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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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.
And the other side of the problem is the last also lives in a food desert. No one who lives in an urban or suburban area should be 13 miles from a grocery store.
3h to go 13 miles? Get a bike...
They're banning ebikes to save big oil
That kinda sucks for the elderly or disabled, but anyone else can use a regular bike
One time, when I was about 30-years-old, I was trekking long distance and a 74-year-old guy named Jerry caught up to me. We road side-by-side for a while and talked and he invited me to ride into town with him. We rode until we encountered some people that were waiting for him and then we all rode into town and had dinner together.
Never saw him again after that. He was doing over 200 miles a day. I was doing a little over a hundred miles a day. Granted, he had a $5,000+ titanium frame bicycle and I just had some mediocre aluminum frame worth maybe $500.
Sure, you get some old people who run marathons, but you also have many that don't get out for much exercise at all and ebikes (or 3 wheelers) can help them a lot. It's also the most common legal form of ebike I actually see.
Otherwise a lot are using them illegally as an unregistered motorcycle down bike lanes. All illegal and barely ever enforced.
What if it's uphill?
Both ways?
Or they're disabled, or they need to bring kids, or they need bulky items or or or....
Bulky items like say, groceries
Both ways?
An electric bike. The American ones are 3x as powerful as European models.
“Just spend $500-2000 on an e-bike” isn’t what I would consider within the reach of most people living in food deserts and on food stamps.
I was kidding but even if everyone buys electric cargo bike (which are not cheap) to carry water, milk and other heavy items 40km round trip will be ~2h, you won't be able to take kids with you or simply stop on your way from work. It's doable but it will be painful for a lot of people.
Do we need charities to fundraise to make sure Americans have access to clean drinking water in their village?
That is a lot better time than the article listed for the alternative option. Kids can ride along with their own bikes or in a trailer/seat, depending on age.
Kids can ride along with their own bikes or in a trailer/seat, depending on age.
Really? You would let 6-7 year old ride 40 km on public roads? Or 2-3 of them? You will buy 4 electric bikes with snap benefits?
Ok, just keep taking the shitty bus then if you find that so much easier than riding a bike.
I know it's a stereotype that Americans are incredibly lazy but you are not exactly doing anything to suggest otherwise.
I don't live in US and I do take my bike to work. I simply realize not everyone is in the same situation as I am. It's called empathy.
They're banning ebikes for young people and imposing onerous licencing, regrestration, and insurance requirements
instead, every two weeks, she buys at least $35 worth of groceries online to avoid a $6.99 fee for a smaller order and pays a $7 monthly delivery charge not covered by her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits.
Poor tax
$35 of groceries is only 4 to 8 meals, not to mention hygiene and household items. One person would spend much more than that weekly if they're not dining out.
if they’re not dining out.
Or are hungry.
$35 is a lot of oatmeal, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, beans, and frozen veg. Maybe some raisins for fruit. No, it’s not fun, but you eat miserable food when you live in a food desert and have no money. Also, the passage says at least, not only. She’s probably spending more.
She’s probably spending more
that's my point, spending $35 to avoid the extra fee is not really a problem, because one can easily do that with everyday food for one person per week. In fact it'd be really hard to spend less than that on food.
spending $35 to avoid the extra fee is not really a problem
If it’s making it so that she can only order groceries every 2 weeks, I’d consider that a problem. The fee itself isn’t the root cause, but it’s another barrier. I don’t believe for a second that your quality of life wouldn’t be impacted if you only ordered groceries every 2 weeks.
That’s Walmart. And their competitor to Amazon Prime.
And it leaves out any tip for the driver contracted to pick it up. Usually via DoorDash in the sort of markets depicted in this article.
Is that supposed to sound bad? That doesn't sound bad to me.
It’s not “supposed to sound bad” It IS bad.
$7 a month is $3.50 per delivery. That's like the cost of a round trip bus ticket. And someone is spending the time and effort shopping for you. And $35 is not a burdensome minimum for 2 weeks of groceries.
To steelman the article, the real cost comes in with the fact they sneak in markups on the prices of the items.
And $35 is not a burdensome minimum for 2 weeks of groceries.
It doesn’t say she only spends $35, it says $35 is the minimum she has to spend to avoid the charge.
Yes, I understand. You misunderstood me just now. If anyone else misunderstood my previous comment, please downvote this so I know.
🙄
Gas is hit record highs and may never come back down again. America is going to have to reckon with the poor urban planning we've done for a century and it seems like pain is the only way we're going to learn. We need to be shooken from the status quo and unfortunately the people are going to be severely inconvenienced between now and when we finally get serious about public transit and Zoning reform
I have seen an increase in e-bikes even though it's very dangerous to walk or cycle because here there are barely any sidewalks or bike lanes
And then they blame the ebike rider for that.