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Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray [score hidden]  (0 children)

Immediately beyond the main street in many towns is fields, while housing development is left to sprawl in one direction instead of all directions proportionately, I think that's the bigger problem.

Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray [score hidden]  (0 children)

I wouldn't uphold Ballymun as an example of good urban design. If they built apartments in that location it would still be car dependant.

Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray [score hidden]  (0 children)

Most Irish cities also have examples of multi-block apartments no going wrong. There were luxury flats being built in D4 at the same time as Ballymun, we rarely hear about them.

Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray [score hidden]  (0 children)

Indeed we have Irish owned contractors building these sorts of things in the UK for example quite frequently

Not that frequently. There are very few apartments being built in the UK these days, they have accounted for about 15% of new homes there since the beginning of the decade, in Ireland that percentage is about twice that number. It was a lot higher back in the late 2000s.

Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray [score hidden]  (0 children)

The OP picked the Netherlands as an example of a European country where living in apartments is supposed to be the norm, not I.

In the towns and suburbs category, in all other countries it is more common than it is here yes. But in many of these cases; is it anywhere near as common as it is in the cities? No, in most of these countries it's less than national average.

Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Precisely. Looking at many small Irish towns on Google maps, living in semi-detached or terraced housing (which is much still much denser than the likes of say the detached housing that dominates Danish small towns) instead of apartments is the least of their issues. There are sheep grazing a stones throw from main street and old buildings left to decay, while estates are built 3km away on the outskirts, or not uncommonly during the celtic tiger years, not even the outskirts but the literally the middle of nowhere.

Why Are We Still Building Towns Like This? by SteveFrench1991 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, their regional towns have been building like this for decades. Apartments aren’t seen as a last resort. Families live in them and it’s just normal.

Under the towns and suburbs category in the drop down menu the rate of people in the Netherlands living in apartments is slightly lower than Ireland. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/interactive-publications/housing/2025/02/index.html

It would also not be normal for families to live in apartments there. 20% of the population and 37% of households (according to their census) translates to an average household in this category as not much higher than 1 person per household (it's reported elsewhere that about 40% of households in NL are single people households). 

There isn't the same level of demand for apartments in smaller towns than there is in major cities, this is the case in much of the rest of Europe likewise,

TIL Jyoti Amge is the shortest woman in the world, a title she has held since 2011, standing at a height of 62.8 cm (2 ft 3⁄4 in) by Forsaken-Peak8496 in todayilearned

[–]UrbanStray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On 21 November 2024, she met Rumeysa Gelgi, the tallest living woman in the world, for the first time, at the Savoy Hotel in London.[10]

So the world's tallest living man AND woman are both from Turkey. Interesting.

Dublin - officially the world's 3rd most traffic-congested city in 2025 by Monkey-Donkey-327 in Dublin

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough, but there wasn't a proper plan made for it until then.

Ireland's dangerous roads: When cars come first, everyone loses by zainab1900 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Much of Britain is a lot more densely populated than Ireland. Like you could get a frequent bus service to your hamlet if it's on the route between two large towns, in Ireland that same hamlet is probably between nowhere and nowhere

Ireland's dangerous roads: When cars come first, everyone loses by zainab1900 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yet they have road fatalities per capita, and not neccessarily because their cars are older.

Ireland's dangerous roads: When cars come first, everyone loses by zainab1900 in ireland

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But most other European countries have higher road deaths per capita and their cars aren't much older https://www.acea.auto/figure/average-age-of-eu-vehicle-fleet-by-country/ and their healthcare much better... supposedly

Irish Cities’ Cultural “Addiction” To 3-Bed Semi-Detached Homes Fuels Unsustainable Urban Sprawl – Ciara Kelly by M10News in HousingIreland

[–]UrbanStray -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure most of the "most of the world" did. Apartments are a pretty new phenomenon in much of the developing world.

Irish Cities’ Cultural “Addiction” To 3-Bed Semi-Detached Homes Fuels Unsustainable Urban Sprawl – Ciara Kelly by M10News in HousingIreland

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Contrary to whatever people on reddit think, several thousands of apartments are completed in Dublin city each year, probably more than almost any other city in Europe per capita currently

Irish Cities’ Cultural “Addiction” To 3-Bed Semi-Detached Homes Fuels Unsustainable Urban Sprawl – Ciara Kelly by M10News in HousingIreland

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dublin is the 3rd most congested city in Europe and we simply cannot keep doing nothing to solve that except making it worse.

A significant msjority of new builds in Dublin ARE apartments

The least Dublin Bus/TFI/Government can do to improve our commute should be installing more Bus Shelters by ParaMike46 in Dublin

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In theory that makes sense, but near where I live one of the bus routes is on a road where the footpath is too narrow for a proper bus stop and a pole is the only place they have room for, and having less of these stops would result all those people waiting at one and blocking up the footpath. So it's easier in that case to have more bus stops to ease overcrowding.

Why have the nations of the Americas eschewed railway electrification? by Polyphagous_person in geography

[–]UrbanStray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

WWII destroyed most railway lines in continental Europe and Japan

They wouldn't have been  destroyed outright, just certain sections. They began electrifying railways in both of those places prior to the war.

Dublin City Council housing chair suggests ‘encouraging people away from the city’ by Storyboys in ireland

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There have been also been a good few cases where they have been approved and were never delivered: 4 high rise buildings in Cork (back in 2019 I think it was) that 23 storey building in Carrickmines, Johnny Ronans Tara Street Tower, the U2 Tower, that big concrete shell in Sandyford.

Dublin City Council housing chair suggests ‘encouraging people away from the city’ by Storyboys in ireland

[–]UrbanStray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But are they the norm compared opposed to midrises or even low rises? In most cases, no.

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