Vancouver has a lot of flaws, but walkability and accessibility are things that it does better than most other big cities.
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Major cities are a PitA
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Three minutes isn't a long walk for an old person either, unless they're pretty badly disabled or such, and at that point they'll have walkers with built in seating, or be in a wheelchair with a carer already.
I agree we need more public seating, and more that's comfortable and not designed to contort you in weird ways. But seats every three minutes walk? That's kinda insane :-P
But seats every three minutes walk? That's kinda insane :-P
... A public bench every block is insane? You sound suburban 😆
Seriously, look at the density of public benches and bus stops and seating areas in any European metropolis or dense urban center. A bench every three minutes' walk isn't crazy. It's normal for any city built for the needs of people rather than the needs of cars.
Where I live, unfortunately, a lot of benches have been removed. Because unhoused people sit and lay on them and our authorities think the best way to solve the "homeless problem" is to take the benches away. Which doesn't help unhoused people and hurts everyone else. Loathsome.
I seriously doubt they removed seats because people were sitting on them.
More likely it was costing too much money.
At least in my city, some people don’t just sit on a seat (or sitable landscaping feature like a low wall). They eat on them, drink alcohol, leave behind food scraps rats eat the food, bottles get smashed, some people even go to the toilet next to the seat, etc. And yes - there are rubbish bins and toilets nearby.
Sometimes it’s worse, bloodstains, fights, etc.
The only parts of the city that have seats are cleaned three times a day and heavily policed with plain clothes officers on foot patrolling the area 24/7/365. That cost wasn’t necessary 10 years ago but it is today. We could go into why but that’s largely irrelevant.
I seriously doubt they removed seats because people were sitting on them.
Really? With all the awful shit that cities do to homeless populations, this is hard to believe?
Check out some examples of "hostile architecture". Cities will dump a ton of money on making areas unusable for anything other than walking. Hell, there's no benches at all where I live, and instead there's signs at major intersections saying it's illegal to gove money to the homeless, and I've seen much worse in other cities.
So much this
Also, what's three minutes for one person could be ten or twenty for someone else who can barely stand for five
There's a restaurant I like to go to that if you have certain disabilities, good luck getting there. The closest handicap parking spot is a block and a half away and there's only one, or a bit further there are a few in a parking garage. It's an uphill incline to get there and there's not a single bench the entire way between parking and the restaurant. If you're disabled but not to the point of being in a wheelchair, or don't have someone who can push that wheelchair uphill, and don't have a mobility scooter, you ain't getting there
And that's with our current car infrastructure, and just one example out of many of disabled hostile design in our car centric reality that people who've not had to navigate it from that perspective just don't understand. And they never bother asking someone who does experience it. So, I'm pretty tired of hearing the bullshit excuse of how it would be bad for disabled people if we went to walkable cities with public transit.
Stop using disabled people as your gotcha argument
By the time we have walkable cities we'll probably have cybernetic legs and hover mobility scooters
Dude. I'm 59 and big. Just looking at that picture made my knees pop.
My city removed all the benches during covid, but they didn't give them back. So I bought a BAGOBAGO for my parents. (backpack you can sit on)
I unironically love the idea of Cripple-Punk.
It’s really powerful if you’re a disabled person too. Learnt some great advice in that community. Stuff like spiked covers for the handles on your wheelchair so people don’t just move you without your consent.
What about shitable cities? We need more free toilets!
Yeah, going on a roadtrip with my mum is a constant quest for reaching the next toilet, often relying on the goodwill and staff toilets of stores. And there's genuinely trips she just cannot or does not do, because there's no toilets on the way.
Absolute insanity to me that we've outlawed peeing outside, without having free toilets available everywhere.
"it's a three minute walk to the nearest toilet"
Sadly, that doesn’t always help. I’ve lived in a city with several public toilets. Some people would still rather piss on a wall ~30 metres away from the public toilet rather than use it.
They probably reduced the amount of people doing that, though.
Are the public toilets dirty or have a fee?
Both, from what I heard
Then maybe we shouldn't blame homeless people for shitting on the street lol. How else are they supposed to do it?
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