I’m Alexandros Washburn.
Former Chief Urban Designer of New York City
And I am here to answer your questions from the internet.
Urban planning support.
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@UrbanistOrg asks:
How can cities make bike lanes safer?
The answer may surprise you.
You know what I found in New York?
The best way to make bike lanes safer
For example, on 6th Avenue, you park your car next to it.
Parking lanes moved away from the curb
And bicycle lanes will be installed on the sidewalk side where cars can walk.
Now parked cars act as a buffer.
@erwnn says the New York City subway
Is it really that bad compared to subway systems in other world cities?
The short answer is yes.
It’s a great system
And how many miles?
This is one of the largest systems in the world.
It’s not very well maintained.
One of the reasons is that it’s a city that never sleeps.
We never shut down the subway overnight to fix it.
The cumulative effects of maintenance and lack of sleep
Because the subway has really caught up with us.
And so far, things aren’t looking good.
It’s fun to go to other cities too.
If we had a large subway system like Moscow,
You’ll be amazed at how fast the trains are.
The speed of the escalator is also important.
There is a sense of pace
We seem to have lost it.
We’ve been ignoring the subway.
There’s still a long way to go before we reach the halfway point
It’s as good as many cities around the world.
@_deep_yearning asks:
Guys, can someone help me understand something?
Is rent control good or bad?
For example, what are its advantages and disadvantages?
Rent control is a way to make rent cheaper in cities.
That should be a good thing.
Some places in the world
Rent control is actually a national policy.
Germany, for example, has a fairly stable and robust housing market.
It seems to be working.
But rent control in other areas
It has various effects.
Sometimes people don’t want to build.
If only we knew rent control was going to be in the future.
Banks may not want to lend to buildings.
Rent control in the future
Because no one knows what the future will bring.
And development starts to dry up.
Why rent control can be implemented in one place
And will it have a chilling effect on others?
And I think the answer is actually social.
As you know, the most effective place is
It is a relatively homogeneous society.
It becomes an instrument of policy, not an instrument of discrimination.
Keep rent control in your toolkit.
But there are other tools, like rent assistance vouchers.
Or simply increase the supply.
@infosec_Taylor, Boston, you win.
This is the worst city I have ever driven in.
I’ll get a gold medal.
Why do we let city planners do this?
You see, Boston was planned by cows.
In essence, the street
Follow Boston’s 17th-century cow trails
That crossed it.
It’s very easy.
Sometimes the planners aren’t even to blame.
@PKC5G asks why Singapore is so green.
Singapore is one of my favourite cities.
Green City was a decision made from the start.
There’s a city in the park.
All Nature
Incorporating nature into cities and utilizing it as infrastructure.
Part of their main problem is of course the extremely hot climate.
In other words, nature is a means of creating microclimates.
In other words, plants have a cooling effect on the city.
In fact, they are small solar panels.
They convert solar energy into biomass.
And that biomass can derive energy
From the microclimate system
And beyond that is the shade,
Protect the pavement itself
To avoid it getting too hot,
It also produces oxygen.
It’s a win-win situation.
Singaporeans are very intelligent.
DaemonPrinceOfCorn,
What is the perfect, or near perfect, airport?
Or is it great otherwise?
Singapore is the best
Because they are always
How many square feet do you need for security?
They double, triple, quadruple it.
They are looking ahead because they know everything is growing.
So you ask, do people get bored between flights?
The answer was yes.
There they built a wonderful nature park.
Inside the airport, there is a waterfall several hundred feet high.
You can walk incredible jungle trails, shop and dine here.
It will be the location.
That’s good for the US
Start thinking like that.
Let’s build an airport
You will surely be pleased if you visit.
Now, @energyper250mlserve asks:
Is there really a city that does it all?
Or is almost everything about urban planning correct?
The answer is yes.
And that city is Paris.
They are doing everything right and it’s very annoying.
They were the first to do bike sharing.
In New York, I love city bikes.
But we stole the idea.
They did the High Line first.
It was called Promenade Planty, and we stole it.
The next thing I want to steal is
The creation of a road network
It’s for delivery to school.
So it’s like a super safe street.
A street that children will enjoy
I walk to school or ride my bike to school.
That’s a great idea.
Let’s steal that too.
@Endava asks, “What makes a smart city smart?”
A smart city is a city that makes the right decisions.
What are the best cities to become smart cities right now?
It has a great database
Because data helps you make the right decisions.
An example of data that smart cities use is traffic flow.
Where is the car now?
Where are they?
What are the obstacles?
How do you open it?
How do we change the pattern?
The ability to respond in real time
That’s what makes a really good smart city really smart.
REEDIT_SUB_ADMIN,
What is the biggest reason America is so dependent on cars?
A phrase from the 1950s says it all:
What’s good for General Motors is good for America.
