So don't take this the wrong way, but I do like cars. I am also against car dependency. I just wanted to make this post here to start a discussion about the benefits of lower speed limits in cities and towns, investment in effective public transit and non car-centric infrastructure, and other "anti-car" policies for car people. My goal with this post is to list the benefits of these policies for car people as I see it, and to hear other opinions on this topic.
- Stroads suck. I am a car person and would rather bike on a well-designed street than drive on a stroad.
- Congestion - I like to drive. Most people I know would rather not and would take other forms of transit if there were viable alternatives. If people who just want to go from a to b had viable alternatives, roads would be free for the people who want or need to be in cars.
- Safety - I don't want to kill pedestrians. I don't want to wreck my car. I'm fine with driving fast on a country road where I can see for miles and know that there is nothing in front of me to hit. If I do crash, it was my fault, and it doesn't endanger others. However, cities should have lower speed limits to keep pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers safe.
- Traffic flow - Where I live, there is a 45 mph speed limit down one of the main roads, but I rarely reach 45 during peak usage times because of traffic. Lower speeds would make traffic flow more manageable and allow car traffic through at a higher average speed.
I feel like the name "Fuck Cars" presents a false dichotomy between well thought out urban design and cars. Good urban design opposes car dependency (which I am against) not cars themselves. With that, I would like to leave you with a few questions: What role should cars play in an ideal world? How would or do you talk to car enthusiasts about this stuff? Do you hate cars or car dependency?
Also because this is fuck cars, fuck some cars. Fuck cars with shitty modified exhausts in built up areas. Fuck cars that run catless exhausts. Fuck big ass trucks and SUVs that run over children to dodge environmental regulations. Especially fuck squatted trucks. Fuck the car manufacturers who lobby to create car dependency and manufacture the child-crushing SUVs.
Fuck cars!
I'm sure there's room for a more moderate community somewhere on the internet, but surely fuck cars has to be the most extreme one. There are several more rational sounding 'urbanist' ones out there. I'm sure some of them tolerate cars - especially the people that get all wet in the pants over fucking electric ones - fuck those too by the way.
If none of those are any good I'd suggest you start one called 'FuckCarsBut' or go ozzy and try 'YeahNahCars'
Surely we don't have to start "SeriouslyReallyActuallyFuckCars" community for me and the one other anti-car extremist in the world.
Either way there are far too many fucking car apologists in this one. fuck FuckCars
There are many reasons to hate cars, but I am curious how you would replace them entirely. Even in the Netherlands there are cars, there are just viable alternatives for most people. I would seriously be interested in how a system with zero cars would work. We certainly don't need the amount there are now, but I think there are a few jobs for which they are the right tool.
I think humans existed for quite a long time before cars were invented so I don't think they can be all that essential for the species. Humans evolved such traits as bipedal-ism and sweating to help them be able to walk very long distances to find things that they need.
Most humans like cars and find them convenient/time savers or they're just too lazy to walk for a couple of hours a day. I can still say fuck them even if they are convenient. Maybe unless you're in a wheelchair or something - but even then I'd think an electric wheelchair would be better than a car in most cases.
Of course there might also be a couple of billion too many humans on this planet, but it's strange that they all "need" to rush around all over the place and travel much larger distances then they did in the past - you'd think it'd work the other way round. Especially with vans, lorries and boats moving so much stuff around.
You didn't really answer the OPs question but you did mention evolution. Do you have an answer?
It's pretty clear on the evolution of transportation that spawned cars and it wasn't for no reason. You can actually replace 'cars' in your statement with anything, see:
Are you anti-everything but human locomotion?
yes
What about ambulances and fire vehicles?
What car obsessed freaks are using them as a fire engine or an ambulance?