After living here. I bloody agree. Who wants to keep a forest of that shitty allergy plant that has to be cut or face fines from the city.
Fuck grass.
Ok you don’t like grass but how is asphalt better? We don’t even get proper sidewalks here.
Well… Actually… Living here has kind of turned me off from single family homes. Southern Ontario’s costs of homes are rising many many leagues faster than inflation. Even when you get an hour away from Toronto, it remains unaffordable. The cities are not walkable. The car, epitome of freedom is ironically mandatory. Insurance, gas, maintenance costs, licence plate taxes. Nimbyism where people like their unsustainable lawns. Car dependent sprawl is unsustainable and I think houses should be next to the street. It slows down cars, it promotes business. It increases walkability. etc…
Lawns are a waste of land that wastes water feeding a useless crop in a neightbourhood that is restricted by law to do business.
Winnipeg is thinking of these speed boards. Something Canadian cities try over and over and over again cause they’re unable to think outside of what they know. I might even argue that not every road needs a sidewalk. Roads used to be for everybody. English countries were the ones to pioneer the idea of separation of cars and people. Taiwan often has walkways in the front of its shops in that Japanese tunnel style, but I’d argue that having people on the road forces cars to slow down. In Canada, most people do 60 or 70kmh on the wide straight roads with the grass buffer and sidewalks. Side note: Singapore does the English-style sidewalks that are found in CA/AU/UK/NZ/US. Funny. Now everyone does 70kmh cause the houses are far away and you have an open road and feel safe to go fast and going slow is mind numbing. In Taiwan, when I do have an opportunity to drive, I couldn’t go faster than the maximum because it felt dangerous. I think some roads should be shared and obstacle-or-pedestrian-heavy.
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Eeewww…
Yes. This is how roads were. It’s arguably safer this way.
Narrower roads, shared roads, buildings at streetside make people slow down.
If you build for cars, then don’t be surprised when cars take first priority. Build for people first.
When have you heard of anyone getting hit at Ximen?
Looks like even the US is going back this way. People first.
Jaywalking was a law lobbied by car companies.
Taiwan would be foolish to follow the 60s American style of urban street design this late into the game, especially with all this foresight. Taiwan has a similar road fataility rate to the US already.
I say to not throw away the Taiwanese design and to simply tweak it. I think the Taiwanese already have a good thing now. Curvy, narrow obstacle-filled roads are the future.
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That’s happened already all over Taiwan…Any newly developed area of the last twenty years at least.
And in fact it started way before that …Looking at the huge avenues in Taipei city and Kaohsiung. Taichung city also just razing and developing block after block. It’s due to the fact that tall apartment buildings require a minimum amount of road space in front to be approved.
Certainly in many ways, but in other ways they remain walkable with stores and amenities within walking distanc.
We still need SOME avenues, but I reckon the side streets are not in need of wide roads and wasteful buffered sidewalks.
Yeah at least they are somewhat walkable. But honestly very little thought put into that…
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Ironically in Taiwan if the traffic wasn’t so bad or crowded it would be safer to drive fast with less wear on your car. Roads in Taiwan is resurfaced often enough that it’s mostly smooth. In the US, especially on city roads (not highways) condition is so bad that you would slow down simply because the road is so rough and full of cracks, fissures, and potholes. Sometimes I wonder if that is why city roads are in such bad shape…
It still wouldn’t be. The spaghetti that is Taiwan’s road network wouldn’t allow for anything over 50.
and I LOVE IT!
Thing is, American roads are terrible for 2 wheel vehicles (foot powered or engine powered). When on a bike you are keenly aware of every bumps and irregularity. Wasn’t until going back that I realized how bad things are. Lots of major potholes and cracks on the edge, not to mention loose gravel that would cause you to lose control.
I think the cities you lived in just didn’t wanna spend money.
A golden age for some, a golden shower for others.
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If one likes that kinda thing, then double win?
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No idea. Always thought Austin was awash in money but it seems to go towards useless stuff. Not stuff like resurfacing Guadalupe and N Lamar (those two streets was the worst when it comes to roughness, and really in a bad need of resurfacing). I35 was under construction in the 2000s, it was still under construction as of 2017. No idea if it still is. Same with various other expressways in the city. Always under construction but in the same place (but with no improvement to the city).
Meanwhile in Taiwan they built several major projects like HSR, Airport MRT, several MRT lines, in the same period of time. I guess Americans just like to work slow.
We don’t live in the same Taiwan. I don’t see cars slow down around pedestrians
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Here’s the thing. They’re already driving slowly. That scooter may have felt like he just whizzed by you, but in reality, that car or scooter is going 30, maybe 40kmh.
It’s not people driving 70 in a school zone on a four lane throughfare.
I was surprised too when I was on my friend’s scooter. I looked at the speedometer, she was doing 35…
Police and politicians in Canada have to BEG people to slow down because they like to shift blame on motorists and pretend that they design roads perfectly.
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You couldn’t go over 100 even on highways here… traffic and road design simply do not allow it. And most cars here wouldn’t go over 50kmh on the roads. Not only it’s unsafe traffic also don’t allow it even at the best of times.
When you see news of some car crash here in Taiwan they often say “going 100kmh” like it’s some breakneck speed. Cars in America routinely do twice that.