4 ms·

Tilting at windmills here but: US is not some unique country designed for cars and other countries are not some car-free utopias. Per: https://en.wikipedia.org

by kjksf 4y ago

Tilting at windmills here but: US is not some unique country designed for cars and other countries are not some car-free utopias. Per: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_... US is 7th country on cars / people metric, below New Zealand and just above Poland. Yet this is upteenth time I read that US is "designed" around cars as if dependance on cars was some unique property of US.

Findeton 4y ago
Because you can walk in all cities and towns in Poland.
googlryas 4y ago
Saying the US was designed around cars doesn't mean it is unique in that it is designed around cars. And the relevant metrics would probably be something like miles driven and average speed, not the number of cars per capita. Jay Leno or Jerry Seinfeld may have 1,000 cars each but they can only die in a car accident once. Every in San Marino owning a car doesn't mean anything if they only drive it 15 mph through their city streets which were mostly all designed before the advent of cars.
WesternWind 4y ago
You have to look at kilometers driven per person, not just ownership. Americans drive far far more than most other industrialized nations. https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/fact-file-americans-drive-most https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/fact-file-americans-...
- windows2020 4y ago
  America is huge and lots of it isn't densely populated.
  - nostrebored 4y ago
    Hence the claim it’s designed for cars
  - WesternWind 4y ago
    Yeah but we commute by car way more. We used to have way more railroads and public transit in the US.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    Most of the driving is done where most of the people live. In those huge sparsely populated areas, you can stand next to an road all day and see only a few cars. Even on the interstates, it's not uncommon to be driving along without another car in sight on either horizon.
- WesternWind 4y ago
  American roads could also be a lot safer. https://www.fastcompany.com/90771003/american-roads-are-designed-to-be-deadly https://www.fastcompany.com/90771003/american-roads-are-desi...
KptMarchewa 4y ago
Polish count includes millions of vehicles that does not exist but were never "deregistered". Amount of active insurance policies is slightly below 27 million: https://piu.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ubezpieczenia-w-liczbach-2021.pdf https://piu.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ubezpieczenia-... That would rate us below Canada but before France. What's also interesting is that Poland is absolutely not designed around cars. Most communist blocks were designed for few times less cars. The main cities are still not fully connected by highways. We have perfect size country for high speed trains.
- badpun 4y ago
  Public transit is severy lacking in most cities (the whole, rather urbanised, country, has just 1.5 subway lines...), trains are crap, there are few bike lanes. Most of the money in the past 30 years went into improving the road network, and it made driving a mostly pleasant and convenient experience. Transport-wise, everything else (apart from building a lot of airports) was pretty much neglected though. This is slowly changing, thanks to EU money (it's now being directed more towards public transit and trains), and should get better in the next 10-20 years, but for now it is what it is.
pastacacioepepe 4y ago
> US is 7th country on cars / people metric, below New Zealand and just above Poland. It doesn't really matter when US has 56 times the cars of the first 6 countries combined. You're comparing San Marino (a small city) with the entirety the US. It's just noise. Consider also that San Marino, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein and Malta are all very small and rich countries. It is normal for the wealthy to own more cars than necessary. Not so normal for tens of millions of americans who live currently under the threshold of poverty. I suspect the other countries could do with way less cars, americans would still need more than they have (given the lacking public infrastructure) but can't afford them.

by kjksf 4y ago

Findeton 4y ago

Because you can walk in all cities and towns in Poland.

googlryas 4y ago

Saying the US was designed around cars doesn't mean it is unique in that it is designed around cars. And the relevant metrics would probably be something like miles driven and average speed, not the number of cars per capita. Jay Leno or Jerry Seinfeld may have 1,000 cars each but they can only die in a car accident once. Every in San Marino owning a car doesn't mean anything if they only drive it 15 mph through their city streets which were mostly all designed before the advent of cars.

WesternWind 4y ago

You have to look at kilometers driven per person, not just ownership. Americans drive far far more than most other industrialized nations. https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/fact-file-americans-drive-most https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/fact-file-americans-...

windows2020 4y ago
America is huge and lots of it isn't densely populated.
- nostrebored 4y ago
  Hence the claim it’s designed for cars
- WesternWind 4y ago
  Yeah but we commute by car way more. We used to have way more railroads and public transit in the US.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Most of the driving is done where most of the people live. In those huge sparsely populated areas, you can stand next to an road all day and see only a few cars. Even on the interstates, it's not uncommon to be driving along without another car in sight on either horizon.
WesternWind 4y ago
American roads could also be a lot safer. https://www.fastcompany.com/90771003/american-roads-are-designed-to-be-deadly https://www.fastcompany.com/90771003/american-roads-are-desi...

KptMarchewa 4y ago

Polish count includes millions of vehicles that does not exist but were never "deregistered". Amount of active insurance policies is slightly below 27 million: https://piu.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ubezpieczenia-w-liczbach-2021.pdf https://piu.org.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ubezpieczenia-... That would rate us below Canada but before France. What's also interesting is that Poland is absolutely not designed around cars. Most communist blocks were designed for few times less cars. The main cities are still not fully connected by highways. We have perfect size country for high speed trains.

badpun 4y ago
Public transit is severy lacking in most cities (the whole, rather urbanised, country, has just 1.5 subway lines...), trains are crap, there are few bike lanes. Most of the money in the past 30 years went into improving the road network, and it made driving a mostly pleasant and convenient experience. Transport-wise, everything else (apart from building a lot of airports) was pretty much neglected though. This is slowly changing, thanks to EU money (it's now being directed more towards public transit and trains), and should get better in the next 10-20 years, but for now it is what it is.

pastacacioepepe 4y ago

> US is 7th country on cars / people metric, below New Zealand and just above Poland. It doesn't really matter when US has 56 times the cars of the first 6 countries combined. You're comparing San Marino (a small city) with the entirety the US. It's just noise. Consider also that San Marino, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein and Malta are all very small and rich countries. It is normal for the wealthy to own more cars than necessary. Not so normal for tens of millions of americans who live currently under the threshold of poverty. I suspect the other countries could do with way less cars, americans would still need more than they have (given the lacking public infrastructure) but can't afford them.