#urbansprawl — Public Fediverse posts

@crazyeddie @aworkinglibrary
It is probably about car dependency, car-centered areas. Like in the US where in many towns without a car one would struggle to do anything: getting to the grocery store, getting back from the store, reaching the other river bank as many bridges are motor vehicles only.

People can’t live without cars in such places. Even food banks have huge lines of cars, four "lanes". Some homeless people drive cars as well. Imagine the closest grocery store being 1 hour walking distance away, and the weather may be extremely hot/cold.

Many such areas don’t even have sidewalks or anything for walking at all. At the same time so called "jay-walking" is prohibited by law. The term "jaywalking" actually was invented by the cars lobby in the early 20th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking
Moving around by walking is extremely inconvenient, dangerous, taking ridiculous amounts of time, basically incompatible with everyday activities.

Also the parking lots, roads, intersections take up huge chunks of the city. Consider how much longer it takes to walk somewhere compared to what it could be without all these. Urban areas could look very different if they were human-centered and Points Of Interest were packed tightly.

And the bigger the city, the more space car infrastructure takes up. More lanes, wider intersections, parking lots can have up to many thousands spots, highways, freeways, interchanges of ridiculous sizes and shapes.

The topic is huge, what I mentioned is just the tip. Think of what you see around every day. Also all the noise. And danger it brings to everyone, not just drivers. The number of so called "accidents", another convenient term for the horrible things that happen everyday.

The areas which are pedestrian-friendly, bicycle friendly, have public transportation tend to have happier residents, more attraction points, more small businesses, more street life, way better air quality, less noise among other benefits.
Also social connections and interaction happen there and not on a 4-lane highway.

#Cars #Car #City #Urban #Streets
#Cities #CarFree #Roads #CarDependancy #StreetLife #Safety #Bycicles #Walking #UrbanSprawl #OneMoreLane #InducedTraffic #PublicTransport #PublicTransit #Access #PublicTransportation #Accessibility #Accessible #PublicSpaces #Socialization #Capitalism #Subsidies #Lobbying #WordsMatter #History #CarsAreDangerous #FuckCars

#Ausstellungstipp
Zwei empfehlenswerte Ausstellungen unter einem Dach:

"Suburbia. Träume vom Eigenheim – Wege aus der #Wohnungskrise" und
"Too Hot – Heiße Städte, neue Wege"

zur Zeit im Deutschen Architekturmuseum in #Frankfurt. 1/3

https://www.db-bauzeitung.de/news/ausstellung-suburbia-im-dam-frankfurt/

#Zersiedelung #urbansprawl #Flächengerechtigkeit #Segregation #AutogerechteStadt #SozialerWohnungsbau #Bauwende #Verkehrswende #Stadtentwicklung #Hitzeschutz #Schwammstadt #Klimaanpassung #Klimaresilienz #BlauGrüneInfrastruktur #BestPractices

3 #African Cities Restore #Nature to Revitalize Their #Rivers

By Eden Takele, Marc Manyifika, Japheth Habinshuti, Adane Kebede, Alemakef Tassew, Amanda Gcanga, Mulalo Mbedzi and Nikara Mahadeo, March 12, 2025

"Africa’s cities, from large metropolises to smaller towns, are increasingly characterized by growing #UrbanSprawl. #Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, is expanding by about 2,000 people and 5 hectares (10 football fields) every day, according to a World Bank estimate. #Kumasi, an intermediary city in #Ghana, is growing more than 5% every year — at least twice as fast as the capital city, Accra.

As cities and surrounding farmlands expand further into their hinterlands, they encroach upon watersheds essential to water supply and climate resilience.

Watersheds are the natural area of land that drain into a common body of water. The consequences of their degradation are threefold. Without tree cover and healthy soils to absorb rainfall, cities may lose a critical source for groundwater recharge, leading to water shortages. Not only does the quantity of water suffer, so does its quality. Without strong roots to protect and anchor the soil, sediment and the chemicals within it are washed into nearby water bodies, often the primary source for a city’s drinking water. That same runoff can turn into floodwater.

How Natural Infrastructure Supports #WaterSecurity.

Many cities that once depended on their watersheds for water now face both increasing scarcity and heightened vulnerability to #extremeWeather. There are, however, #NatureBasedSolutions to help alleviate these problems.

Through a combination of upland foresting and urban greening, watershed restoration efforts are starting to deliver positive results in three African cities..."

Read more:
https://www.wri.org/insights/nature-based-solutions-river-restoration-african-cities

#SolarPunkSunday #DireDawa #Ethiopia #Kigali #Rwanda #NyabarangoRiver #Africa #MoreTrees #RiverRestoration #WaterIsLife #ClimateChange

A New Tool To Characterise The Socio-Environmental Dimensions Of Urban Rivers: Urban River Socio-Environmental Index
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2025.105388 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #EnvironmentalEvaluation #SocioEcosystem #SocialConnectivity #UrbanRiver #Indicators #RiverRestoration #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #water #hydrology #urban #stream #ecosystem #cities #residents #community #nature #humanimpacts #artifical #engineered #URBS #watershed #drainage #management #restoration #geomorphology #hydrogeomorphology #ecology #urbansprawl #interdisciplinary #biophysical #social #community #France #Paris #MorbrasRiver #macroinvertebrates #riparian #vegetation #reaches #typology #landscape #landuse #landcover #variety #blandscaping

@anubis2814
Yes, #speculation is a #fiat issue stemming from corrupt #moneyPrinting + #rentseekers.

Say "#nimbyism" to small towns in #Europe that are still close to their #farmland and still have a defendable #culture. If being a #NIMBY is about a short #farmToPlate distance maybe we need more of it, not less.

Vertical sprawl = delayed #urbanSprawl, just wait a generation.

We don't have democratically elected #leaders, we have a #corporateState.

#stopTheLoop #useBitcoinCore #townHomes