this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (8 children)

As a member of /c/FuckCars I say we don't want cars at all. We want robust public transportation, and bicycle paths. Entire cities designed around going green. People want to get angry at the Starbucks CEO for using a private jet, and reasonably so, but NOBODY wants to take responsibility for the toll each car puts on the environment. Yes, even the electric cars. That electric energy still has to come from somewhere.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Public transportation does not operate in the middle of nowhere where the closest store is more than half an hour away.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Name checks out. I'm all for public transportation, but to think that it will eliminate cars is nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (4 children)

That doesn't work for people like me who might drive 10 miles to work and then at the drop of a hat have to travel to another location 60 miles away, then have to travel back to the original location before the end of the day.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Exceptions can be made just like we make for all kinds of commercial vehicles.

It’s true what folks say: whenever someone mentions a bike path, everyone suddenly has to transport a refrigerator uphill in the rain.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Or if anyone's job or hobby requires transporting more than can be carried on a bike trailer. Anyone living rurally. Anyone famous. People with mental conditions exacerbated by being enclosed with strangers. All that being said, I'd love to see a shift towards it being more popular.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I would also love to see huge improvements in public transportation, especially around me where the last bus route leaves at 6:30 pm. The only time I would actually consider riding the bus again, it's already shut down.

The reality, though, is that public transportation cannot replace cars for people that need them. And if you live in the United States, it's just too damn big, and at least 20% of the population will probably never see public transportation as a viable option.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not advocating for the previous comment but commerce would adapt no matter the change. Your job would either change your job duties and or hire someone at the other locations or they would find a way for you to work remotely. Who knows maybe banning cars could be the push our society needs to build avatars that we can control from remote locations.

Uh I'm gonna go watch some avatar now. I'm stoned enough that it might be good.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

What if they're an electrician/plumber/repair man that needs a full kit of equipment and drives all over town. A contractor building a house transporting materials. A school/church/daycare transporting kids that doesn't want to have them loose on public transport. Garbage man. Emergency services. Food delivery. Etc

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That would work if we invested as much into public transit as into cars. This goes back to designing cities for public transit instead of cars. If we did that with the money we currently are putting into cars we could have high frequency metro lines where inner city interstate / highway routes and high speed rail for inter city interstate/highway routes along with frequent bus service in the cities/towns on the lines. We think public transit is inherently slow and unreliable but that's because we never invest enough money to make it fast and reliable.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing you've never lived in rural America? I don't think you're grasping how big the world is for some people. I have to drive three hours to get from my urban home to my favorite mountain bike trail in the mountains.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

No I haven't lived in rural America but most Americans haven't either. Most live in the suburbs, cities or towns. It's like saying people need to eat less sugar and we should stop using it for every food and people saying "what about the diabetics who need sugar" yeah they do but that's not the majority of people. We can make exceptions for them while also overhauling our food industry to remove this thing that's causing health problems for most people.

As for the mountain bike scenario ideally you would take a train to a town near the trail and then the town can have a shuttle up to the mountain. If we did fully invest in public transit this wouldn't add too much to your trip and has some other benefits.

  • This would be good for the park and wildlife in general as less traffic would make it easier for animals to migrate. Less roadkill

  • This would lower the amount of development needed in the park as parking lots wouldn't be necessary.

  • It would make mountain biking more accessible for people who don't have a car or can't drive.

  • It would make it more social, you could meet people on the shuttle on the way up, if there are regulars then a community could form.

  • It would reduce the amount of air and noise pollution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
  1. The towns are too small to operate or afford shuttles to the nearly 2000 mountains in my state.
  2. Nearly 2000 mountains, the amount of traffic in any given area is negligible.
  3. There is almost no development and definitely no parking lots. You find an empty spot in the dirt near the trailhead. Usually no more than five or six cars around. Did I mention the part about nearly 2000 mountains to choose from?
  4. Fair point. But we don't need the mountains to be more accessible. We don't need more people out destroying nature. Stay in your cities.
  5. Nobody around here wants to socialize. We're getting the fuck out of society into the serenity and quiet of being miles away from everyone.
  6. Your last point is complete bullshit. Increased accessibility means more people, more people means more pollution of every kind. The tallest mountain here does have a shuttle to the top and the locals don't like going there because it's always packed.
[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah maybe there are are 2000 mountains, but how many have mountain bike trails? If there are trails then there is probably some organization maintaining them like the state or national park service who can also run the shuttles. Shuttles are also pretty cheap and can stop at multiple trail heads based off requests. You can also rotate where the shuttles go each day / week so if there's a more obscure trail/mountain then you can just wait until it comes up in the schedule. The towns would also probably want to run the shuttles as well since it will bring business to the area.

