this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I haven't found a good print of this yet but apparently this image has been cropped: https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/beyond_the_beyond/2013/08/SHOA.MED_.jpg

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Those last three panels were an epilogue R. Crumb did ten years later as three possible answers to the question posed by the original: "WHAT NEXT?!!"

You can actually read the captions in this higher resolution version.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It wasn't cropped, that was some kind of addition.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Let's be honest. Early 20th century city planning was the best both in walkability and aesthetics

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

To be fair, we don't remember what it smelled like. I'm sure a pile of horse manure on a hot summer day wasn't too pleasant.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think he's talking bout when they used trolleys for transport

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's really surprising how many cities, even small ones, had some type of trolley system in place that got overrun by the automotive movement. And now can't figure out how to insert a good mass transit system into one that's made for cars.

Also, a song that came to mind in seeing this image is Dire Straits' "Telegraph Road".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Do you know about National City Lines? It was a front company run by GM. They bought streetcar companies around America and dismantled them systematically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I was talking about the city planning, not about the actual city

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Good old Breezeworld, PA, I know it well :)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This place exists because two interstates intersect each other at this point, did you expect a tram?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

True, it’s not like in the comic where it evolved from a regular town. It’s just such an iconic example of a horrible modern landscape. Plus I used to drive through it on my way to CMU from Maryland, so I have a personal connection. It was the halfway point so a very handy rest stop to be honest.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What can we do to fix this? I agree with the dislike for cars and the desire for walkable cities, but when I see posts like this, it makes me really wonder about the way forward.

Public transportation is the obvious solution, trains/busses/etc. should have been the standard from the start, but we are here now. We can’t get rid of the infrastructure thats in place, so how can we fix it?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

We can’t get rid of the infrastructure thats in place, so how can we fix it?

You can swap it with public transportation. The same way public transportation was swapped for car dependent hell

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'd love to see a better imaging of this but I can't quite make out the source credited on the bottom

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

R. Crumb, “A Short History of America”; 1979

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

Top left says it's "A Short History of America by R. Crumb"