5 ms·

In America, driving is far and away the best UX. You go where you want when you want with up to four passengers even in a very small starter car. With the excep

In America, driving is far and away the best UX. You go where you want when you want with up to four passengers even in a very small starter car. With the exception of Manhattan and a few other big cities, cost per mile is far lower than transit. Obviously traffic sucks. Nobody likes traffic. I refuse to sit in traffic unless I am picking someone up from the airport. Even in the UK, it's often cheaper to drive. The other day I drove into Central London (!) from Cambridge in a VW Polo. I calculated the cost per mile, including the car depreciation and the onerous and ever-increasing vehicle tax, and it was STILL a far better deal than the train. Not to mention the non-negligible chance of an encounter with a risky, mentally ill passenger on transit. My wife was harassed by a man with piss-soaked sweatpants on the SF Bart and nearly missed her flight because she had to get off early. And that ticket was not cheap. I've been called homophobic and racial slurs on the London tube, for wearing short shorts on the way to go play squash. OF COURSE these events are few and far between but in my car they never happen. Despite this, the subway is still a better UX in Manhattan and London. When I'm in these places I don't drive (obviously). In the Randstad, I also never drive. Because the UX is great. When I'm in my home in North Carolina, I drive everywhere. It's great. Everything is 10 minutes away. There's always parking. Massive boost to quality of life. Cars are not some revelations-esque phenomenon and parking lots do not "eat" anything. They can always be converted to decks, as they literally always are when the demand is there. There is nothing wrong with that.

nerdchum 4y ago
Hate to say it but homeless people and sketch people have ruined west coast cities mass transit for me. Im uncomfortable like 50% of the time riding San Fran, L.A., or San Diego mass transit. Riding Chicago mass transit is nice because the cold weather eliminates most of the homeless people in one way or another. One possible solution is a premium model where there are Premium edition trains that you can pay a little extra for and have security and be around normal middle class people and relax and read a book. I.e. have a capitalist run transit service trains along side the government one. I'd ride transit a lot more if this was a thing. I'll stick to my car until west coast mass transit has figured out a way to where I don't have to sit next to a person who has literally peed them selves and looks desperate enough to rob me. (This doesn't seem to be a high bar)
- lotsoweiners 4y ago
  The problem with the premium model is that there likely isn’t going to be someone there enforcing it. The light rail in my city (which is terrible and I don’t plan to ride again) has people getting on without tickets all of the time. Only occasionally will someone show up on the train to enforce tickets and kick the free loaders off.
- mjhay 4y ago
  Public transit is safer than driving. You are far more likely to be killed driving your own car than be stabbed on the bus.
  - nerdchum 4y ago
    I don't think I said killed one time. I said 'robbed' and 'sitting next to someone who has peed themselves'. Of which the chance is infinitely higher on mass transit than your own vehicle. Unless you date sketch people then either of those is possible ;)
  - bojangleslover 4y ago
    I'd rather risk death in my own car than live a life of anxiety whenever my wife takes the train
  - dionidium 4y ago
    Transit advocates should take seriously that nobody cares if this is true. The modal American will accept an increase in rare, catastrophic risk to avoid the extreme levels of disorder on American public transit. You're not going to statistics-lecture people out of avoiding intolerable levels of disorder. We evolved a special fear of interpersonal violence and being around unstable strangers makes most people extremely uncomfortable. That's not going away.
goosedragons 4y ago
A lot of US cities still have parking minimums. If you want to build a store that has capacity for X you need to have Y parking. And the cheapest way to do that is a lot by far. This has the effect of spreading everything out because you need all this space for parking which then makes it more necessary to drive everywhere because everything is so spread out and it's a vicious cycle that encourages car usage.
- hedora 4y ago
  If the cost of the public roads included the cost of putting in parking garages, then less space would be wasted for parking. Also, road taxes would increase, making public transit more affordable by comparison.
okeuro49 4y ago
> Cars are not some revelations-esque phenomenon and parking lots do not "eat" anything. This website provides a good counter argument: https://www.strongtowns.org/ https://www.strongtowns.org/ > In America, driving is far and away the best UX. You go where you want when you want with up to four passengers even in a very small starter car Not for children/young people. In the Netherlands it's common for young people to develop independence using bicycles and public transport. I think that is far more mentally healthy than the US's car centric infrastructure, which excludes young people, making them overdependent on their parents, or dependent on being online in order to socialise.
- hedora 4y ago
  The US used to let kids roam with the current road layouts. The real problem with letting kids roam free is that we banned / defunded mental health care and gun regulations, and also gutted the middle class.
- bojangleslover 4y ago
  "In the Randstad, I also never drive. Because the UX is great."
- vGPU 4y ago
  Public transport and free roaming children are contradictory. Where there is public transport, you won’t want your kids running around. If you want to live somewhere where you can let your children roam with relative safety, it’s going to be somewhere where public transport doesn’t exist.
  - nayuki 4y ago
    Public transit is a big factor. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-28/in-japan-small-children-take-the-subway-and-run-errands-alone https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-28/in-japan-... > In Japan, small children take the subway and run errands alone, no parent in sight.

