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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Fuck Cars
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How many trains run from my garage to the convenience store at anytime I want? Or from my garage to work at anytime between 8 and 9 am and then home at whatever time I want to leave? What about the trains that run to my mother's house or my sister's house in different cities? What about the one that goes to the snowboarding resort I like it in the boonies, or for that matter, the one in the middle of the mountains? I will never live in an apartment with other people for many different reasons, and it gets both miserably hot and dangerously cold where I live. There are plenty of other things to fix before going after vehicles, especially electric vehicles. Making me operate on some strict schedule with trains and buses it other public transportation takes away my freedom to do what I want, and I will fight tooth and nail to make sure that's not taken from me, especially when both can coexist.
I am all for individual transportation with whatever engine. I am however writing this while sitting in the tram commuting to work.
My city has metro lines that run every 3 to 5 minutes all day every day, and riding the metro affords me the freedom to do something, anything besides keeping my eyes on the road. I agree that adhering to the schedule of a train that comes every hour (or half-hour) sucks, but it doesn't have to be that way. My city is also building an automated light metro that will run every 2.5 minutes.
If we talked more about building quality trains places, and building good bike infrastructure for micromobility like bikes and e-scooters, train + micromobility would feel far more free than being caged in traffic. In my city, that's how it currently is for me. Metro + my electric scooter makes me feel crazy free within the city. