tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post7298790909256376890..comments2024-03-18T06:18:29.163-04:00Comments on Discovering Urbanism: From a mobility to an accessibility orientationDaniel Nairnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127732825472374125noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-73896270520011986122019-11-22T07:38:20.478-05:002019-11-22T07:38:20.478-05:00Thanks for sharing, it was interesting to read!Thanks for sharing, it was interesting to read!Liftplushttp://www.liftplus.pl/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-86098746029283579302019-04-12T01:13:36.905-04:002019-04-12T01:13:36.905-04:00Ensuring comfort, independence and practicality, t...Ensuring comfort, independence and practicality, these handy tables can be wheeled to be used over the bed providing a stable support for reading or eating meals. Co-operative mobility offers a range of different styles, designs and sizes that all deliver outstanding value for money. Our <a href="https://www.aids4mobility.co.uk/bedroom-aids/overbedchair-tables/" rel="nofollow">over bed tables</a> is best.<br />Ronald I Bremerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13491083996792094389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-23836843011256712202016-11-13T02:34:26.718-05:002016-11-13T02:34:26.718-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Starhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02687188318678091112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-89750743493802837462010-02-16T10:18:56.062-05:002010-02-16T10:18:56.062-05:00Thanks Richard. I'm hope anyone feels free to ...Thanks Richard. I'm hope anyone feels free to use it.Daniel Nairnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14127732825472374125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-2731339342647326752010-02-15T22:11:28.186-05:002010-02-15T22:11:28.186-05:00awesome diagramawesome diagramRichard Laymanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02765521217875752850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-8504171892222071402010-02-09T12:16:57.265-05:002010-02-09T12:16:57.265-05:00So... commuting 90 miles to work = increased VMT =...So... commuting 90 miles to work = increased VMT = more mobility = good for everyone. I think that line of thinking = BS<br /><br />Seems to me this equation is leaving out opportunity costs. The 1 1/2 hours spent commuting could be used more productively (spending time with family, working, buying shit, etc.) than by transporting my 170 Ibs body in a 2 ton vehicle. <br /><br />For the most part, today's transportation infrastructure forces a choice on people, they have no option other than to drive. So yes you can get very far on America's freeways in a relatively short amount of time but that doesn't necessarily mean this arrangement is the most efficient... especially once opportunity costs, social costs, and environmental costs are factored in.CarFree Stupidityhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17452960459225854564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-81953843537884712592010-02-06T14:40:30.772-05:002010-02-06T14:40:30.772-05:00First of all, I'm not sure if the job of a pla...First of all, I'm not sure if the job of a planner is less mobile than any other. Many have to make frequent trips around a jurisdiction for public meetings and other events. Private consultants travel all over for clients. The job structure itself seems hardly grounds for an institutional bias against mobility, in my opinion.<br /><br />But more to the point. I see two main arguments you're making. You say that there are direct employment benefits from the transportation industry. This is true, and maybe a recession is not the time for major economic restructuring, but isn't this argument just old-fashioned protectionism? Economies evolve and new technologies replace old. I know that Detroit can use jobs, but ultimately we would like to see production shift into its most efficient form, and this requires letting go of any inherent privileges we choose to give to specific favorable industries. (This isn't to say there may be a government role for helping workers make the transition). Mobility-providers will always be important, but I don't see why these jobs are more valuable than others.<br /><br />Secondly, you point to the macro-economic benefits of high mobility, specifically shipping. All I can say is that I agree, but I don't understand how this is negates anything from this post. There are tremendous economic benefits to proximity as well, which is really what agglomeration is all about. Atlanta is benefited by its freeways and airport, but it's also benefited by its location on the eastern seaboard with a large population within regional reach. Move Atlanta, freeways and all, to northern Canada and much of the competitive advantage vanishes. I'm using "access" to mean the combination of mobility and proximity, and other factors. Atlanta has fared well because of its access.Daniel Nairnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14127732825472374125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-84641631910783588432010-02-06T03:57:45.425-05:002010-02-06T03:57:45.425-05:00The problem with talking about abstractions is oft...The problem with talking about abstractions is often they tend to obfuscate as much as they illuminate.