nerdchum 4y ago

Hate to say it but homeless people and sketch people have ruined west coast cities mass transit for me. Im uncomfortable like 50% of the time riding San Fran, L.A., or San Diego mass transit. Riding Chicago mass transit is nice because the cold weather eliminates most of the homeless people in one way or another. One possible solution is a premium model where there are Premium edition trains that you can pay a little extra for and have security and be around normal middle class people and relax and read a book. I.e. have a capitalist run transit service trains along side the government one. I'd ride transit a lot more if this was a thing. I'll stick to my car until west coast mass transit has figured out a way to where I don't have to sit next to a person who has literally peed them selves and looks desperate enough to rob me. (This doesn't seem to be a high bar)

lotsoweiners 4y ago
The problem with the premium model is that there likely isn’t going to be someone there enforcing it. The light rail in my city (which is terrible and I don’t plan to ride again) has people getting on without tickets all of the time. Only occasionally will someone show up on the train to enforce tickets and kick the free loaders off.
mjhay 4y ago
Public transit is safer than driving. You are far more likely to be killed driving your own car than be stabbed on the bus.
- nerdchum 4y ago
  I don't think I said killed one time. I said 'robbed' and 'sitting next to someone who has peed themselves'. Of which the chance is infinitely higher on mass transit than your own vehicle. Unless you date sketch people then either of those is possible ;)
- bojangleslover 4y ago
  I'd rather risk death in my own car than live a life of anxiety whenever my wife takes the train
- dionidium 4y ago
  Transit advocates should take seriously that nobody cares if this is true. The modal American will accept an increase in rare, catastrophic risk to avoid the extreme levels of disorder on American public transit. You're not going to statistics-lecture people out of avoiding intolerable levels of disorder. We evolved a special fear of interpersonal violence and being around unstable strangers makes most people extremely uncomfortable. That's not going away.

goosedragons 4y ago

A lot of US cities still have parking minimums. If you want to build a store that has capacity for X you need to have Y parking. And the cheapest way to do that is a lot by far. This has the effect of spreading everything out because you need all this space for parking which then makes it more necessary to drive everywhere because everything is so spread out and it's a vicious cycle that encourages car usage.

hedora 4y ago
If the cost of the public roads included the cost of putting in parking garages, then less space would be wasted for parking. Also, road taxes would increase, making public transit more affordable by comparison.

okeuro49 4y ago

> Cars are not some revelations-esque phenomenon and parking lots do not "eat" anything. This website provides a good counter argument: https://www.strongtowns.org/ https://www.strongtowns.org/ > In America, driving is far and away the best UX. You go where you want when you want with up to four passengers even in a very small starter car Not for children/young people. In the Netherlands it's common for young people to develop independence using bicycles and public transport. I think that is far more mentally healthy than the US's car centric infrastructure, which excludes young people, making them overdependent on their parents, or dependent on being online in order to socialise.

hedora 4y ago
The US used to let kids roam with the current road layouts. The real problem with letting kids roam free is that we banned / defunded mental health care and gun regulations, and also gutted the middle class.
bojangleslover 4y ago
"In the Randstad, I also never drive. Because the UX is great."
vGPU 4y ago
Public transport and free roaming children are contradictory. Where there is public transport, you won’t want your kids running around. If you want to live somewhere where you can let your children roam with relative safety, it’s going to be somewhere where public transport doesn’t exist.
- nayuki 4y ago
  Public transit is a big factor. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-28/in-japan-small-children-take-the-subway-and-run-errands-alone https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-28/in-japan-... > In Japan, small children take the subway and run errands alone, no parent in sight.