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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Cars haven't existed forever and we managed to build places around them. There's no reason we can't start building everything new around other modes of transport.
I live in Switzerland, and none of the problems you mention in the next few paragraphs exist here. I mean frequency of public transport isn't as good out of the cities, but I can get a bus or train to pretty much anywhere a car can get to, and some places they can't. The buses are nice and work well, they have priority in the city so they don't get stuck in traffic. I can get train, tram, bus, or bike to the airport no problem and if I need something bigger than I can carry I'll just get it delivered. Yes Switzerland is rich but there's a lot of money to be saved if it wasn't being spent on cars, car infrastructure, and all of the externalities of driving. It's also small, but our trains don't go particularly quickly.
Even then, the vast majority of people in developed countries (and the majority worldwide) live in urban areas. If the people living in podunk towns need to drive, power to them. Focusing on urban areas will have a bigger impact.
And the alternative is being rich enough to afford a house in the suburbs AND a car for every member of the family? Walkable doesn't have to mean the city centre, and it's much easier to achieve if you don't have to kowtow to a bunch of suburbanites who want to drive their SUVs through your neighbourhood.
First: Your baseline is Switzerland? The 6th highest GDP per Capita (how the hell is Ireland 5th?!?!?!) which ranks 132nd for area.
Again, if you live in Tokyo or even freaking New York City (arguably all of New York+New Jersey but upstate NY is REAL republican), you are more or less good. You might be a bit inconvenienced if you don't live near a rail station, but you'll probably be looking at a 20-30 minute pre-commute.
The point is that once you have a larger land mass with people who live out in the sticks? Because
Second: Please, kindly, fuck off with the mindset that it is all rich suburbanites who are the problem. Don't get me wrong, the suburbs are very much a massive problem. But that falls into that "twenty minutes to get into town" category I mentioned above... assuming we have the infrastructure.
The issue is actual poor people. No, not the rich guy making youtube videos about how all cities should be 100% bike friendly. No, not the kids in college who are starving artists who live off mommy and daddy sending checks every week. The issue is people in actual small towns. People who, generally, are actually pretty poor. There aren't going to be regular trains that end up at their front door and even buses might do one route a day. It becomes a complete shitshow to get in or out. And that is where EVs really shine because you can having to "drive their SUVs through your neighborhood" and instead have a relatively clean personal vehicle to do supply runs.
Anime, but I strongly encourage watching... basically anything by Makoto Shinkai but especially Your Name or 5 Centimeters per Second. He very much loves to depict what it takes to get from The City (almost always Tokyo) to the sticks. Lots of trains, lots of buses, tight connections, and sometimes nights spent in an inn in the middle of nowhere. Which contrasts well with the regular push by certain youtubers to, ironically, encourage even more of a "small town" mindset by insisting that everyone should have everything they will ever need within a few square miles of their home. Because walkable cities are AMAZING. But we aren't there yet and, arguably never should be, for the purpose of rural communities that are surrounded by nature.
Please read my entire comment, I addressed this already.
The vast majority of people in developed countries live in urban areas, so for the vast majority of people that drive, this isn't an issue. It is the rich suburbanites who are driving into cities.
Actual poor people are the ones who benefit the most from better infrastructure. Public transport is a lifeline for the homeless, and access to it is the biggest factor in whether they will be able to escape homelessness. Owning a car is really expensive, and The burdens of vehicle dependency fall disproportionately on marginalized people, especially those who are low-income and those who are Black.