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Why living in a European city beats any America one..
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| kiev_42 |
| I know this may be a bit of a stereotype, and I cant say ive been around the USA too much but from what I have seen living in American city sucks because of the fact that NO ONE WALKS. We are always driving/stuck in traffic trying to get to some place around the town in Los Angeles and everything is spread out as . European cities on the other hand tend to have some city center and a great public transportation system, so many people walk/public transport to the center and everybody is out and about. Does anyone else feel what im saying? |
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| Arbiter |
| quote: | Originally posted by kiev_42
from what I have seen living in American city sucks because of the fact that NO ONE WALKS. |
And that, not McDonalds, is why there are so many fat Americans.
Anyway on topic: I agree somewhat but LA is a pretty extreme case. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| Americans don't walk because in quite a number of cities here walking is pretty much useless (unless you want to walk 20+ miles or more every day) due to suburban sprawl. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| Also, many downtowns aren't "living downtowns," meaning that only very wealthy people can afford to have apartments there, so you get a bunch of suburbanites coming in with their cars. |
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| Dj O'Callaghan |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
Also, many downtowns aren't "living downtowns," meaning that only very wealthy people can afford to have apartments there, so you get a bunch of suburbanites coming in with their cars. |
I'm not a big fan of living in the suburban areas. It's a pity that a lot of accomodation downtown is geared towards people on very high wages.
I agree with the comment on public transport, in the UK it's but a lot of other European countries have brilliant transportation systems. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| Yeah, our public transport is as well except in a few big (1,000,000+) eastern cities. It's particularly crap where I live. I could walk a few miles to the nearest bus stop, but even then the routes hardly go anywhere. Buses also have a bad reputation around here. The perception seems to be that only criminals or really poor people take them. |
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| Dj O'Callaghan |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
The perception seems to be that only criminals or really poor people take them. |
There is no end of trouble on buses here, you do get people going about their everyday life using them, but then you get the others who go on them to cause mayhem. |
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| LuckyKarma |
| That's one reason I'm looking forward to moving to England after college, I love the idea of not being required to have a car to get around. My uni's town has a very nice bus system, considering the size of the town (~70,000), but my experience in larger American cities is much like what you describe. In most cases if you don't have a car you're SOL. |
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| CranberryJuice |
i dunno maybe what im saying is untrue but i think NYC is cool when it comes to move around i used the subway a lot of times it was easy and never got lost....
but i would say the best in my books remains so far the barcelona's subway....after 1 day in the city me and my friends were the pro of the subway :p haha no but that was so easy to use and this way without too much walking even though we walked a lot.....we just had to take the subway to go to the main places
in other hand the paris's one is :nervous: i really dont like it ! |
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| jdat |
Congrats on picking the worst example in the US.
LA is insane with traffic.
And second of all don't generalize with what you are saying. Yes it's more common to have more effective means of getting around in bigger cities in Europe but otherwise there are plenty of cities in the US were things are fine. |
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| Lilith |
Air flight within the US is fairly good, well it was before they got all nazi on people trying to use it but it tended to be ok. When you hit the ground though is when it ceases to be fun.
You can either spend 3hrs trying to make sense of where you are with maps, timetables, dodging the lunatics or end up catching a taxi, get skinned for the fare in something that smells faintly of urine, pain and terror sitting on something 'nasty'.
Or
You can hand over your international drivers licence, credit card and get a piece of crap hire car for next to nothing, few updates for the GPS and be on your way within half an hour.
I just always disliked sitting in the passenger seat to drive and driving on the wrong side of the road... :p |
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| Inertia |
over here it's worse. you have tily designed networks for trasnportation. a minor problem on a street will cause a mothering huge jam. even with us being a poor as country, you get a load of vehicles on the road, all the ing time. add to that the fact that basically all our streets are ed up, they have holes, bump, no water routing (ing PONDS will form when it rains a lot) and you have the mess that is the DR transportation system.
then, public transportation. you have "public cars", which are like taxis, only they are cheap as , and if you're lucky, they'll have 3 out of 4 doors, a driver with a 1st grade reading level and smell only of urine. they have predestined routes which they do not get out of.
private taxis are OK sometimes, but may you in the ass with no lube from time to time with the fare. then again, they might literally you in the ass with no lube, or rob you once you get in the cab, so it's anyone's game.
buses? most suck ass. we have some new ones, started coming here since about 3 years ago, which are OK. but the routes are again, only good for the people in the city.
i live in a suburban-ish area, and i have no car, meaning i'm basically ed. whenever i throw parties, you'll have people crying outside, sitting on my sidewalk at 6am, BEGGING all the cab companies over the phone to PLEASE send one.
it also makes it hard to get when you live as far as i do and don't have a ride :( |
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