• SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
    ·
    8 months ago

    I imagine bikes will be very useful in making US cities walkable. The streets have been built very wide to make space for cars, which would make walking more tedious, but bikes are the perfect solution to this bc they let you cover more (flat) distance with just the power of your legs.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      8 months ago

      A return to trolleys would also be lovely. A lot of American cities are already laid out with trolleycars in mind.

        • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
          ·
          8 months ago

          Yeah, cities in America from around 1870 to 1920 had extensive trolleycar networks. They were so widespread you could hop between them and even travel across state lines. Every major city had them and they were the primary mode of urban transportation. Now cities only have trolleycars as a novelty, like San Francisco still has theirs. New Orleans has beautiful streetcar lines. They're mostly used for tourists, but if they were made more extensive and modernized then New Orleans could have very functional mass transit.

          Most of the trolley networks were ripped up to make room for extra lanes or parking lots. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be possible to repurpose existing roads for trams/trolleys. I really believe this.

    • delirious_owl@discuss.online
      ·
      8 months ago

      Every two lane road has enough space for four lanes of bicycles (one passing lane for ebikes and one lane for normal bikes going in each direction)