5 ms·

Yes because American public transit is so great and now you have to get up hours earlier and come home later - not great if you have kids or you actually want

Yes because American public transit is so great and now you have to get up hours earlier and come home later - not great if you have kids or you actually want to spend time with your significant other. Also what happens when that cheap old car doesn’t start in the morning when you need to get to work or pick your kids up from day care/school or need to be home when they get off the bus? Where are you going to get the money to fix that old car?

JKCalhoun 1y ago
You present some very daunting problems that the young and working class have to deal with (I know, I was both of those decades ago and struggled myself). Credit to buy a new car though is still generally a bad solution. We should fix the other things you mentioned. I would like to see laws allowing extreme low-cost vehicles (equivalent to golf carts, I guess) allowed on designated roads. A special inexpensive insurance proviso for them. That you need something like $30K to buy a new car in the U.S. is insane.
- scarface_74 1y ago
  How are you going to safely have a golf cart on a highway? And what good is a car that can’t get you everywhere you need to go?
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    To go between work and my apartment, I didn't need the highway. As I have said in another thread, I made do with a 10-speed bicycle, frcrisake. I don't expect everyone else to be able to do that though.
- kube-system 1y ago
  > I would like to see laws allowing extreme low-cost vehicles (equivalent to golf carts, I guess) allowed on designated roads. A special inexpensive insurance proviso for them. These already exist! You maybe haven't heard about them because they're largely a failure beyond niche applications. They're mostly used for things like hospitality shuttles, facility maintenance, meter maids, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_electric_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_electric_vehicle The problem is that they don't make sense for most people, e.g: 1. You can't operate them on high speed roads. The US has a lot of high speed roads, particularly in areas that are poorer. 2. They aren't cheaper than a used car. A street legal Cushman or GEM starts at about $16k. A brand new Nissan Versa is only about $1-2k more, is wildly better equipped, and has more accessible financing. Good $10k used cars are available on every street corner in every poor neighborhood with extremely accessible financing. 3. They are weird. It is much more socially acceptable to drive a similarly priced used car. 4. They lack features that used cars have. Many control cost by omitting basic features such as doors and climate control. 5. The places where you can use them (low speed neighborhood roads) are already more likely to be accessible by alternative means of transportation. (busses, bikes, walking)
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    > A street legal Cushman or GEM starts at about $16k I see a business opportunity.
    - kube-system 1y ago
      Where? 'cause I'm not seeing it. I'm guessing you're taking issue with the price? Meh, that's just what it costs to make a decent product. You can (or at least used to be able to) get hot garbage manufactured abroad for less, but it doesn't meet the standards of what anyone would reasonably get, and they don't compare favorably to even a bad used car. You might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRG0Wai4sR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRG0Wai4sR0 I remember when you could get a $10k new car... but if you adjust for inflation, we still have those cars today (now they're $20k), and they're actually better than the $10k cars back then.

JKCalhoun 1y ago

You present some very daunting problems that the young and working class have to deal with (I know, I was both of those decades ago and struggled myself). Credit to buy a new car though is still generally a bad solution. We should fix the other things you mentioned. I would like to see laws allowing extreme low-cost vehicles (equivalent to golf carts, I guess) allowed on designated roads. A special inexpensive insurance proviso for them. That you need something like $30K to buy a new car in the U.S. is insane.

scarface_74 1y ago
How are you going to safely have a golf cart on a highway? And what good is a car that can’t get you everywhere you need to go?
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  To go between work and my apartment, I didn't need the highway. As I have said in another thread, I made do with a 10-speed bicycle, frcrisake. I don't expect everyone else to be able to do that though.
kube-system 1y ago
> I would like to see laws allowing extreme low-cost vehicles (equivalent to golf carts, I guess) allowed on designated roads. A special inexpensive insurance proviso for them. These already exist! You maybe haven't heard about them because they're largely a failure beyond niche applications. They're mostly used for things like hospitality shuttles, facility maintenance, meter maids, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-speed_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_electric_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_electric_vehicle The problem is that they don't make sense for most people, e.g: 1. You can't operate them on high speed roads. The US has a lot of high speed roads, particularly in areas that are poorer. 2. They aren't cheaper than a used car. A street legal Cushman or GEM starts at about $16k. A brand new Nissan Versa is only about $1-2k more, is wildly better equipped, and has more accessible financing. Good $10k used cars are available on every street corner in every poor neighborhood with extremely accessible financing. 3. They are weird. It is much more socially acceptable to drive a similarly priced used car. 4. They lack features that used cars have. Many control cost by omitting basic features such as doors and climate control. 5. The places where you can use them (low speed neighborhood roads) are already more likely to be accessible by alternative means of transportation. (busses, bikes, walking)
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  > A street legal Cushman or GEM starts at about $16k I see a business opportunity.
  - kube-system 1y ago
    Where? 'cause I'm not seeing it. I'm guessing you're taking issue with the price? Meh, that's just what it costs to make a decent product. You can (or at least used to be able to) get hot garbage manufactured abroad for less, but it doesn't meet the standards of what anyone would reasonably get, and they don't compare favorably to even a bad used car. You might find this interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRG0Wai4sR0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRG0Wai4sR0 I remember when you could get a $10k new car... but if you adjust for inflation, we still have those cars today (now they're $20k), and they're actually better than the $10k cars back then.