Surprisingly enough, the infrastructure needed to support millions of people is a lot larger than the infrastructure needed to support a few tens of thousands.
The enormous Gare du Nord, Paris, for example (also population 0):
Unlikely. Dropping it into GIMP, Just the straight highway section in the middle is only 509 x 12 pixels. Assume 1 car per pixel (at least since individual cars are visible), and that's still only 6,108.
And that's assuming that cars are literally covering every square inch of highway. Rough ballpark, I think it'd cap out at about 10,000 cars, which given this is Texas, would account for around 10,100 people.
Expand that out to the greater Houston area to include everyone who drives to work every day and you have a highway system that needs to accommodate 10s of millions of people using it every day.
It also works in reverse: Slowly remove lanes and sooner or later it will somehow accomodate everyone that needs to use it. Either by making the inner city more dense or by businesses moving away and distributing more.
The village was settled back when global population was less than 2% of what it is now. There was probably a whole lot more space per resident back then. Not saying the interchange is a good use of space, obviously, but there's certainly a happier medium than packing 30k people in the same size area.
Fuck the Texas legislature. Houston is the most diverse city in the US and tends to lean progressive. Austin is (was, before Joe Rogan moved in) also progressive and is proud to "keep it weird"...as long as it's white people weird.
My hatred for Texas extends FAR past politics. I hate the climate, I hate the layout of its cities, I hate the weird state obsessed culture, I hate the all-hat-no-cattle bravado that a good chunk of the population seems to have. I hate the frequent hurricanes. I hate the frequent heat waves. I hate the mosquitos. I hate the ticks. I hate that all the cities are like 3 hours apart.
I left for all the same reasons and more. There’s fucking nothing to do there! Even in towns of 200k people there’s absolutely nothing to do! At least where i grew up
I always said if you're bored you're boring. If you can't find something to do, make it. Which, day after day is exhausting as fuck and why I keep trying to convince my wife to leave my dreary ass hometown.
He's a reference point, not a cause...well, not entirely. Him, Elon, Oracle, Salesforce, etc., all significantly increased their footprint in Austin during COVID, and they brought with them a flood of right wing tech douches. For his part, Rogan brought every edgelord talentless "comedian" to town to perform in his new club. Now "Austin Comedy" is almost and adjective for comedy based exclusively on being racist and offensive.
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Time to level that bunch of old hovels and finally build something sensible.
Surprisingly enough, the infrastructure needed to support millions of people is a lot larger than the infrastructure needed to support a few tens of thousands.
The enormous Gare du Nord, Paris, for example (also population 0):
That looks alot smaller even with the buildings surrounding it.
also transports significantly more people than a single of the dozens of interchanges in Houston
This is comparing apples to oranges - Gare du Nord supports far, far more transportation than the highway interchange does.
You sure nobody's living under those ramps and overpasses?
I can confirm a population size of at least half a dozen. Drive under that spot regularly
During rush hour (more like four hours), population swells to 50,000.
Unlikely. Dropping it into GIMP, Just the straight highway section in the middle is only 509 x 12 pixels. Assume 1 car per pixel (at least since individual cars are visible), and that's still only 6,108.
And that's assuming that cars are literally covering every square inch of highway. Rough ballpark, I think it'd cap out at about 10,000 cars, which given this is Texas, would account for around 10,100 people.
#TheyDidTheMath
(also...it was hyperbole for comedic purposes.)
I just rolled my eyes so hard
7.8 million people in the Houston metro area, no shit the infrastructure is huge.
It's also one of the least walkable cities in America, which is saying something
I know, I live here.
Yes, but y'all have ungodly car infrastructure to accommodate for the lack of anything else. You make LA look like Europe
Expand that out to the greater Houston area to include everyone who drives to work every day and you have a highway system that needs to accommodate 10s of millions of people using it every day.
Wants to accomodate. Induced demand is a thing.
It also works in reverse: Slowly remove lanes and sooner or later it will somehow accomodate everyone that needs to use it. Either by making the inner city more dense or by businesses moving away and distributing more.
With this administration's time and dedication, you too can have 30,000 people living under an intersection.
Anything but metric
The highway has more green space
America has so much land it can waste it. Italy needs it to live.
One is beautiful, been there, seen it, it's amazing
The other is a horrendous post apocalyptic wasteland. Never been there, never will.
I know that urban wasteland well. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see a green space until I was already a them. XD
True but that intersection is probably connecting between Houston and Austin which supports ~3M
That's a Houston interchange? No frontage road, no uturn lanes, no separated speeding zone? Texas has worse.
You really would not want to live in an area that small with 29,999 other people.
Also, fuck Texas.
Why not?
If people didn't want to live that close together, why was the village built?
Sienna was walled in at a time and place when roaming gangs of thugs could, and would, variously murder you everywhere outside the city walls.
Pretty good reason to want to get really cozy with your neighbors. Might be a good time to revisit the concept in some places.
The village was settled back when global population was less than 2% of what it is now. There was probably a whole lot more space per resident back then. Not saying the interchange is a good use of space, obviously, but there's certainly a happier medium than packing 30k people in the same size area.
Inertia
Fuck the Texas legislature. Houston is the most diverse city in the US and tends to lean progressive. Austin is (was, before Joe Rogan moved in) also progressive and is proud to "keep it weird"...as long as it's white people weird.
SOURCE: I lived in Austin for 20 years.
My hatred for Texas extends FAR past politics. I hate the climate, I hate the layout of its cities, I hate the weird state obsessed culture, I hate the all-hat-no-cattle bravado that a good chunk of the population seems to have. I hate the frequent hurricanes. I hate the frequent heat waves. I hate the mosquitos. I hate the ticks. I hate that all the cities are like 3 hours apart.
I. Fucking. Hate. Texas.
I left for all the same reasons and more. There’s fucking nothing to do there! Even in towns of 200k people there’s absolutely nothing to do! At least where i grew up
I always said if you're bored you're boring. If you can't find something to do, make it. Which, day after day is exhausting as fuck and why I keep trying to convince my wife to leave my dreary ass hometown.
Rogan didn't cause Austin's deterioration, he just profited from it
He's a reference point, not a cause...well, not entirely. Him, Elon, Oracle, Salesforce, etc., all significantly increased their footprint in Austin during COVID, and they brought with them a flood of right wing tech douches. For his part, Rogan brought every edgelord talentless "comedian" to town to perform in his new club. Now "Austin Comedy" is almost and adjective for comedy based exclusively on being racist and offensive.
Why not?
I would