Not Just Bikes / r/fuckcars / Urbanists / New Urbanism / Car-Free / Anti-Car - People and grifters who hate personal transport, freedom, cars, roads, suburbs, and are obsessed with city planning and urban design

[Xarpho's Return]

Doesn't Texas get a lot of flash floods? Having a truck jacked up that high might make it handy for those conditions.

Cedar Park is the suburbs north of Austin, and that entire area tends to have a lot of little creeks that will swell up in certain big rainfalls but it's not widespread flooding like Houston. Partly the reason why Houston tends to flood is that a lot of the infrastructure sucks (I remember how quickly roads got flooded) and there's no place for water to go (lax development standards for most of the 20th century). Most of the issues lie in just where the rain decided to hit. In Allison, it was the sunken part of I-10 (technically Katy Freeway, but east of the big side) that got flooded; in Harvey the sunken part of the Beltway got the worst of it.

That really begs the question, though—a properly built parking lot WILL have some sort of drainage system that allows water to collect and drain off. With their war on parking lots, I don't see any urbanists talking about flood mitigation or installing large detention ponds.

 

[mkl987]

Cedar Park is the suburbs north of Austin, and that entire area tends to have a lot of little creeks that will swell up in certain big rainfalls but it's not widespread flooding like Houston. Partly the reason why Houston tends to flood is that a lot of the infrastructure sucks (I remember how quickly roads got flooded) and there's no place for water to go (lax development standards for most of the 20th century). Most of the issues lie in just where the rain decided to hit. In Allison, it was the sunken part of I-10 (technically Katy Freeway, but east of the big side) that got flooded; in Harvey the sunken part of the Beltway got the worst of it.

That really begs the question, though—a properly built parking lot WILL have some sort of drainage system that allows water to collect and drain off. With their war on parking lots, I don't see any urbanists talking about flood mitigation or installing large detention ponds.

Massive amounts of land being covered with asphalt doesn’t prevent floods

 

[quaawaa]

Speaking of floods, you know those raised crosswalks that Jason raves about:

They hurt drainage:

Source (Archive)

 

[mkl987]

Speaking of floods, you know those raised crosswalks that Jason raves about:

They hurt drainage:
View attachment 6019889
Source (Archive)

All human infrastructure has negative effects on water drainage that’s why dense housing is much better for the environment than dumbass american and Canadian urban sprawl

But I understand if your cankles can’t support you for extended periods of walking

 

[quaawaa]

Massive amounts of land being covered with asphalt doesn’t prevent floods

All human infrastructure has negative effects on water drainage that’s why dense housing is much better for the environment than dumbass american and Canadian urban sprawl

Sprawling cities are more permeable than dense cities.

Something like this has zero natural drainage:

while something like this can absorb tons of water:


Now, I know what you're going to say: dense cities mean that there's more rural area available and that is even more permeable than developed suburbs. That's nice, but completely irrelevant for determining flood risk where people live.

 

[Chuck McGill]

All human infrastructure has negative effects on water drainage that’s why dense housing is much better for the environment than dumbass american and Canadian urban sprawl

But I understand if your cankles can’t support you for extended periods of walking

Nice argument.

Still not living in the pod.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

But I understand if your cankles can’t support you for extended periods of walking

Neat, someone who actually falls for the "gym of life" and other NJB bullshit.

 

[Midwit]

I'm positive that CO did ZERO research into credible studies on traffic, demand, and crime.

The traffic modelling is as good as you could really expect from a small niche studio on their first foray into the genre, and it mainly being based around the logistics of people going to work and business transporting goods is fine enough for a video game.

But I understand if your cankles can’t support you for extended periods of walking

I just got back from a three mile walk mate.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Lifted trucks are annoying as shit when they tailgate you on the highway, but after Hurricane Harvey they were apparently invaluable.

View attachment 6019031
View attachment 6019032
View attachment 6019033
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That dude in that lifted Chevy Silverado with the big American flag must have been having the time of his life during that storm.

 

[Yamamura]

That dude in that lifted Chevy Silverado with the big American flag must have been having the time of his life during that storm.

"They all said I was insane, well who's laughing now"

Neat, someone who actually falls for the "gym of life" and other NJB bullshit.

I prefer the "gym of gym"

yeah, well you're probably fat anyway

Wow, real compelling argument there.

 

[The Jewel of the Nile]

All human infrastructure has negative effects on water drainage that’s why dense housing is much better for the environment than dumbass american and Canadian urban sprawl

But I understand if your cankles can’t support you for extended periods of walking

Hi Jason

 

[Baraka Obama]

Something like this has zero natural drainage:

while something like this can absorb tons of water:

I could take some photos but it's insane how much money is put into water drainage infrastructure in Tokyo. It's everywhere you look.

Compare to normal suburbs in Canada, even dense ones, there's not as much need for it since everyone has lawns. Some older suburbs where I live don't even have storm drains, just ditches like a rural area.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

I could take some photos but it's insane how much money is put into water drainage infrastructure in Tokyo. It's everywhere you look.

