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The thing that isn't talked about is the function of a personal vehicle. A car is a major contributing factor to personal freedom. You are able to travel short

The thing that isn't talked about is the function of a personal vehicle. A car is a major contributing factor to personal freedom. You are able to travel short to long distances on YOUR schedule, not someone else's. The biggest issue with a lot of public transpo is the lack of freedom. You dont travel when convenient to you and you dont get taken to exactly where you want to go. This of course has its pros that go with the cons, both environmental and cost (cost to a degree, not all public transport is created equal and I have a big problem with considering it savings if you spend 1.5 hours round trip to do a 30 min round trip commute, but that's a slightly different topic). When people argue for the rights of cars, they are really talking about their own personal rights to large movement (grocery shopping is far easier with a car than by public transpo and foot as a quick example). And as the caveat, yes I do believe we need to take steps to solving our pollution generation. In the same breath, I dont believe in taking away personal freedoms or independent abilities. Paris is literally an archaic city. The design is archaic and what city planners have to deal with are hacks due to legacy design. Then again, French culture is rather archaic as well. They still refuse to adopt loaner words as an example, something the rest of the world has been doing for the past few hundred years at least. Using them as a poster child for what the rest of the modern world should do to fix pollution problems is like trusting an Italian engineering firm to build a bridge... it's going to collapse :P Add to that, banning anything is a very buercratical answer to a complex problem. Tell me the last time banning/prohibition has worked well and never had 2nd or 3rd order severe consequences. Historical speaking, they're pulling ideas out of their ass and are going to regret this decision regardless if its "for the greater good".

bluGill 6y ago
A good public transport system is more convenient than a car. I see kids as young as 10 (maybe younger but I haven't seen it) riding my local city bus system alone - compare that to the other parents who drive their kids to school. When the public transport system goes where you want about when you want it is really nice to not have to drive. Most people have never experienced a good transport system. Even in Europe most have not. Paris is good for some people, but not even everyone in Paris. It is even worse in the US.
avianlyric 6y ago
I think maybe you need to leave your American cities and come visit a modern city like London or Paris that has excellent public transport. Living in London I travel on my schedule everywhere on public transport. That because a bus or a train turns up at every station or stop every 4 mins. Very little need to wait, never any need to plan. I live in flat with a parking space (and paid a hefty premium for it) but still don’t have a car. Not because I can’t afford one, but because it just doesn’t make sense. It quicker, easier and cheaper to take public transport everywhere than it is to drive. Trains don’t get stuck in traffic, and there’s more train crossings over the river than there is car crossings, making most trips more direct by public transport. You view cars as personal freedom. I see them as noisy pollution machines that try kill me when I walk and cycle. Why the hell should i give up my personal freedoms to walk and cycle, just so you can drive?
- corty 6y ago
  Very well then, try to get to and from Heathrow airport by public transport, I dare you... That there is some public transport rather than none doesn't make it 'excellent'.
  - quotemstr 6y ago
    In all fairness, Heathrow Express seems to work very well
    - candiodari 6y ago
      Compared to a car or taxi it doesn't.
      - quotemstr 6y ago
        I've traveled between core London and Heathrow many times, and every time I've taken the train, I've had a faster, more pleasant experience that I would have had in a taxi. Maybe it's different if you're heading to Heathrow from outside Zone 1.
      - 6y ago
0xB31B1B 6y ago
The world of urban centers is a world of a fixed amount of lane-miles of road. Cars are an extremely inefficient use of road space, they have some of the worst throughout in terms of people per lane-mile per hour relative to other transit modes. What cities like Paris are doing is reallocating lane-miles of road from cars to alternate mere efficient transit modes, which increases there throughout and decreases their commute times. In a world of limited resources (lane miles of road) how much of a penalty should bus riders pay (in terms of minutes wasted sitting in car traffic) to increase the freedom of a much smaller in number group of drivers. I don’t have the numbers offhand, but let’s say there are 5 unique passenger trips in a bus for every unique passenger trip in a car in Paris. It’s calculable, by saying “preserve car drivers freedom” you are also saying “increase commute times by 30% for a group of people that is 5x as big as those having their freedom preserved.

bluGill 6y ago

A good public transport system is more convenient than a car. I see kids as young as 10 (maybe younger but I haven't seen it) riding my local city bus system alone - compare that to the other parents who drive their kids to school. When the public transport system goes where you want about when you want it is really nice to not have to drive. Most people have never experienced a good transport system. Even in Europe most have not. Paris is good for some people, but not even everyone in Paris. It is even worse in the US.

avianlyric 6y ago

I think maybe you need to leave your American cities and come visit a modern city like London or Paris that has excellent public transport. Living in London I travel on my schedule everywhere on public transport. That because a bus or a train turns up at every station or stop every 4 mins. Very little need to wait, never any need to plan. I live in flat with a parking space (and paid a hefty premium for it) but still don’t have a car. Not because I can’t afford one, but because it just doesn’t make sense. It quicker, easier and cheaper to take public transport everywhere than it is to drive. Trains don’t get stuck in traffic, and there’s more train crossings over the river than there is car crossings, making most trips more direct by public transport. You view cars as personal freedom. I see them as noisy pollution machines that try kill me when I walk and cycle. Why the hell should i give up my personal freedoms to walk and cycle, just so you can drive?

corty 6y ago
Very well then, try to get to and from Heathrow airport by public transport, I dare you... That there is some public transport rather than none doesn't make it 'excellent'.
- quotemstr 6y ago
  In all fairness, Heathrow Express seems to work very well
  - candiodari 6y ago
    Compared to a car or taxi it doesn't.
    - quotemstr 6y ago
      I've traveled between core London and Heathrow many times, and every time I've taken the train, I've had a faster, more pleasant experience that I would have had in a taxi. Maybe it's different if you're heading to Heathrow from outside Zone 1.
    - 6y ago

0xB31B1B 6y ago

The world of urban centers is a world of a fixed amount of lane-miles of road. Cars are an extremely inefficient use of road space, they have some of the worst throughout in terms of people per lane-mile per hour relative to other transit modes. What cities like Paris are doing is reallocating lane-miles of road from cars to alternate mere efficient transit modes, which increases there throughout and decreases their commute times. In a world of limited resources (lane miles of road) how much of a penalty should bus riders pay (in terms of minutes wasted sitting in car traffic) to increase the freedom of a much smaller in number group of drivers. I don’t have the numbers offhand, but let’s say there are 5 unique passenger trips in a bus for every unique passenger trip in a car in Paris. It’s calculable, by saying “preserve car drivers freedom” you are also saying “increase commute times by 30% for a group of people that is 5x as big as those having their freedom preserved.