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Being able to afford to move somewhere isn't only about the money. Family, friends, support networks, availability of employment, and a million other factors ap

Being able to afford to move somewhere isn't only about the money. Family, friends, support networks, availability of employment, and a million other factors apply. Glad you had the opportunity. For me, moving to a walkable neighborhood would've amounted to ditching graduate school (where I spent 7-8 years of my life). For my friend who divorced and had shared custody of his son, it would amount to giving up his child. Put simply, your solution doesn't scale, and it's not about how much someone cares about not driving. Moving is simply not an option for everyone, period. Might as well say "don't like driving? Just immigrate to Europe". My point here is that I want to be able to not drive where I live. My point is that I'm sad that my quality of life would drop if I were to give up driving. My point is that it's not about me, or how much I care. I can think that driving is stupid, but if it means I'm spending 1 hour on daily commute instead of 4 in the metro area where I ended up living, you bet I'll do the stupid thing, as will everyone else. My point here is that making the entirety of the 340 million Americans care about not driving, and making them think it's stupid won't change a thing because objectively it is the only viable option for surviving in most of this country. My point here is that shifting the attention from what is very clearly an infrastructure problem to people who are the victims of the decisions made by governments (like subsidizing highways but not public transportation and urban rail) is a distraction, a red herring, and is helping to perpetuate the problem, not solve it. And I care about reliance on driving for a million reasons that aren't about me, from social to environment concerns and to the goddamn subject of this discussion — pedestrian fatalities. A friend of mine was killed by an SUV driver, so it's also personal for me, but I cared before that too — and I'd hope that people could have basic empathy and care even if it does not apply to them personally. So yes, the choice to drive in the US was a great one for me. Just like doing what a person with a gun tells you to do would be a very sensible choice. Glad you were able to run away from the problem. This does not solve it.

paulcole 1y ago
> Family, friends, support networks, availability of employment, and a million other factors apply. You’re just adding excuse on excuse here which is totally fine. People love thinking that a million factors are holding them back when the only thing actually holding them back is themselves. You made an impressive list of 2 people who simply couldn’t move! Fine, whatever those people absolutely couldn’t move or do anything to drive less or not drive at all. You really think this applies to all the people who claim to wish they could drive less or not at all? And you really think moving is the only way to drive less? And that the decision to move is one that can’t be made throughout one’s lifetime? Grad school ends. Kids grow up. But I’m sure there’ll just be another excuse at that time. And again, there is nothing wrong with that. It just shows that if a person continues to claim to value something and does nothing to live that value (besides make excuses and blame others), I do not believe that person actually values that thing. > but if it means I'm spending 1 hour on daily commute instead of 4 in the metro area where I ended up living, you bet I'll do the stupid thing, as will everyone else I did not! Additionally you did not end up living anywhere. You chose to live there. > people who are the victims of the decisions made by governments If you see people as victims that’s how you perpetuate the problem. If a person says that they wish they could drive less or not at all tell them, “Change your life! Or admit that you don’t value that as much as you think!” > Put simply, your solution doesn't scale It obviously doesn’t have to scale. Anyone can make choices that they think will allow them to lead the life they value. If someone believes they value driving less or not at all, those choices are available to them! They shouldn’t say, “Boy I’ll continue to dislike my life because the solution I see doesn’t scale.” Additionally it obviously does scale because most people will do anything to avoid changing their life. The solution is right there for the people who actually want it.
- Mawr 1y ago
  Interesting. Are you a programmer? This is just like the classic programmer obtuse binary thinking, but dialed up to 11. Complete inability to understand that there's more to a choice than "physically possible" and "physically impossible". Anyways, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPtfy9P714 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPtfy9P714.
  - paulcole 1y ago
    > Are you a programmer? No. It is binary thinking because there’s 2 choices: take action or don’t. If you don’t take action then it’s just wishful thinking of how you’re imagining how you’d like your life to be. Which again, is a totally fine way to live! But it is different from saying that the imaginary life actually matters to you. My point throughout these comments is that we can easily see how much someone values something (relative to other values) through their actions. Do you believe this to be false? > there's more to a choice than "physically possible" and "physically impossible". Do your best to articulate the “more” in such a way that it isn’t just a subset of one of the other two states. You will end up sounding like Kramer on Seinfeld, “Bets off. I don’t want to do the levels.” Jerry replies, “The bet was whether you’d do the levels not whether you wanted to do them.”

paulcole 1y ago

> Family, friends, support networks, availability of employment, and a million other factors apply. You’re just adding excuse on excuse here which is totally fine. People love thinking that a million factors are holding them back when the only thing actually holding them back is themselves. You made an impressive list of 2 people who simply couldn’t move! Fine, whatever those people absolutely couldn’t move or do anything to drive less or not drive at all. You really think this applies to all the people who claim to wish they could drive less or not at all? And you really think moving is the only way to drive less? And that the decision to move is one that can’t be made throughout one’s lifetime? Grad school ends. Kids grow up. But I’m sure there’ll just be another excuse at that time. And again, there is nothing wrong with that. It just shows that if a person continues to claim to value something and does nothing to live that value (besides make excuses and blame others), I do not believe that person actually values that thing. > but if it means I'm spending 1 hour on daily commute instead of 4 in the metro area where I ended up living, you bet I'll do the stupid thing, as will everyone else I did not! Additionally you did not end up living anywhere. You chose to live there. > people who are the victims of the decisions made by governments If you see people as victims that’s how you perpetuate the problem. If a person says that they wish they could drive less or not at all tell them, “Change your life! Or admit that you don’t value that as much as you think!” > Put simply, your solution doesn't scale It obviously doesn’t have to scale. Anyone can make choices that they think will allow them to lead the life they value. If someone believes they value driving less or not at all, those choices are available to them! They shouldn’t say, “Boy I’ll continue to dislike my life because the solution I see doesn’t scale.” Additionally it obviously does scale because most people will do anything to avoid changing their life. The solution is right there for the people who actually want it.

Mawr 1y ago
Interesting. Are you a programmer? This is just like the classic programmer obtuse binary thinking, but dialed up to 11. Complete inability to understand that there's more to a choice than "physically possible" and "physically impossible". Anyways, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPtfy9P714 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPtfy9P714.
- paulcole 1y ago
  > Are you a programmer? No. It is binary thinking because there’s 2 choices: take action or don’t. If you don’t take action then it’s just wishful thinking of how you’re imagining how you’d like your life to be. Which again, is a totally fine way to live! But it is different from saying that the imaginary life actually matters to you. My point throughout these comments is that we can easily see how much someone values something (relative to other values) through their actions. Do you believe this to be false? > there's more to a choice than "physically possible" and "physically impossible". Do your best to articulate the “more” in such a way that it isn’t just a subset of one of the other two states. You will end up sounding like Kramer on Seinfeld, “Bets off. I don’t want to do the levels.” Jerry replies, “The bet was whether you’d do the levels not whether you wanted to do them.”