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lame_gaming t1_je5c245 wrote

“we’ve tried nothing and were all out of solutions!” - city of richmond

i cant wait until the day this city stops making shitty, sorry attempts at making this city pedestrian friendly. if the city cared enough, they could make cary st 2x better for pedestrians, but thats against their pro-car agenda

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BureauOfBureaucrats t1_je5ecx2 wrote

I think many of the residents here need to take a look in the mirror too. I drive rideshare and I see too many people taking Uber to go 3 or 4 blocks. “We” take cars for every stupidly short and frivolous trip. In every previous city I’ve lived in, trips like that would be laughed at (obvious exceptions if elderly/disabled/bad weather).

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lame_gaming t1_je5lyqd wrote

im absolutely hypocritical considering i live in the burbs, but at least im aware of the problems and what we can do to fix things

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BureauOfBureaucrats t1_je5mxzf wrote

If we made our infrastructure walkable and if we could chip away at the cultural hostility we have towards walking up to 1 mile, we could probably make a decent reduction in traffic, traffic accidents, and pollution.

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turnipmeatloaf t1_je5tte2 wrote

Agreed. The most important step is to make walking that mile safe and comfortable and making driving/parking less convenient

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watcher-in-the-water t1_je72hdo wrote

IDK I see people walking ~1 mile from where I live in the fan to Cary or the breweries in Scott’s addition all the time. I make that walk myself at least once a week. IMO it’s a super walkable area.

However a ton of people drive in from elsewhere, which causes the traffic. I don’t think there is an easy solution to reduce cars from short pump.

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dougc84 t1_je7aubc wrote

The majority of Richmond's housing (aside from city neighborhoods built around shopping districts and markets) is large suburban communities that contain no sidewalks. There are extra-wide roads so drivers go unnecessarily fast through residential areas, making people not want to walk. And, even if you were to walk, there's nothing nearby worth walking to anyway. And there's nothing to look at except boring greyge house after boring pale yellow house. "Oh, Cheryl planted a new azalea bush!" Great, exciting.

People that have always lived in the 'burbs come to the city on the weekend. They drive their massive SUVs down residential streets like they do on their street that could easily be a 4-lane road, and end up taking up two lanes down Cary St. because they don't know how to drive on a narrower street. Then they don't give consideration to bikers or pedestrians because that's not what they're used to. The amount of people are so willing to hop in a $65,000 giant pickup truck that they've never really used and they can't see over the hood, then drive down pedestrian-heavy areas like they own it and pedestrians and bikers don't matter, is appalling.

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TrashApocalypse t1_je72n07 wrote

Honestly, I don’t want to breathe in all the exhaust. I don’t understand why people run or exercise on roads when we know how bad the exhaust is.

The only way I’m going to want to walk around Cary town is if they take cars completely off the road. Some intersections I can handle maybe include that block with the parking lot for people to drive, but rest? Pedestrians and bikes only.

Another important point, a lot of Richmond sidewalks aren’t that great and can make it difficult to walk. I know downtown isn’t as bad, but southside is terrible, buses just leave you in the woods 😂

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Infamous_Fly1886 t1_je94dsb wrote

So what you’re saying is you don’t go outside much? 🧐

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TrashApocalypse t1_je9qzqt wrote

As an amputee, I’ll save my walking for pleasant areas that are well paved, not filled with exhaust fumes or the gun shot noises that cars make now.

Go ahead, downvote away Richmonder’s

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nosefur t1_je78wlb wrote

The problem most often is not the City but all the residents and businesses that will have a tantrum because their parking has been removed or customers can't get to their business as easy as they could before. There's no winning.

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lame_gaming t1_je7eain wrote

theres that too. my go to example for a pedestrian success story is innsbruck, austria. similar population, but their pedestrian area is booming. it also helps that they have 6 (six!) tram lines and intercity rail to every corner of the country + other countries (as far as amsterdam!)

but they also didnt flatten half the city for highways and supported density instead of suburban sprawl. go figure

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PopularMedicinetoday t1_jea7s9i wrote

There was one guy in Jackson Ward that showed up to a meeting saying he didn't want permit parking b/c he owned a barbershop and it will ruin his business for customers to park.

He wouldn't let it go even after he was told non-permit people can be there for 2 hours.

He then said it is a travesty that his customers can't park in front (again).

Then one of the locals said "Maybe you should move your car from the front of the shop since you leave it there for 14 hours a day. That would leave a spot open."

We all proceeded to smirk at that burn.

Then the barbershop owner said "why don't you just build a 5 story parking deck so my customers can park there?" like building one is just a simple thing lol...like, where would we even get the precious block size downtown land in the first place if we even wanted to?

Guy just wanted all the perks and didn't want change. It was so annoying and it reminded me how unreasonable most people really are... I see it a lot on reddit honestly, especially when people talk about subjects they know nothing about.

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