8 ms·

> Fast food addiction, free-refill-fueled soda addiction, tobacco addiction, weakly trained near universal use of automobiles for daily travel, and unequal acce

> Fast food addiction, free-refill-fueled soda addiction, tobacco addiction, weakly trained near universal use of automobiles for daily travel, and unequal access to healthcare are staples of American culture Every one of those points is also true in Europe (apart from possibly healthcare), unfortunately. Car dependency and car-centric development is almost everywhere, places like the Netherlands are an outlier. Fast food and ads thereof are also everywhere. Many people smoke. Etc.

throwaway290 1y ago
Never been to US but saying car centric development in Europe is similar to US sounds crazy to me. It's not just Netherlands. Vienna, Budapest, Stockholm, Barcelona, Germany and Switzerland... is it really true people in America take buses and trains as often as in those places? and they are also so well maintained? is it just propaganda that public transport in US sucks outside of maybe NYC
- danaris 1y ago
  It is absolutely not propaganda. I live in a rural village about 5 hours' drive from NYC. There is no public transport here. If I drive 45 minutes to the nearest city, I can catch a train—but that train will only take me to a few destinations (primarily Albany, NYC, or Boston one way, or Buffalo, Chicago and points west the other way). Some cities (outside of major metropolitan areas, which do generally have some kind of rail system) have intracity buses, but they tend to be underfunded and dirty.
  - throwaway290 1y ago
    Yeah. I just picked random two small villages in Italy 200 km apart and Google maps says 4-5 hr by public transport, yes a few interchanges but you barely need to walk less than 10 minutes total. I remember being impressed with european public transport (after what we have in russia) and this rings true. Then I picked two random Missouri townships 83 miles away and it's 40 min by car and no route at all by any public transport. even if I chose so that both of them are on the same big 4 lane road!
    - Ancapistani 1y ago
      > even if I chose so that both of them are on the same big 4 lane road! If you've ever been on a Greyhound bus, you'd understand why that's the case.
  - _DeadFred_ 1y ago
    I live in a small (9000) very rural town with low wage jobs (so not a huge tax base) in a reddest of red state and we have our own very nice/clean bus system (it uses bus vans not huge busses). It not impossible in the US, it just depends on if the people of your town care to have it.
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      Same situation where I grew up, blue state though. NY politics is the problem, not anything else. That whole damn state is just so bleak, nothing gets done without so many pounds of flesh being taken out by so many parties that things just stop getting done.
      - danaris 1y ago
        And yet, somehow, it's still massively better than when Pataki was governor... At least we are now capable of passing a budget bill less than 5 months late, anyway.
- supertrope 1y ago
  Here's a map of the US. https://i.redd.it/2nt3antutz8f1.png https://i.redd.it/2nt3antutz8f1.png Green zones are counties with more than 10% of people commuting by transit. It's essentially just NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco. NYC is 80% of USA public transit usage!
  - OkayPhysicist 1y ago
    Apparently there's a bus enthusiast in northern Nevada. (I'm guessing the real answer is towns small enough people walk to work)
arp242 1y ago
> Car dependency and car-centric development is almost everywhere It's the degree of things. I live in Ireland, in a village of a few thousand people a few km outside the city, what you might call a "suburb" in the US. I don't even have a driver's license. It's rarely an issue and can go about my life by foot. bike, and public transport.
- throw0101c 1y ago
  > I live in Ireland, in a village of a few thousand people a few km outside the city, what you might call a "suburb" in the US. Whatever villages that used to exist in the US have been drowned out by car-centric suburbs that were build around them. The 'village' is now the downtown-ish area of the community that tourists go see.
- disgruntledphd2 1y ago
  > It's rarely an issue and can go about my life by foot. bike, and public transport. You are a very unusual person then, as the vast vast majority of people in not urban core Ireland have (and use) a car. I live in a Dublin suburb, and we're one of the few married couples that don't have two cars.
  - insane_dreamer 1y ago
    Yes, European families own cars, but they don't have to use them as much as Americans. There's almost no way to survive in the US without a vehicle, except in a few cities (mostly NYC). You can do without a car in many European cities. I never owned a car until I moved to the US ~10 years ago.
  - arp242 1y ago
    It's needed a lot less than people think unless you live out in the countryside. While it can be a bit inconvenient at times, in general it's perfectly feasible to not have a car in car-dependent Ireland. In the US on the other hand, it's needed a lot more.
    - 1y ago
insane_dreamer 1y ago
> Car dependency and car-centric development is almost everywhere, places like the Netherlands are an outlier. Not anywhere near US levels. Netherlands isn't an outlier. You can get pretty much anywhere in Switzerland with good public transport. Denmark, Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, France, Belgium, all have excellent public transportation networks with wide coverage. > Many people smoke. This is the one "healthy living" area where Europe lags the US. But many people in the US vape and I'm not sure it's any healthier.

