4 ms·

I’ve lived 30 years in extremely well run and organized cities, with great public transport and used car only every few weeks for the longer trips. I live now

I’ve lived 30 years in extremely well run and organized cities, with great public transport and used car only every few weeks for the longer trips. I live now in a proper suburb and drive everywhere. And I enjoy it much more. Not everyone values same things in their life the same. YMMV.

ericmay 6y ago
> Not everyone values same things in their life the same. YMMV. Completely agree. And it's a public policy problem where one lifestyle is very nearly enforced. So people are pushing back against that. It's like if the government was doing this thing you wanted them to do and a lot of other people didn't like it, but they did it anyway, you'd be like yea cool this works. Good job government. In this case it's keep building roads, parking lots, and suburbs because I like driving and I'll use that to solve all my problems. But you're not realizing some of the costs of all of those things. Society certainly is. National debt, time spent sitting in a car commuting because there's no other option, teenagers dying in car crashes (I think it's still the number 1 killer of teens?), drunk driving (again no options here), amount of money spent on infrastructure, oil, wars, etc.
andrewzah 6y ago
I don't disagree with you, people value different things. However most of the US is designed in this suburb style where it's just miles and miles of houses with grocery stores and food being at least 5-15 mins away via -car-. Chicago, NY, and Boston have decent metro lines but none of our public transit comes even close to e.g. Korea or Japan in terms of efficiency, comprehensiveness, and cleanliness. The only option for the majority of the US is to have a car. And I hate that. edit: also regarding cars: I can't relax fully because I'm operating a vehicle in a space shared by other people, who are potentially distracted, operating potentially deadly vehicles that kill or seriously injure many Americans each year, and I can't read a book, etc, because my hands are tied up. This would be fine if I had other choices, but I realistically don't.

ericmay 6y ago

> Not everyone values same things in their life the same. YMMV. Completely agree. And it's a public policy problem where one lifestyle is very nearly enforced. So people are pushing back against that. It's like if the government was doing this thing you wanted them to do and a lot of other people didn't like it, but they did it anyway, you'd be like yea cool this works. Good job government. In this case it's keep building roads, parking lots, and suburbs because I like driving and I'll use that to solve all my problems. But you're not realizing some of the costs of all of those things. Society certainly is. National debt, time spent sitting in a car commuting because there's no other option, teenagers dying in car crashes (I think it's still the number 1 killer of teens?), drunk driving (again no options here), amount of money spent on infrastructure, oil, wars, etc.

andrewzah 6y ago

I don't disagree with you, people value different things. However most of the US is designed in this suburb style where it's just miles and miles of houses with grocery stores and food being at least 5-15 mins away via -car-. Chicago, NY, and Boston have decent metro lines but none of our public transit comes even close to e.g. Korea or Japan in terms of efficiency, comprehensiveness, and cleanliness. The only option for the majority of the US is to have a car. And I hate that. edit: also regarding cars: I can't relax fully because I'm operating a vehicle in a space shared by other people, who are potentially distracted, operating potentially deadly vehicles that kill or seriously injure many Americans each year, and I can't read a book, etc, because my hands are tied up. This would be fine if I had other choices, but I realistically don't.