<br /><br />Different employers in a city have different needs regarding mobility and access. <br /><br />If we are talking about the profession of city planners, they probably can look for housing and shopping that is near their place of employment. There locus of employment is fairly fixed in a fairly confined area. <br /><br />But in a lot of areas of the country, employment itself in the region is a direct consequence of high levels of mobility. <br /><br />In Los Angeles one of the largest employers in the region are the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The freight and transportation industry in Southern California is one of the regions largest export industries. This is an industry that provides high wage employment to a lot of people with low levels of education/poor language skills. The fact that the combined Ports are the largest in the country results in all kinds of businesses deciding to co-locate in LA. So there are huge secondary employment consequences to LA losing mobility.<br /><br />Part of the reason that the Port of Oakland lost share to the Ports of LA and Long Beach is that freeway congestion in the Bay Area was so bad. <br /><br />For the shipping industry, access means access to sites in the rest of the country. If it takes too long to ship a good from LA to Denver, Salt Lake City or Phoenix, the goods will go through Oakland or Seattle. If that happens to often, the business that co-locate with the ports will also move. The Nestle US headquarters in Glendale, the Bugle Boy Jeans company probably wouldn't be in LA if the Ports in LA weren't so huge.<br /><br />Cities that aren't port cities are still often transportation hubs. During the railroad era, Chicago grew because all railroads in the country converged on Chicago. But during the Just in Time era of manufacturing, Trucks were favored over trains, Atlanta has grown because it has such great freeway connections to the rest of the country. <br /><br />There also industries that agglomerate along freeway corridors. 58% of the auto plants and suppliers in this country are in just 5 states, along I-65 and I-75 in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.<br /><br />http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/knowles/eco303/ecogeo2.pdf<br /><br />Making sure that trucks can get in and out in a timely fashion is what allows these just in time factory systems to work. If city planners in these cities screw up mobilty to shift people out of cars and into transit, they can also kill off the primary employer in these communities.<br /><br />One of the big reasons the border cities of Northern Mexico are wealthier (like Tijuana, Juarez and Monterrey) than the border cities of Southern Mexico is that these cities benefit from the really good transportation networks in the US that allow them to function as part of nationwide US economy. In Southern Mexico the lack of transportation between cities makes these cities function as there own smaller poorer economic units. This is why most US immigration from Mexico is from the southern poorer part of Mexico. <br /><br />Lack of mobility will push out and destroy a lot of industries in a community and make the region itself poorer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-41194752304354086672010-02-04T09:52:10.949-05:002010-02-04T09:52:10.949-05:00Yes, thank you, and thank Litman! "The abili...Yes, thank you, and thank Litman! "The ability to travel where you want when you want"! So it's not just my right but a self-empowering act for me to buy a house with a big yard on Tristan da Cunha, and the government owes me a bridge to drive on?Cap'n Transithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17057887736728828646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-9029825660223370802010-02-04T09:39:18.901-05:002010-02-04T09:39:18.901-05:00Hey...Great comment on Staley's post. Exactly...Hey...Great comment on Staley's post. Exactly.Eric Orozcohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00320742140050171881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-51397601783913161612010-02-04T09:37:23.343-05:002010-02-04T09:37:23.343-05:00Thanks for distilling this and the handy chart...T...Thanks for distilling this and the handy chart...That's a great tool to think about interrelationships. <br /><br />I always have to scratch my head at Libertarians. On the one hand there is this dogmatic insistence on personal choice. And yet they fixate on a "maximal" choices and denigrate other choices (however "cumbersome") as economically disadvantaged. Which actually betrays their limited understanding of the economic advantages of cities. "The community will suffer" ...Well, that one definitely cuts both ways. It is just befuddling to me how they are not looking out there at foreclosure boomburbia and missing a coherent reading of economic advantages.Eric Orozcohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00320742140050171881noreply@blogger.com