throwaway290 1y ago

Never been to US but saying car centric development in Europe is similar to US sounds crazy to me. It's not just Netherlands. Vienna, Budapest, Stockholm, Barcelona, Germany and Switzerland... is it really true people in America take buses and trains as often as in those places? and they are also so well maintained? is it just propaganda that public transport in US sucks outside of maybe NYC

danaris 1y ago
It is absolutely not propaganda. I live in a rural village about 5 hours' drive from NYC. There is no public transport here. If I drive 45 minutes to the nearest city, I can catch a train—but that train will only take me to a few destinations (primarily Albany, NYC, or Boston one way, or Buffalo, Chicago and points west the other way). Some cities (outside of major metropolitan areas, which do generally have some kind of rail system) have intracity buses, but they tend to be underfunded and dirty.
- throwaway290 1y ago
  Yeah. I just picked random two small villages in Italy 200 km apart and Google maps says 4-5 hr by public transport, yes a few interchanges but you barely need to walk less than 10 minutes total. I remember being impressed with european public transport (after what we have in russia) and this rings true. Then I picked two random Missouri townships 83 miles away and it's 40 min by car and no route at all by any public transport. even if I chose so that both of them are on the same big 4 lane road!
  - Ancapistani 1y ago
    > even if I chose so that both of them are on the same big 4 lane road! If you've ever been on a Greyhound bus, you'd understand why that's the case.
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago
  I live in a small (9000) very rural town with low wage jobs (so not a huge tax base) in a reddest of red state and we have our own very nice/clean bus system (it uses bus vans not huge busses). It not impossible in the US, it just depends on if the people of your town care to have it.
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    Same situation where I grew up, blue state though. NY politics is the problem, not anything else. That whole damn state is just so bleak, nothing gets done without so many pounds of flesh being taken out by so many parties that things just stop getting done.
    - danaris 1y ago
      And yet, somehow, it's still massively better than when Pataki was governor... At least we are now capable of passing a budget bill less than 5 months late, anyway.
supertrope 1y ago
Here's a map of the US. https://i.redd.it/2nt3antutz8f1.png https://i.redd.it/2nt3antutz8f1.png Green zones are counties with more than 10% of people commuting by transit. It's essentially just NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco. NYC is 80% of USA public transit usage!
- OkayPhysicist 1y ago
  Apparently there's a bus enthusiast in northern Nevada. (I'm guessing the real answer is towns small enough people walk to work)

arp242 1y ago

> Car dependency and car-centric development is almost everywhere It's the degree of things. I live in Ireland, in a village of a few thousand people a few km outside the city, what you might call a "suburb" in the US. I don't even have a driver's license. It's rarely an issue and can go about my life by foot. bike, and public transport.

throw0101c 1y ago
> I live in Ireland, in a village of a few thousand people a few km outside the city, what you might call a "suburb" in the US. Whatever villages that used to exist in the US have been drowned out by car-centric suburbs that were build around them. The 'village' is now the downtown-ish area of the community that tourists go see.
disgruntledphd2 1y ago
> It's rarely an issue and can go about my life by foot. bike, and public transport. You are a very unusual person then, as the vast vast majority of people in not urban core Ireland have (and use) a car. I live in a Dublin suburb, and we're one of the few married couples that don't have two cars.
- insane_dreamer 1y ago
  Yes, European families own cars, but they don't have to use them as much as Americans. There's almost no way to survive in the US without a vehicle, except in a few cities (mostly NYC). You can do without a car in many European cities. I never owned a car until I moved to the US ~10 years ago.
- arp242 1y ago
  It's needed a lot less than people think unless you live out in the countryside. While it can be a bit inconvenient at times, in general it's perfectly feasible to not have a car in car-dependent Ireland. In the US on the other hand, it's needed a lot more.
  - 1y ago

insane_dreamer 1y ago

> Car dependency and car-centric development is almost everywhere, places like the Netherlands are an outlier. Not anywhere near US levels. Netherlands isn't an outlier. You can get pretty much anywhere in Switzerland with good public transport. Denmark, Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, France, Belgium, all have excellent public transportation networks with wide coverage. > Many people smoke. This is the one "healthy living" area where Europe lags the US. But many people in the US vape and I'm not sure it's any healthier.