Italy is a car infested country. I would love to know impressions of fellow users from other countries that visit Italy: do you see this?

We rank in the low part for public transport and rails (except high-speed trains). Which is not surprsing

Moreover, automotive industry is sinking in Italy, so there is not even the justification of helping "economy", for pushing on cars so much.

Finally, there are many more cars than car licenses in Italy. Which, IMHO, is completely absurd

Cross-posted from: https://mastodon.uno/@rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/113632796547131119

source

IIHS researchers analyzed pedestrian crashes to develop injury risk curves showing how speed affects crash outcomes. They found that the effect of crash speed on injury risk was magnified for vehicles with taller front ends. Compared with risk curves developed using crash data from Europe, where tall passenger vehicles are less common, risk curves for the U.S. show pedestrians here begin to suffer more serious injuries at lower speeds.

Xpost from Propaganda posters. US, 1943, W. Pursell

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/20009882

Electric cars are not THE solution.

It's been said many times already but cities really need to get their public transit in order so they can fix traffic congestation and improve the lives of their residents but I still have some questions about some ideas I had.

1. How much would it cost for a city to electrify their entire bus fleet? Yes, people taking the bus is still a good thing but a lot buses still run on some fossil fuel.

2. How much would it cost a city with no rail/metro infrastructure to create it from scratch?

People on bikes may be rude and may not follow the rules, but can't be aggressive.

When a man with a .45 meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol will be a dead man.

Original stripe from the Onion: https://www.theonion.com/bum-rush-hour-1846606314

Cross-posted from: https://mastodon.uno/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/113615912203015089

Today, from Amtrak's website:

https://www.rue89lyon.fr/app/eh-lyon-elle-est-ou-ma-caisse/

Hi. I've been reading posts and comments in this community for just a little under a month, and every time I visit, I think of this piece, so I'd like to share it:

I’m looking out over my whole human family
And I’m raising my glass in a toast
Here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
May we vow... to get off... of this... sauce...
Shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
Find that train ticket we lost
'Cause once upon a time, the line followed the river
And peeked into all the backyards
And the laundry was waving
And the graffiti was teasing us
From brick walls and bridges
We were rolling over ridges
Through valleys
Under stars
I dream of touring like Duke Ellington
In my own railroad car
I dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
In a grand station aglow with grace
And then standing out on the platform
And feeling the air on my face

Give back the night its distant whistle
Give the darkness back its soul
Give the big oil companies the finger, finally
And relearn how to rock-n-roll

Ani DiFranco wrote the 9 minute spoken word piece, Self Evident while on tour in 2001-2002 USA. It's about being in Manhattan during the terrorist attack on 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom, historical context and more. This section in praise of train travel starts at 5:00.

Fun fact: Chuck D's group, Impossebulls, covered this song.

We should put our multimodal, open source code to work in that city. Who's in?

So I’m walking to an evening class at a local college, it’s dark. There’s a bend just before the junction and as I’m walking across a car comes round way too fast. I had to step back to avoid being hit. I was wearing gloves and as it went past I hit it, no idea why, just instinct and anger.

I carry on walking and I see the driver has pulled over a bit down the road, I was expecting a “sorry are you ok” but she instead shouted “did you just hit my car?”. That set me off, shouting at her that she almost fucking ran me over. Then she says “you don’t have to use that kind of language”, the fucking nerve.

Gave up and just walked off. Wish I’d have smashed the wing mirror or keyed the car or something.

Has anyone else almost been run over and how do you deal with the anger of it?

Just look at that. This truck is taller than a used kid (10 years old). I assume the truck can run over pretty much any other age but probably the driver might be able to see older kid's heads. Or we could teach our kids to jump to school rather than walk. If you see a truck, jump and make eye contact before jumping while crossing the street. Or we could tell our kids to never go outside until they are 21.

Daylighting, which involves removing parked cars from around crosswalks in order to improve visibility and just wiped out about 14,000 street parking spaces, has proved especially controversial.

“If someone doesn’t die because of it, we will never know, while the living have to suffer,” Nina Geneson Otis wrote in an email to The Standard. The real estate broker said daylighting is the kind of policy that makes Democrats lose elections.

Others say the city’s actions remove responsibility from pedestrians to look out for their own safety. “A pedestrian can do anything, and be irresponsible, and no harm will come to them?” Brandi said, describing the policies as “idiot-proof.”