3 ms·

> even if you own a car really. True. I am lucky enough to live in a european city with very decent public transport, so for the 2 times a year I actually nee

by atoav 3y ago

> even if you own a car really. True. I am lucky enough to live in a european city with very decent public transport, so for the 2 times a year I actually need a car or a transporter I just rent it. I don't need to think about my car, where it is parked, what it needs in terms of maintenance, etc. I see this as a value that easily outweighs the benefits of having a car. But that choice is easier if you live somewhere where you can both get everywhere using subways, busses, light trains and hop on a night train and wake up in the capital of a different country. I guess you have to experience this before you realize that a life without car is truly possible, when you shape your world in the right way.

globular-toast 3y ago
Before I had a car I lived in a city and used my bicycle to get around everywhere. I could get to most places in the inner city far more quickly than my friends who had opted in to a disability: they now required cars to move around and their bodies had regressed into a blob-like form. But this lifestyle became worse and worse over time and it was all due to cars. Over 10 years I saw the roads become more and more clogged with cars. I saw cars get bigger and bigger and more and more powerful with the drivers seemingly less and less capable. I'd been using the road since I was 12. They'd been using it since they were 18 or so and only knew it from behind a dashboard. I saw more and more public money get poured into the car subsidy: "reducing journey times", making roads better for cars and worse for everyone else. Meanwhile train tickets increased, bike parking got worse or stayed the same and cars just seemed to get more and more affordable. I'm probably as experienced a cyclist as you can get but I now consider cycling on the road to be too dangerous to be enjoyable. Not to mention I started to question whether breathing diesel fumes and tyre dust in deeply was good for my health. To add to that, just living in the city became unbearable. Car noise had become horrendous. I never heard my neighbours who lived in adjoined apartments. The only noise pollution to enter my own abode was from cars: the engines, the tyres and the sound systems (and I'm not talking about boom-boom subwoofers, just standard car radios). This really hit home one winter when we had weather bad enough to stop people driving for a week. Noise pollution is insidious: you only know it's bad when it's already driving you crazy. So I got a car to escape the cars. Sad but true.
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago
  > I'm probably as experienced a cyclist as you can get but I now consider cycling on the road to be too dangerous to be enjoyable literally the only reason i got life insurance

by atoav 3y ago

globular-toast 3y ago

Before I had a car I lived in a city and used my bicycle to get around everywhere. I could get to most places in the inner city far more quickly than my friends who had opted in to a disability: they now required cars to move around and their bodies had regressed into a blob-like form. But this lifestyle became worse and worse over time and it was all due to cars. Over 10 years I saw the roads become more and more clogged with cars. I saw cars get bigger and bigger and more and more powerful with the drivers seemingly less and less capable. I'd been using the road since I was 12. They'd been using it since they were 18 or so and only knew it from behind a dashboard. I saw more and more public money get poured into the car subsidy: "reducing journey times", making roads better for cars and worse for everyone else. Meanwhile train tickets increased, bike parking got worse or stayed the same and cars just seemed to get more and more affordable. I'm probably as experienced a cyclist as you can get but I now consider cycling on the road to be too dangerous to be enjoyable. Not to mention I started to question whether breathing diesel fumes and tyre dust in deeply was good for my health. To add to that, just living in the city became unbearable. Car noise had become horrendous. I never heard my neighbours who lived in adjoined apartments. The only noise pollution to enter my own abode was from cars: the engines, the tyres and the sound systems (and I'm not talking about boom-boom subwoofers, just standard car radios). This really hit home one winter when we had weather bad enough to stop people driving for a week. Noise pollution is insidious: you only know it's bad when it's already driving you crazy. So I got a car to escape the cars. Sad but true.

ClumsyPilot 3y ago
> I'm probably as experienced a cyclist as you can get but I now consider cycling on the road to be too dangerous to be enjoyable literally the only reason i got life insurance