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You really have no idea what it's like in America, do you? We don't have high-speed rail, and public transit is reserved for only the most densely-populated ci
by Zikes 13y ago
You really have no idea what it's like in America, do you?
We don't have high-speed rail, and public transit is reserved for only the most densely-populated cities. We don't drive because we want to, or because we're stubborn, or because we don't know any better. We drive because for all intents and purposes it is the only reasonable method for getting from point A to point B.
But don't worry, I'm sure you've still got plenty of other reasons to feel smugly superior.
- revelation 13y agoGee, how did this happen? I always find this line of thought amusing. It's like people just woke up one day to the America we have now and then pretend its forever. Distances aren't big because "but America is so big!", they are because cheap gas enabled people to live hours away from their place of work or everyday infrastructure in some suburb. If we would properly price gasoline for the collective damage its consumption causes, this nonsense would disappear tomorrow (and Teslas would be sold out, because you know, they have none of these problems).
- Zikes 13y agoDistances aren't big because gas is/was cheap, they're big because nobody wants to pay $2,000/month for a crappy one-bedroom apartment within biking distance of their job. Distances ARE big because America is so big, and even now there's still plenty of land to be cheaply bought and decently priced housing built upon. For the past decade everyone's been balking at the rising gas prices, and so far as I know no two places have magically become closer together as a result.
- thrownaway2424 13y agoYeah, nobody wants to live in those apartments, that's why the rents are so high!
- Zikes 13y agoNobody, with a ±1% margin of error.
- haldujai 13y agoOr you know, people eventually grow up / start families and realize for a short commute they could raise a child in a much safer environment with better facilities out in the suburbs. Or even they themselves one day decide they want a garden, and a personal swimming pool, and a house.
- thrownaway2424 13y agoIf you hate your children and want them to die in a dystopian post-Oil-Age future then yes, shuttling them around the exurbs in a car makes perfect sense.
- Avshalom 13y agoSure, if you leave out the reality that the US had already expanded to the west coast by the time the car was invented.
- revelation 13y agoSo? They went straight for the west coast and skipped all the barren nonsense in the middle. In most every vast country, population density is a function of distance to water.
- lelandbatey 13y agoYep. I live in a pretty typical American town (not a big city, not a huge amount going on here) and doing even the simplest things takes a lot of driving. Want to go to the grocery store? That's about 7 miles away. Want to do some general shopping? That's 6 miles away. Want to go to an actual mall, with a variety of stores? That's 20 miles away.