You’re so disconnected from reality. Ask yourself how many people are unable to work remotely. If you can’t think of enough examples to justify roads, go outside more.

Are factories now built downtown or am I missing something?

Do you think that cities of the future rely on cars or on more efficiently scaleable means of transportation - like trains, subways and trams?

> Ask yourself how many people are unable to work remotely.

Please elaborate.

Personally, I don't think there's any elected mayor on the planet that has "moving more factories inside the city" on their agenda.

Note that I was specifically arguing about office spaces. And everyone in an office space can work remotely.

I'm not arguing about politics, I'm arguing that technologically there's no need for office spaces inside the city. It's a societal expectation that doesn't make sense anymore and isn't necessary. What COVID showed us is that most if not all of the tasks that were done in offices before can be done remotely just fine. Additionally it showed us how quiet and livable cities can get when there's no traffic jam of commuters.

> Are factories now built downtown or am I missing something?

Plenty of other roles that can't be performed remotely, e.g. plumbers, hairdressers/beauticians, dentists, shoe/clothing store workers, therapists, teachers (technically possible, just not desirable in the last two cases).

But that's not even the limiting factor for public transport: the landscape of extracurricular activities for children shifted.

Parents of children too young to cross the whole city on their own have a total of 3-4 locations to visit daily. Doing that via public transport quickly becomes tedious.

I think what's missing in your argument is the causality of the problem at hand.

> have a total of 3-4 locations to visit daily

I'd argue that the problem is not roads themselves, the problem is that cities are built around roads and cars. If cities would be organized with being road-free in mind, the problem you're describing wouldn't exist.

A lot of cities in Europe have changed their way of thinking how to design a city these days, and try to evolve the downtown areas so that they're closer together and easier to reach via public transportation and/or by foot. Just some examples that come to mind: Venice, Granada, Amsterdam, Heidelberg, Nuremberg, Rostock (and soon probably Mainz and Stuttgart, as they're actively working on it).

What these cities have in common: They changed their prioritization from multi-lane roads inside the city to a sustainable park&ride model that embraces cheap and regularly available public transportation, and combines that in worst case (when they don't have trams, busses or subways) with something like rentable bikes provided by the city. In best case, you'll have something like Amsterdam or Venice, where everything is not built for cars but for all other modes of transportation, except cars.

And some might argue that those cities have working plumbers, hairdressers, dentists etc, too. They seemingly can still work without having a multi-lane highway blocking the skylight over their houses. Why do you think is that the case?

You’re missing the fact that Americans like being in their own car and American cities are democracies. Any attempt to remove roads would be voted down. Finally the reality is American cities don’t have good pervasive transit options, reason being even if you built them people prefer their cars. NYC is a very notable exception but I would point out NYC is also covered in roads.

You got to elaborate on that if you want people to take you seriously.

You need roads to move irregularly shaped construction equipment.

The solution isn't to remove roads. The solution is a London style congestion tax.

Which planning economists have cried out for, for ages.

They are pretty rare in European cities (that I know of). They do exist, but in the largest cities, and are limited to the main arteries.

I grew up in New England and currently live in Denver, but have traveled to over 20 countries and lived in both Italy and Croatia. Europe is a very broad statement so maybe you are talking about some outliers, but roads are not rare nor are they limited to main arteries in any of the locations I traveled.

Is public transportation better than most places I’ve been in the US? Without a doubt - it’s not even close. But roads are just as relevant.