Thought this was interesting because it talks about how Tokyo works not because of explicit infrastructure or laws, but because of social norms that encourage people to behave in ways that better the city. Living in an American city, it's very common to see people behaving in anti-social ways: littering, parking illegally, driving aggressively, etc., and the "solutions" for these problems tend to involve legislation/surveillance/prohibitive infrastructure. It's encouraging to see that humans are capable of better patterns--if only we can cultivate the culture to achieve them.
I feel like we read different articles, because almost every second line is about explicit infrastructure and laws, involving legistlation/surveillance/prohibitve infrastructure:
> on-street parking in Japan has essentially been outlawed since 1963
> neighbourhood streets tend to be narrow and slow
> on-street parking restrictions are accompanied by proof-of-parking laws ... prospective car owners have to prove to the police they have off-street parking sorted before purchase:
> If you had a garage at your home, the police would come to inspect it
> Tokyo benefits from extensive and reliable public transport by train, subway and bus
> separation is enforced by keeping the streets defined around people—a condition that both law and the presence of people themselves seem to reinforce
In fact so far, the only sentence that supports the "culture" aspect is an admitted guess:
> I’d be interested in understanding more about the regulatory or commercial ‘dark matter’ involved in ensuring this system, but at the same time, suspect that it could equally be an implicit outcome of a culture subtly attuned to qualities of hierarchy, politeness, transience, and communality
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 16.2 ms ] thread> on-street parking in Japan has essentially been outlawed since 1963
> neighbourhood streets tend to be narrow and slow
> on-street parking restrictions are accompanied by proof-of-parking laws ... prospective car owners have to prove to the police they have off-street parking sorted before purchase:
> If you had a garage at your home, the police would come to inspect it
> Tokyo benefits from extensive and reliable public transport by train, subway and bus
> separation is enforced by keeping the streets defined around people—a condition that both law and the presence of people themselves seem to reinforce
In fact so far, the only sentence that supports the "culture" aspect is an admitted guess:
> I’d be interested in understanding more about the regulatory or commercial ‘dark matter’ involved in ensuring this system, but at the same time, suspect that it could equally be an implicit outcome of a culture subtly attuned to qualities of hierarchy, politeness, transience, and communality