2y ago

We almost have a consensus

We only have to convince people to hate one more car than they already despise.

78 comments

I find the general vibe of this community to be more fuck car dependancy than fuck every car that has ever existed for any purpose.
- Sometimes groups like this go overboard since they're naturally sort of echo chambers. Not saying that has happened here yet
- Just: I'm in the latter category, but that's because I'm an avid pedestrian who's been almost run over FAR too many times.
- Unless it's a pickup or ute, in which case burn it.
  Vans, regardless of size, are OK though.

A bit like the consensus that most gods don't exist.
- I believe in all gods cause I'm a rebel
  
  That's the spirit! What fun you must have imagining them all fighting about who's real...
- I believe in Gods, but my Gods have no problem with you or anyone else doing whatever the heck you want, and we'll probably end up in the same afterlife...
  
  They sound like great Gods, and I'll believe in them even though they don't exist. Where do we meet up to sing?
  
  Not if I get my way. I'll have access to a holodeck that can make me food, and you'll never see me again!
  
  My gods are old and come to me in dreams to show me an ancient city, deep beneath the ocean. I think they're trying to tell me about Atlantis.

I hate my car too, I’m just required to own it because I need it I’m the suburbs to commute and it has already been paid off.

Very true. But I would still get rid of either mine or my wife's (and only keep one for trips) if we had public transportation... or fucking sidewalks at least.

I live in a very very car dependent city with an almost non-existent bus system I survived for 7 years without a car until a potential employer insisted that in order to work there a car was mandatory. This happened at three separate job offers in my career before I finally caved.
- It's incredibly common for most decently paying jobs where I live, and has been becoming more common even as the gov:t has pushed for public transit (and reliability of trains has declined). The potential costs of an employee being potentially 30+ minutes late due to transit issues are just too great.
  
  I understand their point of view it just sucks because no doubt it's generated even more traffic exacerbating the problem
- It's incredibly common for most decently paying jobs where I live, and has been becoming more common even as the gov:t has pushed for public transit (and reliability of trains has declined). The potential costs of an employee being potentially 30+ minutes late due to transit issues are just too great.

Sunk cost fallacy. We already dropped money on it, after all.

Believe me, I wish I didn't need a car, but I'm a field service tech and my job requires a work vehicle since I'm travelling with a ton of tools. I'd also love to get rid of my personal car, but my wife needs it for a 30-minute commute; the bus ride is close to 2 hours and there aren't really any other practicable transportation methods.
Don't even get me started on the lack of infrastructure outside of downtown, there are a ton of places around town where they don't even have sidewalks, let alone bike or bus lanes.
I don't know what the solution is when so many cities and municipalities either don't want to invest in mass public transportation or (in the case of my city) cheaped out and ended up with a light rail transit system that barely functions. It just reinforces car ownership out of necessity.
- Public transit doesn't work in sparsely populated suburbs. You need medium density developments like we had all around the world before car-centric urbanism took over. Throw in some commercial buildings and public amenities and you often don't even need transit because you can walk anywhere you want to go.
  
  Public transit does work in sparsely populated suburbs. We just don't want it to work there.
  In short: at 50 households per sq km, we could replace cars with a bus every 5 to 24 mins 24/7/365.
  Assumptions:
  Density: 50 households per sq km (lowest possible before rural) Transit catchment: 1 km radius Cars per household: 2 Cost of a bus: ~$122 USD/hour ($165 CAD) Cost of a car: A car $988 per month on average Use of car: 380 hours per year on average.
  Calculations
  Households per bus stop: pi r sq x 50 = 157 Cars per stop: above x 2 = 314 Car cost per stop: above x $988 x 12 = $3,722,784 Annual Car hours per stop: cars x 380 { 112,000 Annual Bus hours per stop: car cost / 165 = 22,562
  22,562 annual bus hours, or 2.5 busses running every hour all hours, per stop with 1 km bubble at the lowest possible density for suburbs.
  At 3 km (cycle distance) you get 1,413 cars replaced with 101,530 annual bus hours. Or 11.6 busses per hour, every hour, 365 days a year.
  Edit: added up front summary
- Same here. I even have a bucket on my truck.

I hate being in a car. If we had reliable and safe public transportation I'd actually go places. Trains would be nice too.

You're not stuck in traffic, you ARE traffic.

Relatable. I totally love the bus that I often take

My county removed busses a few years back, at the same time nearby counties have had their bus systems blossom into great networks.

Eh, not a massive fan of driving either. I still have a car, as my town's bus network isn't entirely bulletproof (though it is really awesome), and of course for going between towns when necessary.

Sounds alot like religion....

I drive no car. >:(

I hate the one I drive too. It's a piece of shit.

I like my car, but hate the urban design that makes me have to drive it so much

A professor of psychology once said to me: "cars are the symbol of the narcissism".
- No, this is false, I have NPD and it's contributed to my struggles with getting a license. I'd rather have the independence of a bicycle and the rail system to help me manage my disability
  
  I think you are overstating the value of your personal anecdotal experience. It's important to acknowledge that how disabilities affect people is usually pretty individual but your experience doesn't negate (what is likely) larger scale research.
- Mmm, yes, owning a midsize SUV, which is one of the most common vehicle types in my country, makes me a huge stinky narcissist.

I swear y'all are rotten in the brain
You think we drive around and sit in traffic because we just like doing it?
We drive because we have no other options. Driving sucks, almost everyone hates it, it's just the most efficient option by a landslide in most of the US.
- Yeah but the thing is: most you do nothing to change that and some of you actively prevent change.
- Are there people here who don’t know that? You’re preaching to the choir.
  
  Are there people here who don’t know that?
  Yes. Quite a few. Plenty of terminally online cyclists think motorists are intentionally trying to run them over, it's insane. Like literal mental illness levels of persecution complex. Every time fuckcars pops up on my feed I see it at least once and call it out.
- Do you mean it's the most efficient for personal choice given current political conditions, or do you mean it's the most efficient for a society to organise around and for politicians to plan for?
  
  Most efficient route for an individual to get from A to B. Probably the least efficient as a standard for society when you factor in carbon emissions.
- This place is like a zoo for stupid people, it's great.

Thing is, if we're conflating hate for other drivers with hate for other cars, the absolute worst thing on the road is buses because bus drivers absolutely never obey certain traffic laws like "drive in one lane at a time" or "no changing lanes without signalling", and when they park by the side of the road, it's way worse than when a mere car does it.
Seriously, bus drivers are the exact opposite of 18-wheeler drivers. They're the bullies of the street.
- The thing is, buses are 30x more important than most cars and should be prioritized as such, in the same way that emergency services are infinitely more important than every other vehicle. Buses are (morally)allowed to drive like aggressive twats and every other vehicle needs to get out of the way.
  Unfortunately, some car drivers have missed the memo and think their time is more important than 30 other people's. Those are the people that should be shamed, not the poor underpaid bus driver that's trying their best to get a whole busload of passengers to work on time.
- Where the hell is this coming from? In my city buses are the bullied ones, if anything. I feel like drivers have some minor degree of empathy towards other drivers but that totally goes out of the window when they have to let a bus pass.
  Also, buses are generally operated by the city administration so it makes zero sense that the city would let its own employes violate traffic laws.
- You can complain that a bus cut you off when you have 20 people in the back of your car

78 comments