Nah, we should make life more liveable without cars. Cars in themselves aren’t bad, but our over-dependency on them is.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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I literally had this conversation at lunch today. We were talking about EVs and someone said the batteries are bad for the environment and I said, “yup! We’d be better getting a nice electric transit system to replace roads and cars.” I feel like most people know we’d be better off with a good transit system but rich people 80 years ago solidified our lives.
Yeah it’s brutal. We used to have electric busses in my city that ran on power lines. They didn’t take them out until the 90s. They’d come off every now and then and the driver would have to get out and put them back on with a long stick, but whatever.
Those busses were the best. No battery, no gas. If the electricity source is clean we’re golden, baby.
Also the seats were super squishy benches, not the hard individual seats we get now. They’d be covered in graffiti and it was awesome. However, the weren’t wheelchair accessible, but I’m sure it could be done now.
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Cars kill more people than drugs, and "drugs are bad, m'kay"
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And what of people that live out in the country, far from a city? Not walkable or bikeable. Building public transport there is not viable. Cars with sustainable fuel sources are the far better solution.
Nearly every single small town was built on a backbone of rail. They could at the very least put back what was stolen.
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I hate to be the one to break this to you, but people travelled in the country before cars were invented
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Personally, I’m not a fan of government policies that ban things, because a ban is a blunt instrument that often leads to perverse results. Instead, I think that government should internalize economic extenalities, and let the individual incentives work. People who live out in the countryside get massive tax subsidies in the form of all those roads on which only they drive, for the most part.
So, fine, if cars are the only practical transportation, then the people who want to live out there need to pay for their roads with their own money.
(That is the long way to say that I don’t think personal cars out in the countryside are all that practical.)
I don't think you realize how much of rural America is a random exit off the interstate. Which is mostly not local traffic and paid for those who travel it.
We have more than 4,100,000 ~~million~~ miles of highway in the United States, but only 48,756 miles of Interstate highway. That doesn't sound like most places are just off of a random exit, and with one glance of the map, one can see vast swathes of land nowhere near an Interstate highway. However, the system does carry about 1/4 of all highway miles in the country, so that's a lot of lightly-traveled non-Interstate pavement. Furthermore, revenues from highway users does not cover the cost of the Interstate system. The Highway Trust Fund has been shrinking, because the $0.184 per gallon tax hasn't changed since 1993, and the fund is projected to be depleted by 2028. The Federal government has shored it up multiple times with transfers from the general fund. Wisconsin has done the same, I know, and likely quite a few other states that I'm not familiar with, as well. In short, the massive subsidy to automobile travel, especially in rural areas, is not practical, because it is not sustainable.
Yes. One of the problems is the USA is government banning mixed zoning and every tyoe of home except single family home. It can only turn in suburban sprawl and car use.
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Caltrops is a simple solution. Banning cars seems to be where we’re having issues. So let’s start small. Ban private vehicles in dense urban cores where space is at a premium. It’s a start.
People in this thread thinking this is a serious policy proposal 🤣
The automobiles, parking and highways vicious cycle has proven to be an indictment of capitalism and the corruption of the US. i don't think going electric for all our cas is going to be enough, and were seeing climate migration not only to the US but northward within the US.
The movie Mad Max (and its sequels) was inspired by somone observing car obsession tendencies among Australians and positing how fuel would be prioritized above its utility. Our obsession is worse here in the States, and for our love of cars and failure to change for sake of the world may see a similar apocalypse, though with fewer working vehicles and a lot more cannibalism.
I hope I'm wrong, of couse.
I completely agree but that doesn’t make immediately banning all cars a reasonable proposal. My assumption was that the meme was intended to spark discussion, which it certainly has. Though it sounds like OP is a little more serious than I thought.
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This comment section: I'm Johnny Knoxville, welcome to gently make love to cars
Its why the term "petrosexual" exists
Explain how we'd get around with cars. Is the realistic expectation that every city is supposed to be redesigned overnight and public transportation every inch of the city.
While I agree with the sentiment, making a plan to make changes is a very important first step. I'm still a car driver who wants better public transportation, while also acknowledging its very unlikely for my area (45 mins outside Atlanta, GA). However, if we aim for it specifically, it's always a good step, even if it's not going to be instant or 5 years.
One of the biggest issues ro change are people saying "that won't happen" and just not changing the status quo. We don't need to perfectly do it in a short time, but we do need to start making steps right away, even if they take longer than we want.
Amen! I’m an incrementalist and I’m not ashamed of it.
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