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I wish this scenario wasn’t driven essentially by shrinking wages, though I agree with the general sentiment. Car culture in the US is hardly justifiable by me
by manuelabeledo 3y ago
I wish this scenario wasn’t driven essentially by shrinking wages, though I agree with the general sentiment.
Car culture in the US is hardly justifiable by means other than convenience. Riding a massive SUV to work, alone, sometimes for a couple hours every day, is a testament to how the concept of suburbs has thoroughly failed society as a whole.
People compare the comfort of being alone and stuck in traffic, to the horrors of sharing a space with strangers, who are perhaps even homeless, while failing to recognize that any shortcomings in public transportation are derived from their very own strong desire of not using it.
I had this colleague back in Spain, who would do what we all thought it was a crazy thing: she would commute almost three hours a day by train. Each leg was ~100Km, and in between her home and the city was a whole lot of nothing but very small towns and some disperse houses up in the mountains. She didn’t mind it - she would just take long naps or read or work on her laptop. And, apparently, she wasn’t the only one doing it, it was a popular service among people who would rather not live in the noisy city they work at.
When I moved to the US, her way of life did not seem that crazy anymore, at least not compared to people driving for hours every day, on ~50mi commutes. There wasn’t really any reason why the US couldn’t have this, either, as an equivalent train service could easily connect relatively close metropolitan areas, and achieve the same results. Compared to these hours long traffic jams, with most cars carrying only one person, it didn’t seem crazy at all.
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago>Car culture in the US is hardly justifiable by means other than convenience Ah yes. The “convenience” of driving 30 minutes to the nearest city, compared to walking for 8 hours.
- manuelabeledo 3y agoYou could also take the bus. Sad that public transportation in the US is the first victim of car culture.
- Ancapistani 3y agoMy home growing up was two miles from the nearest neighbor. There weren't - and aren't - a lot of buses.
- manuelabeledo 3y agoThat's why I said that public transportation is a victim of car culture. The fact that there weren't buses from or to your neighborhood is a symptom of car abuse, not the cause.
- marssaxman 3y agoIt doesn't sound like they lived in a neighborhood at all, but some deeply rural area, if the nearest neighbor was two miles away.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoLmao what bus??? Its not going to be profitable to drive from where I am to where the cities are, because we are that rural. Just like horses were for most of our history, cars are a requirement for human civilization. Get over it.
- manuelabeledo 3y agoPretty much every other first world country has some form of public transportation in rural areas. Also, public services do not need to be profitable. That’s the whole point.
- lowmagnet 3y agoYou can drive 30 minutes over 12 miles from Falls Church to Union Station, or take the Metro in 14 minutes. comparing cars to walking is not an apt comparison.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoI’m sorry, but a metro will never be connecting me to my local city, so that is not an apt comparison. I don’t know what’s wrong with so many people, who seem to think some magical public transport will pop up everywhere to cater to everyone, but it’s unrealistic at best.