2y ago

Thank the gods we live in such a car-saturated nation, how horrible it would be if this space was used to house people

Fuck Cars @lemmy.world

eya @lemmy.dbzer0.com

2y ago

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Thank the gods we live in such a car-saturated nation, how horrible it would be if this space was used to house people

96 comments

You forgot the homeless people, forced to live under that interchange because you know, america, freedom etc...
- If they are lucky enough that nobody installed some hostile architecture there to keep them out.
- I could be wrong but iirc, Italy also has a lot of homelessness
  
  According to wikipedia, 8.4/10k for italy vs 17.5/10k for the US. So while the US is the richest country in the world they have twice as many homeless people per capita :/
  
  Counted in the population.
- Omg make it stop — I’m already too free
This isn't a great argument. There is so much open undeveloped space in the US that could be used to house people. This interchange isn't taking space away from anyone. There are lots of good reasons to reduce cars, but this isn't one of them.
- That’s not really true here though. This is in the middle of an urban area, not in some big open empty space that’s unoccupied, like Montana, or North Dakota. This is in the middle of Houston, Texas, a very populous city.
  
  And? If they need space they expand elsewhere. If this interchange was at the edge of town, middle of town, north or south. The town is still the same size. America is large, lots of “empty” space.
- I think OP's argument is that the interchange is a symptom of low density urban sprawl and all the associated maladies that come with it.
  
  @Anarch157a @BradleyUffner Yeah, it'd suck trying to walk to a friends house on the other side of the interchange.
Duh, moron, the future is you just live in the car.
You cant legally park it anywhere near anything useful for survival, and gas is expensive and so is car insurance.
But thats fine because cars and car companies have more rights than people! Or something...
What I am saying is anyone who walks to the grocery store /deserves/ to get run over.
Natural Selection mannnnn!
inhales
Alright, feelin good, got beer in the glove compartment, time to film my magnum opus:
DeathRace 2024.
YEEEEEHAAAWWW!!!
immediately peels out, doesnt see other driver blowing a red light until too late, swerves to avoid and crashes into the weed dispensary, paralyzing himself from the legs down and killing 4 others
- In many cities, people are literally living in cars that don't run, in public parking spaces, because it's the only enclosed place they can afford to live in.
  
  Yep, and that is almost always illegal, and such people almost always end up having the car towed, having to pay for the car being towed, losing all their possessions and then becoming homeless.
  Its just a matter of time until enough people report it and the police get around to it.
- Capitalist wet dream right here
  
  cue America Fuck Yeah! song
@eya This is such a weird way to compare countries anyway, Italy has giant interchanges too: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.929109,12.7359436,1733m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
- Because it's not meant to compare countries, it's meant to compare sizes. That interchange could be replaced with any interchange of similar size.
- That's not in the middle of the city, unlike Houston's.
Yeah, but you can't get to the other side of Siena in 20 seconds? Efficiency isn't pretty.
/S (big a for big sarcasm)
bUt wE hAve EnoUGh sPaCE!
Even better: Leaving that land undeveloped and natural, instead of cramming humans or cars on it
- People need to live somewhere, and if they live somewhere like Siena it leaves more space for nature.
  
  Yeah, and the nicer urbanists can make cities the more empty land there will be. And I can live in a pile of rocks with animals for my friends while you all enjoy the nice cities.
- Humans need land to live on. Constructng densely reduces the land needed for humans, leaving more undeveloped land.
  Reducing human population is beyond the scope of urban planning.
  
  The last sentence could be argued as north american roads become more deadly.
- Hell Yeah! Deer and rabbits have to live somewhere too. I wish I lived 15 min. from undisturbed nature!
- What a dumb take.
  
  Nah
- Siena is (in my memory at least) a small, quaint, Tuscan village.
  
  It's a medieval walled city of historical significance; the centre is a world heritage site. It's the location of the oldest bank in the world, one of the oldest universities and the central piazza is the venue for the Palio (a bareback horse race contested by the different quarters of the city.)
  I went there by chance during a Palio. The whole city was alive in a way that I can't even begin to describe. Would definitely go back.
  
  Still too many people far too close to me
Ah Houston, not a whole lot to like about living here.
- Foods pretty good... but yeah.. that's all I got.
Well damn start building apartments in the empty parts. Its not that difficult to understand.
- With 6inch thick windows or intolerable noise pollution, sounds great. I wonder which one penny pinching developers are going to build.
Cars double as housing. Checkmate, socialist commies!
/s just in case, as is tradition now.
- /s is not actually entirely accurate in this case. Here's an article on how US residents are trying to live in their cars by finding "safe parking lots" to reside in: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/05/safe-overnight-parking-lot-sleep-in-car-rv-homelessness-housing-shelter
  So in the richest nation on Earth, cars do double as housing.
  
  The /s was for the "Checkmate" bit 😂 Technically, of course you can use your car as a dwelling. But it's certainly not an answer (or at least, not a serious one) to a lack of housing supply, I think we'll all agree.
That looks like hell. Where do you go when you want to get away from people?
- The parks or your own home. I don't normally go into the middle of a highway interchange for solitude.
  
  Parks with all the other people? Locked in a room in a 300 sq ft apartment with your family/roommates outside?
  The interchange allows you to live far enough away from the overcrowded city that you can own a bigger piece of land where you're not packed in with your neighbors like sardines so you can actually go outside and sit and be alone without hearing 15 other families doing shit. It also allows you to have enough space to have a workshop space for hobbies or a garden or whatever else you want to do.
- Anywhere around it?
- Interestingly, with this type of town, it's easier and quicker to go out of the town than in American car centric towns.
  Public transports are more efficient. You don't need cars. You have parcs and actual green space. The energy consumption is also reduced.
  It's no magic that they built these type of towns in the past. They couldn't afford our type of energy consumption and land use. And, it was more practical for the daily life.
- You know houses exist right? Tho maybe not a lot of americans sleep in cars...
  
  If there's 30k people in that small of an area most of them aren't going to be able to afford houses.

96 comments