Something TERRIBLE happened to the streets in #LegoCity and we need to talk about it!
🧐 Why did @LEGO_Group decide to WIDEN the streets?
🚙 What does it teach us about real #autobesity?
🛣️ And how can we change it?
A thread🧵:
2. 'With Lego you can make anything' is a marketing slogan often heard. If you want to create a city however, you have to work with the standard road plate sets.
Between my cities and those of my kids, the sidewalks lost three studs and each street became SIX studs wider! WOW!
3. The change in street width did not happen in isolation. In the same period, #Lego Cars also widened from FOUR to SIX studs.
Interestingly, most of them still only have room for only one #Lego Figure.
After years of #carsharing, I am considering buying an #OwnCar. But before I decide, I have a few questions to confirm that this is the right solution for me. Please help me out in this thread 🧵:
1.🎫 I heard that I have to pay extra for an #insurance for my #OwnCar. And pay to have an annual inspection done. That would make it very expensive. Is there a way that I can easily get around that?
2.️👨🔧 What if my #OwnCar breaks down? I'm a smart person, but I'm not very handy. Is there a place where people can fix it for me? And do I have to take it there for repair every time?
Today #Amsterdam starts a transition experiment of 6 weeks that reclaims a car dominated street as public space.
There are already some important lessons about the importance of language. 1/🧵
The Weesperstraat has been seen as important link for car traffic to get in and out central Amsterdam for four decades.
Businesses fear for their accessibility & refer to the street as 'an artery'. Invoking the classic metaphor of cities as bodies, car traffic as blood . 2/🧵
This blinds us to why and how cities have always functioned as places for human interaction.
Instead of continuous pumping, a good city street constantly entices you to slow down, stop and linger to enjoy the public life around you.
Why should children have a Right to the Street?
❤ Health?
💨 Emissions?
👫 Access to friends?
🏘 Exploration & attachment?
👥 Children’s citizenship?
Whatever the reason, people want change and will show it this weekend across Europe kidsonbike.org.
Children across the world have lost their right to roam in just four generations. There are many reasons for this, but for a large part this can be traced back to how we design our streets.
We optimized our streets to offer the Homo Economicus optimal vehicular throughput and comfortable parking. The safety and dignity of our children became secondary, at best.
We discipline them, give them responsibility for their own safety. We tell them to not be distracted!
Dutch individuals and companies collectively own 8.7 million private cars. With 17.4 million people and 8 million households that equates to 500 cars
per 1,000 inhabitants, or an average of just over 1 car per household. [2]
This number has been rapidly growing and is expected to grow even further. In the last 30 years this went from 0,8 tot 1,1 car per household. [3]