These are really problems with stroads, car-centric infrastructure, and car culture rather than with the vehicles themselves.
I like to watch Not Just Bikes, he has a lot of well-done videos exploring why car-centric infrastructure causes all sorts of problems, and showcasing how The Netherlands successfully re-built their infrastructure to prioritize pedestrian traffic and public transportation.
What you actually hate are modern roads. You just don’t realize it.
Roads, as they are now, are nothing more than trillion dollar subsidies to the big automotive companies (which, up until the 1980s, were predominantly American in the US… that might have been the point). Without these trillion dollar subsidies, there’d be nowhere much to drive cars, and no one would buy them (supposing anyone even tried to sell them). Though pollution and carbon dioxide might still be a large and extreme problem, one does wonder how much smaller it might be if there had been no cars.
Government, creating perverse incentives since 4000 BC, with no one noticing.
If you haven’t heard of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer yet, it’s a really good read to understand how things got to be the way they are. The road to hell was paved with good intentions, but at every opportunity we’ve doubled down on critically flawed designs.
Currently living in a urban area, I 100% agree that cars should just be illegal here (with very few necesseary exceptions). But I grew up in a rural area hours from the nearest city, and here the question may be more difficult. I’m not saying that it is impossible to ban them here too, but that it will necessitate much more work and political will.
I also hate cars for a variety of reasons, but I also think that there are a few situations in which a car is maybe the only option.
In rural areas for example, to ban the cars there too it will be needed a really strong ferroviarian web and yep, political will is really required.
(Also the point is not just baning them, is modernizing or citys, improve by a ton the public transport and a big etc etc that just makes cars useless)
P.D: But yea, I also hate cars I live in a city and the noise, pollution etc etc is a big pain on the ass
I agree with the need to modernize our cities, but it won’t be enough to “make cars useless”. From an individual point of view, the car have too many advantages that people won’t let go. At least here in France were I live.
The modern occidental urban world is build with cars and trucks at the heart of society. It is much harder to find a job if you don’t own a car, and for pretty much any business (apart from pure service) your supplies have to get to your by road. If we wait to get to the point of “modernizing cities” enough to get real alternatives competitive enough to change people on a individual “free” choice basis, it will take decades or even a century.
Banning car thanks to a collective political action is much more effective and will bring the amelioration to the city much much faster. As long as cars are allowed in cities, public money, private money, and political action have to keep on managing them, maintaining the infrastructure, the cars, while keeping the city less enjoyable for cyclist and pedestrians.
Bonus point : This is a great example of what I would call a “collective prisoner’s dilemma”. I would personally never end up choosing to never ever have a car because it would make my individual life much difficult and less free. But Collectively, I am convinced I have a personal interest in a law that would ban cars for everyone including me. Because that wouldn’t penalize me when I’m looking for a job or try to create an urban economic activity. That would actually let me with more freedom to do what I want. A counter intuitive situation where imposing a collective restriction of freedom actually benefit to everyone.
In most cases cars are a less effective alternative. In my city people like commuting to work by car. If they, at least, got on 3-4 people in the same car we could reduce traffic jam by 60% to 75%. What is interesting is that people commuting to work by car as a single and lonly passenger are the ones that complain the most about traffic jam. You would never hear someone commuting by train or tram complaining about the same.
It is also terribly space-inefficient and honk very loudly and its headlamp is blinding
I owned a car for like a year of my life and it was horribly expensive. It was cool in some respects, but not at all worth it in total. Also there’s the whole climate thing going on…
I think that it’s totally fine for rural people to use cars (hopefully electric in the future) but they can’t expect to drive them into cities and cities should only allow private cars with special permits. We’d have so much more communal space.
Bike rules
Me too
I don’t really like having car but not because of most reasons up there. I might not be going to own a car because I feel like driving a car alone is kind of creepy. Especially if I have to drive a silent road at night. Having empty seats in the back is intimidating. Another perspective to put it, having empty seats most of the time is quite wasteful.
Maybe pût some dolls in the back?
idk why people say it’s creepy, Dolores’ my best friend during my car trips and loves to listen me rage about traffic
Everybody need a Dolores in their life
Okay that’s just creepier
that’s even more creepy
could be good here too !fuck_cars@lemmy.ml
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All I can say is based
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What neoliberal nonsense.
I do not see what neo-liberalism has to do with this tbh.
The idea of blaming consumers for entirely industry made issues, of antagonizing working class people based on the commodities they own and making them out to be the real enemies in various capitalist-made issues like the climate catastrophe and lack of road safety.
This is all a tired psyop to shift blame for climate change on random proletarian car owners, instead of the circumstances making these cars necessary or attractive or viable or producable. Good ol’ infighting, divide and conquer.
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“Anything I disagree with is neoliberal”. You realize neoliberals built the dangerous and inefficent stroads we have here in Anerica?
Why not blame the capitalist industrialists that cut corners there, then, and not regular ass proletarians with cars?
I’m not saying I hate people who own cars. In many places owning a car is a necessity. I am saying that I hate cars, and by extension car companies/lobbiests. I think cars serve little to no place in a good society.
the only problem is cars provide a lot of freedom in the sense of ability to deal with the world around us. transportation of individuals or goods or trash. other forms of infrastructure, such as trains, limits a lot on where and how you live your life.
i don’t own a car nor do i have a driving license. i live in the middle of nowhere, 8km from nearest town, smack on the middle of the arctic circle. and do have access to great public transportation system (bus pass by once every 2 hours, about 30 minutes walk from the house). but when it’s -30°C outside. or when i need to transport goods such as food supplies or live animals (i keep tropical ornamental fish). or when (like this summer) i had to throw a lot of rotten wood and panels while renovating my house (not to mention transporting new materials). i can’t use the bus. even if there was a train, i wouldn’t had been able to use that for any of this. the only reason i can make do at all is because my neighbor (who lives 2km away) has a car and a wagon.
i just can’t see a feasible alternative to cars that wouldn’t completely congest any public transportation system when just trying to live life, without access to cars. i mean, unless we rollback time and make modern personal mini-blimps a thing. that would be awesome. i’d be okay with that. let’s do that.
Okay, fair enough, I can see that, but it’s pretty obvious the large majority of this thread and ‘anti-car’ people in general just don’t think that far and instead just project hate on perceived “selfish” car drivers.
I do hate the small subset of drivers that are very anti-bike and act like they are better than everyone. They’re assholes and deserve the hate.
That’s true.
