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I'd quibble with the title. Based on my experience in London, most middle-class/white collar workers love car-free living. Most blue-collar workers don't like i
by dbuxton 3y ago
I'd quibble with the title. Based on my experience in London, most middle-class/white collar workers love car-free living. Most blue-collar workers don't like it. They continue not liking it once it becomes reality. (Although maybe they realize that it's not as bad as they feared).
I think this is basically another example of political polarization, combined with employment patterns. White collar workers broadly speaking place a higher value on their time and mostly belong to "tribes" that value their health and environment. Removing cars is great for that as bikes give control over journey times (and in most cases in e.g. London reduce them) while positively impacting the other.
Blue collar workers may not be able to do their jobs with just a messenger bag containing a laptop and airpods. Also, their political identity has been dragged further towards the radical-individualism end of the spectrum where collective action on e.g. environment is hard, and trust for bossy health authorities telling them to exercise more is low.
The slightly strange side effect is that you end up with an item which is way cheaper (a bike at e.g. school dropoff vs a car) that becomes a signifier of social status. I am sure there are loads of examples of this phenomenon but none spring immediately to mind!
- stetrain 3y agoI don't think most advocates for reduction in car dependency in urban environments think that trades people shouldn't have vehicles to carry tools and materials around in.
- rufus_foreman 3y agoThe title of the article mentions car-free cities. I don't interpret that to mean that a Ford F-150 is fine, do you?
- ghaff 3y agoThe title may imply this but the article really doesn't. Go to an actual "car-less" area of a city like Brussels and there are delivery vehicles at least in the morning, work vehicles of various kinds, street sweepers, etc. Even at the relatively extreme end of pedestrianized malls, there are still a fair number of vehicles around.
- ghusto 3y agoThese are being targeted too, at least in the Netherlands. They were given a free ride for a while (pun very much intended) but now trade vans are also coming under the hammer.
- stetrain 3y agoI think this is one of the most extreme real-world examples of a "car-free" city, but they still have vehicles for taxis, public transport, public works, trades people, deliveries, etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2oD1ZHNMFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2oD1ZHNMFE