r/geography • u/villehhulkkonen • 1d ago

La is a wasted opportunity Discussion

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Imagine if Los Angeles was built like Barcelona. Dense 15 million people metropolis with great public transportation and walkability.

They wasted this perfect climate and perfect place for city by building a endless suburban sprawl.

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u/TheMillionthSteve 1d ago

Boston is great if you’re going in or out of Boston along a spoke. Getting from spoke to spoke (say, Malden Center to Harvard Square) via mass transit kind of sucks.

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u/wSkkHRZQy24K17buSceB 1d ago

It's really not that much slower than biking or driving. Plus, no time spent parking, and you can dick around on your phone the whole time, and it's cheap. Now that the slow zones have been removed, it is so much more convenient. I have been going to camberville a lot more.

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u/TheMillionthSteve 1d ago

(Much better with Eng overhauling the MBTA but it’s very much a hub and spoke style set-up)

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u/Badloss 1d ago

Eng is a legend and government needs more like him

He doesn't lie or bullshit about what's required, he tells you plainly that there will be closures and delays, they are required to fix X problem, and you will see Y positive results when they are completed

And then that actually happens! what a breath of fresh air

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u/Kayakular 1d ago

with literally picture perfect city planning that 2h walk would be 90min

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u/TheMillionthSteve 1d ago

When I lived in Malden I would have been happy if there were a way to do it by bike that didn’t put your life in mortal danger. Slightly better now but not by much

Philly - Chicago? Both those places I was carless. Boston? Nope.

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u/SpaceForceGuardian 1d ago

Where in Boston did you live? I have lived here for a total of over twenty years (with a six year break in San Francisco) and I have never felt like I needed a car. Of course, Ubers and Lyfts come in handy if it’s cold, raining, snowing or just a pain getting from point to point.
NYC is even more convenient, but kind of scary.

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u/TheMillionthSteve 1d ago

I neither work nor live in Boston proper now, and although I take the bus and commuter rail when I can, it is not conducive to most trips, but even when I lived in the south end and later in Malden I never biked (except for exercise on bike paths) because the roads and drivers are psychotic.

(The nice orderly grids of Chicago and Philly, I biked everywhere.)

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u/UMassTwitter 1d ago

I live in Hyde Park.

I need a car. Reality is 64% of households in Bsoton have a car. Its only convenient to be careless of you can live in a place where the rent is $3600. The rest of us need cars.

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u/holytriplem 1d ago

That's true for most centralised cities around the world though.