Ok, let's assume we want less people on the mountain, what gives you the right to go to the mountain then? Because you can afford a car? That doesn't seem fair. Also most people have a car so it's not restricting that many people. If we say only 30 people should go to the mountain a day that's way easier to enforce if we say only 2 shuttles of 15 are allowed. It's also fairer as who gets to go is just determined by whoever signs up first, as opposed to whether someone owns something.

I think many people would like to socialize. There's a loneliness epidemic and many people are looking for friends but don't know where to meet them. If I was looking for friends with common interests like mountain biking the shuttle up would be a great place to meet them. Just because I want to get away from civilization doesn't mean I want to get away from socializing, I hike regularly with groups of people and they mostly enhance the experience. If you aren't into that that's fine too, just put on your headphones ignore everyone and set off on the trail solo, nothing stopping you from doing that.

For the last point like I said usage can be controlled, even better then cars, but assuming the same usage a shuttle is less pollution then multiple cars. If like you said there are 5-6 cars at a particular trail head then one shuttle carrying all those people will cause less air and noise pollution and make it safer for animals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It clear that you and I will never agree, but fortunately it doesn't matter because your pipe dream will never happen!

I'll drive my car and hike/bike these mountains every weekend and keep on loving the freedom and peace of mind that I get to live with. 'Cause Murica.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It will eventually have to happen, cars, including evs, are not sustainable, at least at the current levels of usage. If you look at any climate report looking into it the choice is between Americans driving a lot less or severe climate change. I hope murica will make the right choice but the more we tie cars to ideas of freedom and peace of mind the harder that choice will be. It will be tough to fight considering the tens of thousands of hours of car ads most Americans are exposed to pushing that narrative, so it will require just as much reinforcement on the negatives of cars, traffic fatalities, CO2 emissions, airborne micro plastics from tires, maintenance and repair costs, obesity, sprawled cities, etc.

It may not happen in our lifetime, or at least when your healthy enough to bike/hike , but eventually we'll have to transition away from personal cars. Id prefer to build towards that future now for the reasons listed above but if you want to delay that's fine, you'll just have to explain to your grandkids why you did.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

No kids, don't give a shit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

You people proselytize more than Linux evangelists and perhaps even Mormons do, and not even as entertainingly. Even if I agree with you, I don’t want to hear about fuckcars in every damn thread.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Dense cities and the consumerist lifestyles that exist inside them can not be "green" no matter how much green lipstick you put on it. Their very existence is destructive to the environment and disruptive of nature, switching out cars for bicycles or buses isn't even scratching the surface of the issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

This is exactly backwards. People in cities consume fewer resources per capital than people in rural areas, who can't take advantage of the same economies of scale when it comes to transportation infrastructure, energy infrastructure, public utilities, physical supply chains, and all sorts of services in modern life, from seeing a doctor to repairing a broken window to borrowing a library book to getting a babysitter.

It's rural areas that destroy more land, consume more water, generate more pollution, and emit more greenhouse gases, on a per capita basis, than dense areas.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I'm with you on everything here except the very last sentence.

EV impact is more about toxic particles from tire and brake wear, and greater road wear when most EVs are heavier than similar ICE vehicles. The cleanliness of an EV's power source has been debunked over and over again, showing it's still a net positive environmental impact to run an EV off dirty energy, compared to an ICE car burning gas or diesel.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2020/03/30/yes-electric-cars-are-cleaner-even-when-the-power-comes-from-coal/

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Yep. This exactly.