A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
These threads are always full of people saying, "why don't you just..." The problem is you are suggesting coping methods for a plethora of problems, in a vacuum individually. You're failing to put all of the problems of cars, trucks, and their requisite infrastructure together as the awful, smothering whole that it is.
Ban cars from ~~populated~~ areas.
Or ban cars from Gaia.
The US auto industry is absolutely to blame for pushing gigantic gas guzzlers on people. But the people who buy those monstrosities and get hugely into debt to do it are very much to blame too.
I think its the EPA for not regulating truck emissions as stringently as they do for normal cars.
DOT is in charge of CAFE regulations. The original law specified standards that were for "passenger vehicles" and "automobiles which are not passenger automobiles".
DOT interpreted that as trucks, which made sense back then. Unfortunately, every manufacturer just declared their cars to be trucks (invention of the SUV) and the DOT let them.
Then they made it worse by scaling fuel economy to vehicle size, so manufactures just made cars have a larger footprint to be allowed to have worse fuel economy.
It's also the auto industry for regulatory-capture of the EPA. It's an ouroboros of corruption with plenty of blame to go around.
They passed a fuel economy law that had to do with vehicle weight, auto industry response was make bigger heavier vehicles to get around new fuel economy requirements. That's the reason all of the reasonably sized personal trucks got massive like 15 years ago.
Sounds like a lot of people were convinced to borrow way more than they could afford for a status symbol no one should care about. Financial literacy should be taught in middle school.
Never in my live did I expect to live through an Economic Crash related to Penis Compensation Devices ...
Yes, there should be accounting and financial classes in middle/high school. However, then the (predatory) loan industry would have less prey. They "love the poorly educated."
A lot of people choose a car even when it is just worse.
My bike ride to work is 8km and takes 20-25 mins. Yet I know people who live and work near me who drive the same route which takes almost twice as long mostly sat in traffic. They spend more on their car than I do on my mortgage and that is before maintenance, insurance, oh and fuel too because despite choosing such an expensive car and never driving over 10km, oh yeah gotta go for ICE.
Suppose at least with such short distances driven that fuel lasts a while. Doesn't stop them moaning about it though. I should start responding with the cost of Cornish pasties to power my bike.
This was kinda the reason I went back to cycling to work when I lived in London (I had lived in The Netherlands before and there it was pretty normal to do so) - it turns out that it was faster to just cycle through half of Zones 1 and 2 than to walk to an catch the tube (at least London actually has a subway, by car it would've been even worse because of traffic, not to mention parking).
This was back when cycling facilities there were a bit of a joke and there were but a few people doing the same as I did.
Further, even though I was doing it in a big city (so air polution was a consideration), my health actually improved from it (more so when I discovered a site with a polution map of London and switched to a route that minimized time in big avenues with lots of traffic and polution).
I would if i could. I hate driving, but I would get killed if i biked to work. Hell, I'd possibly die just trying to get to the nearest grocery store. I need a bike lane.
There’s the trick. Cyclists know that.
We’re just making our hate for existing on this planet a bit more honest.
Used to cycle a lot, first in The Netherlands, later in London (Britain), but where I am now (Portugal) it's very dangerous because drivers here are in my experience some of the worst in Europe (let's just say that, for example, most won't signal their intention to change direction when turning right, which is very dangerous for cyclists), but in a way I'm in a priviledged position, so I chose to live in a small city close where I work, so I just walk to work (about 15 minutes each way) which even has the upside that I'm guaranteed my 30m+ exercise each day, which a study some years ago showed decreases the risk of cardio-vascular problems by 70%.
How are the bike lanes where you are?
Every lane is a bike lane, just ride in the middle of it and take the lane like you are supposed to.
I've spent only 9,000 so far on purchasing cars in my life. You do not need to spend 50k. I find the cheapest, most gas efficient beaten down used cars I can and ride them until I can't anymore.
People really fall into wanting a "nice" car, but if you treat it as a tool to take you from point A to point B and not a status symbol then you can actually find half affordable cars.
I'd love not to have a car, but public transit is nonexistent in my area. If I attempted to bike I would either get ran over or some asshole in a lifted truck would roll coal on me for fun
On purchasing, sure, but how much have you spent on maintenance?
(And also, roughly how old are you? Having spent only $9k in your life if you're 20 is a very different claim than if you're 50.)
To the extent that we need cars (since our infrastructure would take years to change even if there was the political will to do it) we need to start copying the Cubans and learn to keep old cars on the road longer. Bonus: they don't spy on you like new cars do.
"We destroyed?" - it was car industry, no? I remember there was something about car industry buying public transport just to shut them down late.r
I don't understand. Why don't people buy cheaper and/or second hand cars?
Used car market is kinda insane right now, even worse for trucks.
It's bad enough it's affecting bikes, but you can still get reliable used bikes for 2-5K.
Ultimately the used car market depends on people paying 50K for cars, the more people buy less reliable/cheaper or used cars, the more expensive it gets.
It's bad enough it's affecting bikes, but you can still get reliable used bikes for 2-5K.
This is an insane thing to read as a dutch person
Motorbikes, I got my new commuter-style bicycle in the US for 600 USD in 2019, the same bike goes for 700 USD now. But you can't use a bicycle to commute in most of the US.
Motorcycle prices in the US are weird, new big bikes are similar to what the rest of the world pays, but small bikes, they only import the most expensive trims. I got my used cb150 verza here in vietnam for 700, new they go for 1400 plus ~600 for import and other fees. They sell a bike with the same engine for 4-5000 USD in the US.
The effect of this is that young people and people who just need a bike to get around town either have to pay 3x more than they would over here for the same thing, or more likely, they buy a 20 year old liter bike for the same price, or simply never realize there's an alternative to cars.
Motorbikes
Aaaaah okay yeah that makes more sense
All Cars Are Bad 🦔
Nah. Cars are a tool that can be good or bad depending on how they are used. Prioritizing car infrastructure over any other form is what's bad.
I should be able to enjoy my daily life without a car. But being able to rent a car so I can go to the middle of nowhere on short notice is pretty great.
Having a single car requires car infrastructure which requires overproduction. The only reason we "need" cars today is that we have decided that society should revolve around it. We should strive to dismantle car infrastructure.
Your position is no less extreme and absurd than our current reality of using cars for everything. We would liberate ourselves of virtually all of the negative impacts of private car dominance well before we got to the point of banning ALL cars. Going that extra mile just for ideological purity would be self defeating and require authoritarian governance to pull off.
Well sure, it can just be left to fall apart instead, but the infrastructure to support any number of cars still requires masses of maintenance. You can have some kind of ATV to go off on adventures in, but we're not wasting resources on stuff like filling potholes or service stations.