This title is under a few layers of irony, there are similar pictures floating around of green spaces converted to highways in the US with the same title, OP is suggesting the European version actually is progress
Ah yeah they should’ve just done the American thing instead and bulldozed the whole strip of town to put in a 20 lane wide interstate with a Bucees and Walmart/s
What people call „Rhine“ is a heavily straightened and channelized artificial water road.
Especially in the 19th century they cut off many loops and bends to make it more accessible for ships, to make the land useable and to get rid of flooding (narrator: „it didn’t work“):
I think this is my first time seeing the “/s” on lemmy. And I really hope it doesn’t follow users here. We fully understood the sarcasm without it. It was honestly so much more a statement with ironic wording than it was even sarcasm.
I feel like we’re better than this. We can’t complain about Hollywood and advertising dumbing everything down to the level they think we need and then turn around and spoon feed each other the most basic forms of speech.
You might be able to easily spot sarcasm, but not everyone is blessed with that ability. Many autistic people, for instance, struggle to detect sarcasm. And comments being text only makes it harder. "/s" is an accessibility tool and implying that using these tools is "dumbing down" communication is honestly a very shitty move.
It's sometimes impossible to detect sarcasm from just text, that's why Poe's law exists. You may be good at understanding sarcasm and satire, but some people aren't and putting /s is making sure that everyone understands instead of just you.
I feel you on the dumbing down part though, but I think sarcastic comments are not a form of media that must be left only to be enjoyed by the people who are "better than this".
Because when the word "progress" is used, it is usually a loaded term with some specific connotations. The quotes indicate this is a reference to the word "progress", not a use of the word "progress", and it's intended to draw your attention to the fact that this change, while clearly a positive and desirable one, contrasts strongly with what is usually meant when a person says it.
They actually can't afford not to. Walkable cities improve the economies of cities because people are actually able to get to stores on roads that would otherwise be swamped with cars. It improves health and safety as well.
Why scare quotes? I lived in Düsseldorf back in '90 (go alts - that was the name of my school team, and yes it was sponsored by Alt bier 🍺... different times), it's always been one of Germany's more clean cut, upmarket cities, but this picture makes me want to go back and check it out again.
Then again, I'm a queer transfem and I'm in BERLIN, THE QUEER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. Düsseldorf is in the last instance just meh.
I grew up next to Düsseldorf. I freaking love this city. Wouldn't it be so expensiv i would live there.
Because it is a magnet for anime fans, i early came in contact with queerness and different worldviews. Düsseldorf still has a big connection to art and due to figures like Joseph Beuys the art community is still pretty progressive. I went to university there and the campus had a progressiv Atmosphere there as well.
But on the other side the city is full of rich and conservativ people. A weird contrast. I would say Düsseldorf is educated while cologne is more open and welcoming.
Yes progress! Using the quotes there make it seem like you disagree that this is progress, which I will choose to believe you didn't mean it like that.
I have seen a few pictures like this from around the world. It's pretty encouraging
As an American I'm just assuming that road was moved to be widened and a bunch of low income housing and many blocks worth of historic buildings were demolished in the process.
Low income housing is a far better use of space than preserving "historic" buildings that are actually just out of code, poorly designed, and slowly decaying old houses that never actually had any historical significance.
The needs of people who are alive and struggling today are infinitely more important than your nostalgia for the homes of dead rich cunts.
That's how I feel about SoCal. I noticed on Google Maps a lot of homes are taking up the sea cliffs south of LA. I always thought that all coastline in CA was public...
Reminds me of an old science fiction novel I read years ago. Teleportation had became common, so people no longer needed cars. The entire system of interstate highways was converted to long, narrow parks.
You’ll be disappointed. It’s a very minor part of the plot, and the construction of the parks is only mentioned in passing. The novel was Ringworld by Larry Niven (written in 1970. Sexism ahoy!)
At first I read the comments and was appalled, then I realized I automatically assumed the shittier picture was the new one. I'm assuming it's because I've never seen it go this direction before.
He said it looks like it's photoshop and not real, but it is real, it's just the weird lighting that makes it look like it. (Hope you wanted a real answer and your comment wasn't just joking, couldn't tell)
The Gardiner in Toronto desperately needs to be pulled down (before people die) and replaced with tunnels.
The viaduct in Vancouver is being torn down but I don't think they plan to build a tunnel. It's the fastest way into downtown from East Van.
The difference between these inevitable projects and Dusseldorf is that property value in Canadian cities is so insane that developers will likely push for the construction of biggest types yet in these cities.
Here is another picture. you can see the church in the background. The right side is the road to the houses, and on the left is the speed-way with 2x2 lanes. It was (still) crazy back then.
EDIT: I was corrected. Its not. It is the substitute road.
Here is a recent picture looking from the other direction. Again the church now on the left. It was a crazy project but it was well received by the Altstadt/Oldtown.
In the German Wikipedia you can find another nice picture of the Rhine-Bank (Rhein-Ufer). It shows the Steps to the Rhine in 1900 - before the asphalt rolled over all that land. Notice the church and Tower in the back. And today.
Are we going to magically assume the traffic just vanished?
People and goods still need to be moved from one part of the city to another, as well as from other parts of the country and even internationally. Way too many of these "fuck cars" people naively think you can just wave a magic wand and make the transport of goods and people just disappear. Something would need to be done to solve that. Was an underground highway built? Alien teleportation? A fleet of magic carpets were made available that run on unicorn farts that allow people to get around?
A lot of cities in Europe are actively discouraging people from taking the car to get to the city center. Either by requiring a permit to enter, making it very convoluted to get to your destination by implementing one-way streets and having a few big roads made to take on traffic, outright banning older cars with bad emission, or a combination of the above.
This is typically balanced with park & rides outside the city center, from where you can easily take public transport into the city.
Suppliers are still allowed in and are able to do so because less cars are driving there.
The city I live in has recently implemented such measures. Lots of people were complaining beforehand. But after a few years, there's not less people making it inside the city, no massive congestion, better air quality,...
Edit: not saying this is necessarily the case here. From other comments, it does seem they moved traffic underground. But my reply is still valid to your comment.
You can see in the top picture(1990) that there are very few cargo trucks. It looks like mostly consumer traffic. The most likely altenative is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Düsseldorf_Stadtbahn massive public transport system they've built since 1988.
Are we going to magically assume the traffic just vanished?
It's an underground highway. Out of sight, out of mind. I imagine they probably also improved the overall road design, like Seattle, Denver, and Boston have done (or are doing) with their projects to bury highways below-grade.
Which is basically what I said at the bottom of my post. But first off tunnels don't work everywhere, are incredibly costly, and local roads would still be needed to let buildings downtown have access.
Or maybe the number bus and tram lines increased, and the train systems expanded. "One person, one car" is a mentality we should all be saying "fuck that" to.