Today I learned about a notable aspect of in-city cars as way of transportation that many overlook today, when discuss urban planning and how to deal with simple fact that more cars on roads simply means denser traffic jams across the city.
Here is a cite from a letter written by famous Dovlatov in 1982 about New York:
While looking at the museum exhibits, I learned some of the most unexpected things. It turned out that cars have done little to change the landscape of urban transportation. Its speed within city limits has practically remained the same. Before 1912, it was about 8–9 miles per hour. (On average, of course, and naturally, in the central part of New York City.) Today, we see the same figures. And during rush hour, the situation is even more absurd. A determined pedestrian can easily overtake a line of cars… The information regarding mail delivery surprised me quite a bit. One would think that the invention and development of the engine could have formally transformed this type of communication. A horse and a car—there’s just no comparison! And yet, it didn’t happen. It’s enough to compare a few indicators. In 1901, a letter from New York to Chicago took three days. A basic horse delivered it in three days. Now, it takes a week. At best, five days. A letter from New York to France used to take six days. You just had to know the steamship schedule well and get the letter there right before departure. Nowadays, airmail from the States to Europe arrives on the ninth day.
It seems that returning to more natural ways transportation will not not slow anything dramatically contrary to what cars fans would scream.
Think that such information is related to what Low-Tech Magazine writes about.
Not sure whether it is possible to mention @lowtechmagazine properly from WordPress website.