America is just the beginning
The greatest period of growth
I decided a car was the answer.
All of American city planning was based on the dimensions of the automobile.
How far can you turn? How much parking space do you need?
How wide is the road?
Once a decision is made, it cannot be changed.
This is called path dependency.
It takes a lot of ingenuity to change that.
I just talked about how to install bike lanes.
Parking lanes included
But it requires thinking outside the box.
Think outside the car.
@LeannanSaoirse,
I don’t know why they don’t change course
The currently vacant office building will be converted into small apartments.
Don’t we need homes more than offices?
That’s certainly true.
And it’s entirely doable, except we get in our own way.
We created a great framework of rules.
A building has a specific use, and one use only.
What rules are getting in the way?
There is light and air, that’s the first thing.
In the case of an apartment,
You need to be able to open the windows.
And somehow, someone in the 60s
Or maybe the idea was born in the 70s.
There’s no need to open the windows in the office.
This is not the case in Germany.
But in America that’s the case.
There are a lot of enclosed buildings
And now we have to get over it and open the window.
And people say,
Well, that’s probably too far from the window.
Filling office buildings with apartments.
You don’t have to go all the way to the apartment.
To the elevator.
What happens if it stops 30 feet behind you?
The current rules are
How far away can you get from an open window?
And after that, why not try to make some space?
Where can vertical farming take place?
Of course, you can put in storage or storage invoices,
But why not try growing vegetables?
Ok-Status6738 asks,
What do you see as the current and future challenges?
What influences urban planning?
The population is decreasing.
We’re not there yet, especially in the United States.
There are places like Bulgaria, for example.
There are over 1 million apartments
More than the number of people.
The migration from the countryside to the city has begun
We are in a slowdown and city-building frenzy.
And we haven’t been very good at it.
The biggest challenge in urban planning is
Looking 50 years into the future
I’m not talking about next year.
What will we do when population hits a plateau?
And then resign
And the pressure to build more
And there’s nothing new and better out there
And we have to deal with what we have?
@erinroseglass,
What would happen if public libraries were open late every night?
And we could live a public life there.
Instead of choosing between drinking or not drinking at the bar.
And domestic isolation?
That’s a great suggestion.
But I wouldn’t limit it to just public libraries.
Every city needs public spaces.
If you don’t exclude people, everyone will come together.
At the library or in the park
Or in an ideal world,
Every walkable road should be a place.
A place where we can interact with respect
With your brethren.
And it is this interaction that builds sociability.
@wildflowermilk,
Regardless of who created the toll, I just want to tell the story.
For example, why should I pay a fee around the city where I live?
What [beeps]?
Who pays?
Who pays for the roadbed?
Who pays for road maintenance?
Can you pay the toll?
Can you afford the full cost of driving around your city?
Well, we’ve never done that in America.
We’ve always hidden the true cost of driving
Don’t let other budgets take that away from your car.
America always makes one sacrifice.
That’s the highway gas tax.
But that’s a ridiculously small percentage.
For every gallon of gas you buy.
Congestion charge, toll collection vehicles
In certain parts of the city,
It’s a way to try to recoup some of the costs.
Maintaining the city’s road network
And tell people
The actual driver used is
So that it doesn’t get embedded in the city’s tax budget.
Otherwise, they could have gone to school or nursery.
@Eddy345 asks,
How to survive Dubai’s 51 degree summer temperatures?
As someone who experienced a summer heat of 51 degrees
In Dubai, we know exactly how you feel.
Three things you need to do.
First, you can adjust your clothes.
There are certain standards for international dress.
Suits and shoes and stuff like that.
Forget about the 51 degree people.
Open-toed shoes are fine.
The second step is to adjust your working hours.
Don’t go out during the day.
Dubai can get very hot and humid at night.
That makes it third.
It’s humidity control.
As you know, we have been focusing on air conditioners.
Lower the temperature,
But you will find it a lot
What is your comfort level?
Humidity for a given temperature.
Dehumidification uses less energy than air conditioning.
So what do you think you can do with that? You can make water.
So who needs water?
Ah, the Gulf countries need water.
By removing moisture from the air,
More comfortable
And make drinking water for yourself.
Cee Sosa asks, “How would you fix traffic congestion in LA?”
My answer is probably not.
LA is a much more progressive city than we realize
From the Urban Planning Tour
Because it is what is called a polycentric city.
Yes, traffic is a big problem in LA.
But over time, in different regions
It started to grow in places.
LA is now becoming a city within a city.
That way you won’t need a car as much.
Everyone hates traffic in LA,
But it may have some impact in the future.
If the node connection is successful,
They will thrive through things other than cars.
And he may have his sights set on LA in the future.
This is not a punch line, but an example.
That’s all. That’s all the questions.
I hope you learned something.
Until next time,
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