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Awesome. I'm going into Urban Planning (although just starting out, so I'm not entirely positive on what I would necessarily be doing) so all of this is incredibly interesting to me. What do you think about how auto-centric U.S. cities are? How do you think things will change (more or less auto dependent)?
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2009 00:04 |
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# ¿ May 21, 2024 15:00 |
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nm posted:But we're talking about cities like Sacramento that had extensive public transit networks in most of the city before they got torn out by GM in the 40s. I just wanted to point out how much this pisses me off. For anyone reading this who hasn't heard about it, go read about the Great American streetcar scandal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal It especially pisses me off because I've seen a map with the trolley routes in Salt Lake and they were great. Now I pretty much need to rely on my car.
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2009 00:35 |
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Wallrod posted:Is the general absence of roundabouts/traffic circles in the US due to the aforementioned need to account for the lowest common denominator of drivers, or some other factor? I like roundabouts way more than 4 way stops but nobody knows how to use either one. For some reason, the city where I grew up decided to use roundabouts as a freeway exit. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...013937&t=h&z=17 Can you tell me why the hell they would do this? It's a nightmare. It's a 2 lane so old people (there are tons in St. George) will cut you off from the inner lane when they exit. Also if you keep going East on Brigham Rd there's a huge industrial park so that exit also has tons of tractor-trailers. teejayh posted:What about Continual Flow Intersections? we just built one in West Valley Utah and it seems to have made a huge difference in traffic delays. That's on Bangerter, right? I've been meaning to check that out but I'm never that far West.
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2009 16:50 |
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Cichlidae posted:I play a lot of SimCity, and something about its modular nature really speaks to me. I would also be interested in seeing anything in Sim City you've laid out that you're proud of. I love the game and go through phases of playing and not playing, but I usually plan too big of areas and then I get bored zoning them how I want. Do you use the Network Addon Mod (NAM)?
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2009 17:39 |
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Cichlidae posted:I want SimCity 5 so badly Why, Maxis, why did you have to contract out your franchise to some imitator? I want it more complex, not simpler! I want to place ramps, customize interchanges, set lane widths and signal phasing... but I'm probably the only one who would appreciate the micromanagement. I've never heard of the NAM before. What does it allow you to do? I'm having a hard time finding a good page to link you to (you can download it from sc4devotion.com on their LEX) but the NAM tries to better control the traffic and adds some new things such as light rail, new street textures and new intersections.
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2009 22:20 |
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Cichlidae posted:
I figure I should actually ask some questions instead of talking about SimCity! I assume mass transit sucks in the US so much because of low-density sprawl (and most people seem to think mass transit is only for poor people) but I would still like to see what you have to say.
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2009 22:58 |
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Hofp posted:Whereas older neighborhoods with narrow streets, sharp turns and so forth seem to have people driving at an overall lower speed when I drive on them. Just wanted to mention that drivers drive slower on narrow streets and even more so when there are cars parked on the side. The added benefit is a more pedestrian friendly area. Not only are speeds reduced but the cars parked along the street act as a buffer. I have a question about 45 degree angle parking (such as http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_RJ0lXJtyLoc/SGK2o6jkR4I/AAAAAAAAACc/6s9huHOvuCE/s400/angle%2Bparking.jpg). You can of course find this parking everywhere but more specifically I'm wondering about when it's in this sort of situation: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...003484&t=h&z=19 Why is parking on streets like that always designed so one has to back up out of their space? It's always a pain in the rear end to see oncoming traffic. What do you have to do to implement a space where cars back in to the spaces (I think this may be called Back-in/Head-out Angle Parking)? Do you need to roads to be wider to give cars space to back up? Have drivers who are parking momentarily hold up traffic? I like the back-in/head-out parking because it's safer exiting and since the door opens towards the road acting as a buffer (there we go again) between your child and the street.
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# ¿ Aug 2, 2009 18:32 |
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Cichlidae posted:Oh jeez, those are some really tight curves. Seeing as it's in Brazil and how many lanes there are, I'm assuming there's a lot of traffic, too. I see the bump strips they put across the freeway to get you to slow down, and solid lane lines so you don't try to change lanes in the curve. I'm going to go ahead and say the main problem there's how tight the curve is. This talking about Brazil brought up a memory of a video I watched in an urban planning class (taught by the former planning director of SLC. Really.. this guy is a genius. But I digress..). The video was about a city in Brazil that implemented tons of changes to reduce congestion, sprawl, pollution, etc. It was fascinating. I'll try to find out what it was and let you guys know.
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# ¿ Aug 2, 2009 18:44 |
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# ¿ May 21, 2024 15:00 |
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Billy Maize posted:This talking about Brazil brought up a memory of a video I watched in an urban planning class (taught by the former planning director of SLC. Really.. this guy is a genius. But I digress..). The video was about a city in Brazil that implemented tons of changes to reduce congestion, sprawl, pollution, etc. It was fascinating. I'll try to find out what it was and let you guys know. Ok this was easier to remember than I thought it would be. It's about Curitiba, Brazil. It's called "A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil" Here's a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQTTG3NcYY
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# ¿ Aug 2, 2009 18:52 |