appropriate the city by and for those who make and remake it.

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The Uniquely American Epidemic of Traffic Deaths (bettercities.substack.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Interesting article with some great linked research and practical solutions to the issue of traffic deaths.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Absolutely. One of my pet peeves is so many people complaining about irresponsible drivers. The drivers are a product of a system that allows and even encourages that type of behavior, and they will only change when the system changes. Irresponsible driving SHOULD bother you, but the solution is not to flip someone off or complain about that specific person. It’s to build streets, transit, and a legal system that will result in better and safer behavior.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Pretty much everywhere that has a vision zero program related to traffic incidents does it primarily through road engineering and developing alternate modes like public transit and bikeped.

Enforcement is only valuable when it's fully passive and catches everyone - speed and red light cameras, license plate scanners for congestion charges, etc.. This is true of any kind of enforcement response to try and reduce rates of bad behavior. Catching offenders doesn't work as a deterrent unless most offenders think they will be caught.

And the bad drivers, the ones who people say shouldn't have licenses because they're not competent enough to control their vehicles... They probably wouldn't be driving if they didn't live in a society that required and encouraged they do so. In a normal, healthy culture, people usually don't substantially prefer one mode over another. They just want whichever one effectively and affordably gets them to their destinations. With the average annual cost of car ownership over $11,000 in the US, it really isn't very affordable already. But it's the only effective way for most people to get around.