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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This is the home of car culture and it's the reason the climate change movement has seen such little traction. 80% of this problem could be solved by a decent intercity rail network combined with light rail and cycle paths in the densely populated areas. Sometimes a car is the only solution but everything looks like a nail when your only tool is a hammer.
What's that orange paradise in the northeast coast?
I have to drive 50 miles to work one way. Chartering a bus or a uber is just too expensive and i aint walkin it
USA should play a bit of OpenTTD or other public transit simulators on their country map to get some ideas ^^
This is why we Americans may be happy to hang out and chat on /c/fuckcars, and try to vote for sane transportation policies, but then also be like lol no I can’t actually get rid of my car.
Every big American city you’ve ever heard of is solid “car” except for the heart of New York. Now just imagine what it’s like for the folks in rural areas or even in the suburbs of medium cities.
This is a pretty sparsely populated country on average, and it’s all designed assuming everybody is in a car. Sidewalks and bike lanes get sprinkled around where there’s room and desire for them.
Actually many European cities would be green as well. For example Munich still has a modal share of 34% cars. However none of the other options has more then that with walking and public transport being at 24% each and cycling at 18%. You could very much live without a car though.
I'm surprised the Chicago area isn't orange/red..
The US needs so, so, so much reform. Especially regarding public transit. In most parts of the nation anything that isn't a car stuck in traffic is for poor people who are also disregarded across volumes of needs issues.
We're falling back to where we were in the great depression, and it still seems nothing short of violence and bloodshed will stop our ownership class from exploiting the rest of us.
Even in those cities with it, public transportation is failing. The systems are archaic and outdated.
I grew up with public transport and now drive the car daily. Car is so much more convenient.
I don't understand what's all the fuss is about. Like it's impossible to haul a lot of groceries in the bus and u have to wait in the cold for the bus to come. And sometimes there are a lot of people and u are like sardines there.
Car is so much more convenient.
(Okay before you read this, this assumption is for Cities only. Rural areas do not apply at all lol. Suburbs are also still part of cities)
This is actually an effect of creating a car centric infrastructure and city planning revolving around roads and parking.
You have to imagine for a moment what an entire city would look like without cars as the core transportation method. For starters, suburbs wouldn't be a thing, everything would be spaced about 4-8x closer, large supermarkets would be rare, especially grocery stores, pedestrian and cyclist traffic would be the most common form of transportation, and then busses/streetcars, and then trains.
You would likely be getting groceries more frequently, but it would be an average 7 minute walk to your local grocery store, and a flat 3 minute cycle if you don't want to carry any groceries and put in even less effort than walking. Busses and trains would be reserved for mostly commercial traffic like traveling to work, city center, or other neighborhoods.
There are plenty of real life examples of cities and entire countries that are developed like this. Netherlands is always brought up, but places like Sydney follow this planning despite also having a lot of cars. Even several US cities were like this in the early 1900-1940s.
The reason busses and trains absolutely suck in the USA, is that it is treated as secondary transport. Busses are rarely running with enough frequency to make them viable, and they have to travel the same distance and use the same roads as cars, because every neighborhood was designed to accommodate cars first. There should be almost no need to get on a Bus to do grocery shopping.
Same logic applies to trains. Lots of people drive first to take the train, which makes it much less effective. Also the USA hasn't properly invested into rail for like 70 years, so every system you see is slow as hell and never on time.
You're the first person I've seen on the various fuck cars communities I see to actually acknowledge rural areas exist, good job. We can't all just walk everywhere.
Yeah one of the reasons I brought up Sydney is because there's an entire massive rural area of Australia with people living in practically the middle of nowhere.
Which is why they have their infamous truck trains that drive for days just to transport supplies around.
But when you hit the city, the landscape instantly changes. It's almost cool going from seeing outback trucks to JDM wrx and evos everywhere, lol. I assume it's because only gear heads and enthusiasts keep cars around because they have metro, busses, and a water ferry that takes you around.
Walkable cities are even better. I used to drive daily and then I moved close enough to walk to work with conveniently located grocery stores. Didn't drive much at all for years and THAT was convenient. Never sit in traffic and just stop in the store and pick up a few things on your way home from work. As long as I have to be working that is as close to livin' the dream as possible for me.
Cars don't scale.
As soon as there is real traffic, cars become inefficient trains.
If you're somewhere that doesn't have much traffic yet, it'll seem fine, but that doesn't always last.
If you can make a bicycle work, that's much healthier and cheaper to own and operate for all those people that can't afford a car, or don't want to be indentured to it. Cargo bikes even work fine for groceries, depending on your family size.
It has a bad reputation cause it isn't well funded, I do agree buses aren't perfect but in my city they come often enough and there is actually plenty of space to rest so it is not a traumatic experience
Besides the fact that underground trains take care of most transportation
Driving these days is just being stuck in traffic for an hour at a time then wasting 20 minutes searching for a parking spot and being late for work.
You should move. I live in a rural area and I don't know wtf would I do without vehicle
Yes vehicle important
Most people can't afford to move.
It's not "I want public transportation because public transportation is fun", it's "I want good public transportation because it's better for the environment and society and urban planning and etc etc etc"
It’s not “I want public transportation because public transportation is fun”,
Public transportation is kinda fun though. It's great to relax and read a book or social media instead of staring at the backs of cars and cursing.
I love trains, personally, but I despise buses and subways. Trains are so peaceful. I could ride on a train all day.