This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
Cause you can't actually GO anywhere on a bike. If you want to go somewhere 200 miles away for a week, it'd take a day and a half each way, minimum, and you can't bring anything with you bigger than a backpack. It's also physically strenuous to go literally anywhere, even the places you are allowed to go.
cities should look like this: bicycle/walking paths, trains, trams and buses. and a tiny road for the rare occasion you actually NEED a car. boom, problems solved. also mixed use zoning, rezone every city so it's more compatible with a non car centric lifestyle
Also, bad weather is a major pain in the ass on a bicycle, but only a minor inconvenience in a car
Scooter, pic unrelated
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Can't sleep in it. Gotta haul your groceries. Won't get you to the next state and back.
Y'all are deluded.
I never learned how to ride a bicycle, I should really get to it someday. I just walk everywhere I need to go, or use carpooling/bus/subway..
"Cars are freedom! *
Except for the monthly finance payment, the legal obligation to insurance companies, the dependance on oil companies, etc"
Bikes are ableist aren’t they? They work well for you if you don’t have any physical or cognitive issues.
The fact is goes as far as as fast as you can isn't really a good thing. Also collisions are more likely to kill you.
...aaand we're back to adjusting our speed to suit the circumstances.
Cities are inhospitable, but mostly because they're built around 1 tonne death traps as opposed to other means of transport
You won't be able to adjust it very high. And what is a better solution than 1 ton death traps? Is it trains? No. That would require rebuilding every city in America to be like 4 buildings and nothing else and the places where it would work already have it like new York. Is it buses? No. They are already in place and nobody uses them. So tell me, what is the actual solution besides cars?
My problem is that I have terrible balance on a bike, and the last time I tried to ride one I had an anxiety attack. I still am strongly for bike usage, though.
What about an electric scooter? Or honestly tricycles with a big cargo spot on the back are pretty sweet so long as you have the space and aren’t going up any crazy hills (could get an electric tricycle thoo).
At the end of the day though, I love bicycles but they can’t work for everyone… which is why the hope for most American cities at least is in busses. I know everyone hates busses and they are usually considered the least cool thing ever but honestly they are the future for mass transit in the US. We ripped out all the streetcars which is heartbreaking but I think busses are the closest practical replacement.
LONG LIVE THE BUS
I'll admit that I've considered an electric scooter, but I haven't gotten around to it.
MUCH slower, no protection from the elements, most can only support one person at a time. Great for shorter distances, but that's about it.
most can only support one person at a time.
As a Dutchie, that's bullshit. Three at the least.
Maybe three Dutchies but certainly not three Americans.
Distance. An hour commute or a 20 minute trip to the grocery store. We killed walkable neighborhoods so now here we are. Trapped.
You can do what I did and move to another country. It just takes a lot of time, work, and money to get there (though money can accelerate the former two, in some cases).
I'd love to. And the brain drain is already beginning. College is cheaper and just as good over seas. That's always the first stage because you never get all the kids back.
Open your own grocery store. Or allow others to do so.
I would if I could. But I can't beat Walmart prices an hour away on Transit.
That's why you don't see 15 minute cities anymore. Capitalism already figured out that a few large stores allow you to hire more efficient numbers of employees, buy more for less, stock better variety, pass along some of the savings to customers and still make more profit than building lots and lots of repeated commercial infrastructure throughout residential areas. A return to that model would require more employees in low paying service jobs, and would sacrifice lower prices and better variety. Ironically, it would be far faster to use a car to skip from store to store to look for the best deals and the specific brands you want. I suppose we could also get rid of capitalism at the same time, but I'm not holding my breath. As much as I like the idea of walkable infrastructure, it comes at a cost that I am not sure many would be willing to pay.
It's very weird that it works all over Europe, but for some reason it's too expansive for America. It's almost like it's not an inevitable course of actions really actually.
But we can't have 15 minute cities because...that's tyranny somehow?
15 minute cities are about as organic as "two weeks to flatten the curve". There's a reason they don't exist, it's not a practical idea. Just like every other idea children come up with.
Yeah, except all of those old European cities and newer Soviet built ones had (and in most cases still have) everything close to 15 minutes away.
That used to be the model. Go look at old pictures. Those people were not walking hours to get groceries.
Correct, they'd use a horse or a mule. Cars are an improved horse. Walking and biking are hobbies at best.