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Two buses, three hours and 13 miles: how Americans in ‘transit deserts’ get groceries without cars
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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Fuck Cars
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Called it. Most people in Europe will be pissed but will survive without gasoline. In US it will be an apocalypse.
Breaking American's love affair with cars is going to be painful but ultimately necessary. We need people's attitudes to sour on car dependent urban planning, and making gas too expensive will make driving feel emotionally too costly.
The thing is urban planning is really hard to change. You will not be able to put all the necessary stores and businesses walking distance from everyone living in suburbs. Urban sprawl is the exact opposite of 15 minute cities. Almost 50% of Americans live in suburbs. You can't just say "let's move half of our country to newly built urban areas". Even with willing government, huge investment and perfect execution it would take decades.
Doing it properly would take decades. You could start applying for zoning exceptions to turn houses into makeshift corner stores tomorrow though. It would feel weird, but it's better than nothing. Communities need to band together.
Yes, and you could probably also turn houses into corner childcare, corner gyms and corner coffee places but you will not have enough population density to support those businesses. Where I live you can often find tiny neighborhood stores that only serve small community. They only serve basic products with log shelf life. Typical nutritional desert thing. That what you would get in suburbs in best case. Forget about any specialty stores and services or course. All doctor visits, hardware stores, hairdressers will still require driving. Even more importantly, there's no work in suburbs. People still have to get to work every day and you will not build public transport just by changing policy.
You can't do it overnight, no. But you can rapidly agree that it needs to be done
We can rapidly agree and it will still take decades. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I'm saying that the transition will have to happen and it will be extremely painful because of just how unprepared everyone is for it.