Compare to normal suburbs in Canada, even dense ones, there's not as much need for it since everyone has lawns. Some older suburbs where I live don't even have storm drains, just ditches like a rural area.

A huge advancement in California has been actually accounting for water runoff - in the 70s they just didn’t give a shit at all.

Once you learn about some of it you see it everywhere. Water management is probably the most important part of modern cities behind sewers; without it you get fucking disasters.

Anyway here’s Tokyo’s giant water cave:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181129-the-underground-cathedral-protecting-tokyo-from-floods

The amount of technology and shit necessary to maintain our citified lifestyle is actually kind of frightening - if the competency crisis is even remotely real we’re in for a world of fucking hurt.

Everyone should consider exactly how far you are removed from the land and its food. I remember a quote - “in the city you cannot feed yourself by your own effort”. NEETs are kind of the epitome of realizing that you entirely depend on others for your existence, and it frightens them deeply and they lash out and want everyone to be like them as a form of protection.

 

[quaawaa]

Anyway here’s Tokyo’s giant water cave:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181129-the-underground-cathedral-protecting-tokyo-from-floods

Keep this in mind the next time an urbanist claims that suburbs have higher infrastructure costs per capita than dense cities.

I bet Tokyo would have handled Hurricane Sandy a lot better than NYC did. The city got hit by a Category 1 typhoon in 2019 and I don’t think that it flooded anywhere near as badly as NYC did after getting hit by a Category 1 Hurricane.

 

[Yamamura]

This video is a couple months old, but Mr. Beast has branched out from giving away cars to giving away e-bikes:

Late to this, but I just thought about what a disservice it is to certain people who have families. Sometimes they need to carry around more people than just yourself if you have dependents like kids or are looking after an elderly relative. Even something like a crappy KIA Rio will be much more useful than a bike. The redditors overlook why you need more than a days worth of food is because sometimes you're feeding more than just yourself if you have kids and you can't just afford to go to restaurants every day with the cost of paying tips.

Of course this isn't the case for everyone, as someone who's let say homeless would benefit from having something like a bicycle because they can't afford gas and maintenance (not an E-bike because no reliable way to charge it without stealing power). But there are many people who are sort of in the middle. They have a job and kids but just need some help getting a vehicle to do errands.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Late to this, but I just thought about what a disservice it is to certain people who have families. Sometimes they need to carry around more people than just yourself if you have dependents like kids or are looking after an elderly relative. Even something like a crappy KIA Rio will be much more useful than a bike. The redditors overlook why you need more than a days worth of food is because sometimes you're feeding more than just yourself if you have kids and you can't just afford to go to restaurants every day with the cost of paying tips.

Of course this isn't the case for everyone, as someone who's let say homeless would benefit from having something like a bicycle because they can't afford gas and maintenance (not an E-bike because no reliable way to charge it without stealing power). But there are many people who are sort of in the middle. They have a job and kids but just need some help getting a vehicle to do errands.

They could still sell the ebike and make a little money. Most of that would be toward balancing the books and making ends meet but every bit is important.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

They could still sell the ebike and make a little money. Most of that would be toward balancing the books and making ends meet but every bit is important.

Most of these giveaways are almost scam like but you can often take a cash equivalent, which the smart people do.

I’d not turn down an ebike but let’s be real, it’s a moped/motorcycle. Also sure you can transport kids via bike (I’ve done 3 on a bike with seat and trailer) - but only when they’re cooperative.

Real parents know the advantage of a car/minivan is it can become a squad car at a moments notice, and you can wrestle the kids into it and drive them off to enjoy prison, stalker childs.

 

[The Jewel of the Nile]

The redditors overlook why you need more than a days worth of food is because sometimes you're feeding more than just yourself if you have kids and you can't just afford to go to restaurants every day with the cost of paying tips.

Your problem is assuming that redditors know what a family with kids actually needs. They're, well, redditors; they aren't interested in starting functioning family units. For them having kids is a drag, just an unnecessary obstacle in enjoying heckin barcades, their pupperino and niche fetish subreddits.
That's precisely why they think that nobody needs more than a 50 sqm apartment in the city center and a bike. It may be true for them- but being aware that other people's needs may differ from theirs is beyond them.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Decommissioned M113's, surplus MRAP's, and other military-spec APC's would make incredibly inefficient minibuses, but it could be done. Legally? Probably not. Do I wish that I could get on the pintle-mounted machine gun of an M113 and defend my fellow commuters by gunning people down? Maybe.

Maybe that's what they wanted all along.

You can own decommissioned military vehicles btw. Making them street legal is a different story. Has to he disarmed, needs shit like mirrors, turn signals, lights, etc. With enough work (and money) you COULD turn a M113 into a street legal minibus. It wouldn't be much of a M113 anymore, but you could.

 

[Apple Porcupine]

Speaking of floods, you know those raised crosswalks that Jason raves about:

They hurt drainage:
View attachment 6019889
Source (Archive)

They also create a logistical nightmare for snow plows, something that a decent amount of the country needs at certain times of the year. I've started seeing temporary speed bumps placed around that get removed in the winter.