A nice post. The conspiracy theories were supercharged by some extreme views (including from academics) about stopping people from driving and reducing the amount people travel. Unfortunately, modern media (not just social media) amplifies extreme views, leading people to believe conspiracy theories are credible.
New to this pub but so intrigued by what I’m reading so far. I live in rural Georgia in a town that claims to be investing in walkability but so far all that means is allowing PUDs with high density residential and sidewalks (and allowing golf carts). The town proper is barely a mile long from end to end but so car-centric. I’m curious if you have any insight into helping rural areas increase their transportation diversity and connectivity… I’ll be searching the archives :)
This is so fascinating - and you’re right, the village town idea works so well with both rural and urban working together to increase quality of life. We lived in east England for a while in a town of less than 8,000 and I loved that we didn’t need a car but could access everything we really needed (including a 18-minute train ride to the nearby city).
To have this kind of urban-rural development in the US would require a huge culture change, I feel… and probably the perceived destruction of much of what people seem to value so much about rural towns. But I wonder what we even mean when we say we love living in rural places… again, gonna be thinking about this!
A nice post. The conspiracy theories were supercharged by some extreme views (including from academics) about stopping people from driving and reducing the amount people travel. Unfortunately, modern media (not just social media) amplifies extreme views, leading people to believe conspiracy theories are credible.
New to this pub but so intrigued by what I’m reading so far. I live in rural Georgia in a town that claims to be investing in walkability but so far all that means is allowing PUDs with high density residential and sidewalks (and allowing golf carts). The town proper is barely a mile long from end to end but so car-centric. I’m curious if you have any insight into helping rural areas increase their transportation diversity and connectivity… I’ll be searching the archives :)
This is so fascinating - and you’re right, the village town idea works so well with both rural and urban working together to increase quality of life. We lived in east England for a while in a town of less than 8,000 and I loved that we didn’t need a car but could access everything we really needed (including a 18-minute train ride to the nearby city).
To have this kind of urban-rural development in the US would require a huge culture change, I feel… and probably the perceived destruction of much of what people seem to value so much about rural towns. But I wonder what we even mean when we say we love living in rural places… again, gonna be thinking about this!
I often come back to the idea of villages (both rural and urban). A few people have written about it. I think this article form Strong Towns provides a pretty good summary: https://archive.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/2/17/walkable-check-urban-check-rural-also-check