Alessandro Rigolon
Associate prof of urban planning. Research on green space equity, green gentrification, climate adaptation, and health equity. Love SLC, my family, and the great outdoors. Opinions (good or bad) are my own 🇮🇹🇺🇸 🌩️👀 rJgnW3igNgz7
- Salt Lake City is home to 400,000 jobs and has a relatively small population (217,000). It is irresponsible for the state (and the city) to pass policies that promote car commuting for all these workers. There simply isn't room for everyone to drive here unless we pave the whole city with highways
- What policies is the state pushing to achieve this? - Spending nearly $4 billion to expand I-15 - Taking away SLC's right to design their own arterial and collector streets (SB 195) - Spending a small fraction of state budget on transportation projects that don't benefit drivers
- Relatedly, Republicans in the Utah State Legislature describe Salt Lake City as a woke wasteland where nobody wants to go. Well, not only do we have one quarter of all Utah jobs, but we also led the state in population increase last year (6,000 new residents). Not bad for a wasteland.
- SLC is trying to bring families back to the city. They’re promoting the creation of more affordable family-sized homes. But NIMBY opposition in wealthy neighborhoods means that most of those family-sized homes would be build along busy arterial streets. That’s not family-friendly urbanism
- And yet, Republicans will pass cuts to Medicaid and magically pay no electoral consequence for that decision.
- A dude on Facebook is trying to explain to me that driving a fuel efficient car is more environmentally friendly than biking because *wait for it* biking requires eating more and the environmental impacts of those calories outweigh the impact of producing, transporting and fueling a car. Amazing
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View full threadSure, transportation is responsible for about a quarter of emissions globally, but most of that must be from people riding bikes and stuffing their faces with food, not from people driving cars
- More seriously, here's the science: "Daily mobility-related life cycle CO2 emissions were 3.2 kgCO2 per person, with car travel contributing 70% and cycling 1%. Cyclists had 84% lower life cycle CO2 emissions than non-cyclists." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Good news for Utah urbanism. Vernal, a rural town, updated its zoning code to make it easier to build denser mixed use buildings downtown. Fun fact: I saw a Vernal delegation visiting downtown Holliday a few weeks ago. Seeing good examples from other cities matters.
- If we’re serious about reducing traffic injuries and fatalities, we should develop safety initiatives targeting two age groups: 16-17 and 80+. Anecdotally, teens are the most dangerous drivers I encounter while biking or walking.
- The commentators keep mentioning "Mosca": Jacopo Mosca, a rider for Lidl-Trek. it keeps reminding me that we seem to be blessed with a Gianni Moscon-free peloton. I hope that's correct. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacopo_...
- Gianni Moscon is at the Giro riding for RedBull
- Everybody I know at a research university works at a department that lost federal or state money in the last 5 months. The destruction of higher education is occurring at a scale and speed that nobody could imagine
- Cool yard sign seen on my way home
