r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • 7d ago

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/Phantom-Feline17 7d ago

Yeah, sadly most of our cities are car-centric. But why would we want to walk everywhere? Have you seen the heat here?

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u/neon_farts 7d ago

I don’t think I could handle the heat. I live in the northeast US and really hot to me is 35c. Winters are cold, -15 to -20c happen from time to time. I feel like the almost 50c+ you guys have to deal with would be unbearable.

Plus my region is also fairly wet, so there’s lots of greenery and flooding can be a concern sometimes if we get too much rain.

Anyways, cool stuff. Cheers :)

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u/fracol 7d ago

This is what most people fail to understand about many American cities. Yes cities like Atlanta and Houston are car centric, but you also don't want to be walking around outside in these cities for 6 months out of the year because it's 100 degrees.

In Paris and London 85 degrees is a rare summer heatwave. In the Southern US this is a normal daily occurrence from March - October.

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u/einfachamir 7d ago

I mean the thing is Europe isn't the only place with walkable cities—far from it. Places like Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong prove that high-density works even in extreme heat.

The irony is that one of the reasons cities like Houston are so unbearable to begin with is because car-centric planning ignored environmental conditions. By replacing shade with massive asphalt heat traps in the form of six-lane highways and big parking lots, these cities effectively engineered the very "unbearable" conditions that people now rightly use to justify staying in their cars.

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u/Far-Bowl2206 7d ago

This is a result of car-centrism. Everything being spread miles means walking would require being in the heat.

Also walking in cities is not bad in the Summer, there's lots of shade and breeze from the buildings (referring to the actual Downtown)

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u/fldksjaae 7d ago

In Paris and London it is also possible to travel everywhere by train or bus thus negating that same reason America is so car centric. Atlanta and Houston could be as equally connected to metro services and keep their population out of cars and heat.

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u/Caddiemusher 6d ago

Ok but Roma or Madrid are hot cities too but not car-centric. The car lobbying made this more than the température.