Another “walking here” title? Come on, man.
Links and stuff and what not below. Transportation heavy again. I’m giving you a No Transportation Guarantee for September’s Better Is Possible!
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[Article] Heeeyyyyyy I’m walking slow here (by choice)
“In a society where speed is a core cultural and economic value — what French philosopher Paul Virillo called a “dromocracy,” riffing off the Ancient Greek word “dromos,” or speed — people who move in slow ways that don’t generate or consume maximum capital are ignored, while maximizing the velocity of “commuters” becomes a policy obsession.
It’s the reason why we track journey-to-work times on every national census and don’t bother to record trips to the park or the library or to walk our kids home from school. It’s why engineers obsess over optimizing “level of service” on the roads they design — and also why they don’t overhaul those designs when speed-focused designs directly cause metrics like human lives lost to skyrocket.”
Opinion: Slow Transportation Should Be a Human Right, Streetsblog, https://usa.streetsblog.org/2022/08/12/opinion-slow-transportation-should-be-a-human-right/
[Article] “My rooftop panels showed me that a world powered by renewables would be an overflowing horn of plenty, with [redacted. boo cars], and comfy homes.”
“Right now many people are doubtful about solar and wind. Thanks (in good part) to fear-and-doubt messaging from Republicans and fossil-fuel interests, renewables are too often associated with privation and rationing—needing to be an efficient-but-miserable hippie instead of gunning the motor and having fun.
[…]
Yet when I talked to other folks who’d put solar on their roofs, most had precisely the same epiphany I’d had: They realized they had way more juice than they expected. And it had the same emotional effect—going from feeling guilty and weird to devil-may-care.“
After Going Solar, I Felt the Bliss of Sudden Abundance, Wired, https://www.wired.com/story/after-going-solar-i-felt-the-bliss-of-sudden-abundance/
[Article/Video] We should have more, and better, Social Housing in America
“There’s just real skepticism that governments can do things well, and there’s the stigma of American public housing driven by racist and classist policy choices that have undermined public housing here in ways that European and Asian public housing programs have not,” said Alex Lee, a California state representative, who introduced a bill this year to create new publicly owned mixed-income housing.
How state governments are reimagining American public housing, Vox, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23278643/affordable-public-housing-inflation-renters-home
And watch an interview with this article’s author
on The Majority Report!
[Article] Easily the best thing I’ve seen from DALL-E.
“What would a six-lane highway look like if it were replaced by a promenade bordered with trees and luxurious grass?”
Think Your Street Needs a Redesign? Ask an AI, CityLab (Bloomberg), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-07-30/how-ai-is-giving-real-world-streets-a-virtual-makeover
Follow Better Streets AI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/betterstreetsai
Who we’re following:
Midwest Modern – @JoshLipnik
Interesting pictures and stories from the great Midwest. We’re talking Ohio. We’re talking Michigan. We’re talking Indiana. And the others. The whole gang is there.
Midwest Modern account is also included on
9 Art Accounts To Follow On Twitter
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshlipnik
And support them here: https://www.patreon.com/midwestmodern
[Article] Ban cars from more areas where people live, work, and play/get freaky
I don’t know, it’s Europe, pretty safe assumption.
“”We decided to redesign the city for people instead of cars and we’ve been reaping the rewards ever since,” said Pontevedra’s mayor Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, who came into office with plans for a car-free city more than 20 years ago.
“Not only have we not had a single road-related death in over a decade, but air pollution has been reduced by 67 percent and our overall quality of life in the city has dramatically improved,” he said. Some 15,000 people have moved to the city since it became car-free, he added.”
The city that pioneered Europe’s car-free future, Politico Europe, https://www.politico.eu/article/pontevedra-city-pioneer-europe-car-free-future/
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