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Yes, and we have generations of people trained to think that walking further than a hundred feet is an extreme workout to be avoided and that transit systems ar
by acdha 3y ago
Yes, and we have generations of people trained to think that walking further than a hundred feet is an extreme workout to be avoided and that transit systems are full of criminals. It seems like that culture is headed for a cliff, however, as the cost of cars continues to increase (the average sale last year was a year’s median pay!), budgets for road infrastructure become tighter, and climate change becomes harder to deny. It feels like we’re headed for a messy upset when all of the conflicts come to a head.
- Der_Einzige 3y agoThe people of Singapore pay a minimum of 100K for the privilege of owning a bottom tier car and the demand for cars there is overwhelming and insatiable, despite the world class and extremely clean mass transit systems. The reality is that cars are freedom and still superior from a continence and comfort standpoint. Americans are insanely privileged to have cheap, powerful cars.
- seanp2k2 3y ago>The reality is that cars are freedom and still superior from a continence and comfort standpoint. Ask any Amazon driver; they much prefer peeing in bottles in the comfort of their own delivery trucks vs on trains.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- thejazzman 3y agoAmazon delivery drivers use vans in my location
- acdha 3y ago> The reality is that cars are freedom and still superior from a continence and comfort standpoint. If you have them when other people don't, yes. The problem is that by the time this is no longer true, you likely have a large sunk cost fallacy and political leaders firmly committed to the model and will struggle to realize that all of the time in traffic, countless deaths, and lowered quality of life for everyone around are in fact not actually inevitable.
- csomar 3y agoCars are freedom, I kinda agree. But you picked the worst place for your comparison. A small, packed island where if everyone had a car, there won’t be enough parking. Another thing: you can have both (ie: Europe). You use public transit to get to places and you use your car when you need space for luggage or taking the family.
- marcus_holmes 3y agoThe Singapore thing is about status, not freedom. For the last 15 years I've lived in various places around the world, and for all of them a private car is the most frustrating, least enabling method of transport available. Finding parking is a nightmare, traffic is a nightmare, having to concentrate on the idiots around me is a nightmare, not being able to drink when I go out is a nightmare, dealing with the mechanical problems of the vehicle itself is a nightmare, dealing with the bureaucracy of owning a car is a nightmare. This isn't what freedom looks like. Most freeing? Riding a motorbike in Phnom Penh. Berlin's 5 different public transport systems. Walking everywhere in Bristol (UK). Mexico City's excellent underground.
- Erratic6576 3y ago[dead]
- omnimus 3y agoAdd riding a bike (or electric bike) in most of Dutch cities. It can be even fun.
- j4yav 3y agoI have a car and a bike in the Netherlands. Most everyone I know has both. Both are nice to have at different times, and I've never experienced any of the nightmares GP is describing. I was curious so I just checked, and the number of cars is just shy of the number of people of driving age, even in the bicycle paradise of the Netherlands.
- Symbiote 3y agoA difference is most Dutch families have one car, whereas the majority of American families have two or more.
- cheschire 3y agoAt least three of my neighbors I can see from my front door here in America have 5 to 8 cars. But that’s also because they have to be multigenerational to afford a SFH these days.
- fifilura 3y agoI alwas thought that the Singapore car thing was a reason for dads to get a break from a crowded appartment. Sleeping-car-dads-under-newspaper was a common thing to see when I was there 25 years ago...
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago> The reality is that cars are freedom You are not allowed to run a small business out of your house in US, so i dont think you have any freedom. Private jets are freedom. like actual freedom.
- Der_Einzige 3y agoYou can do private business out of your house for food at least in California. Or you can just ignore whatever podunk laws they’re supposed to enforce because in the PNW, the cops are too lazy to enforce anti heroin laws let alone anti small business laws
- hparadiz 3y agoI live in a place where sidewalks are everywhere but driving is just much more convenient. I'm lucky that there's a store within 1 mile. If I got a model 3 the payment would replace my current gas expenditure completely.
- coolspot 3y ago> we have generations of people trained to think that … transit systems are full of criminals Are they not? The BART Police Department's reports for 2022 show the following numbers for Part 1 UCR Crimes: Homicide: 3 Rape: 4 Robbery: 156 Aggravated Assault: 81 Burglary (Structural): 17 Larceny & Auto Burglary: 783 Auto Theft: 136 Arson: 10 Property Crime Subtotal: 946 Total: 1,190
- withinboredom 3y agoJust because one transit system isn't policed, doesn't mean all of them are. Transit, by itself, is not "full of criminals" and I'm not sure the one you gave stats for is either (or even correct -- how do you commit "auto theft" on a train lol)? Anyway, assuming there are hundreds of train cars and thousands of passengers a day, the chance of getting robbed on any one of them, using your stats, is less than 0.001%. Seems pretty safe to me.
- EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 3y agoso 90% are car crimes, not public transit crimes
- acdha 3y agoSure, now do the roads outside of the BART system. There have been thousands of car thefts, carjackings, robberies, etc. Crime isn’t a transit phenomenon.
- lancesells 3y agoRoads are filled with criminals too. 37 people died from drunk driving EVERY DAY in the US in 2021. That's 13,384 dead from criminal acts.
- mrkeen 3y ago>Auto Burglary: 783 Auto Theft: 136 This is why I'm too scared to take my car with me when I ride the subway.
- dougmwne 3y agoThey literally do take their car with them when they ride. Lots of BART stations have huge parking decks because they service areas that are not walkable or dense so you “Park & Ride” to get into the city.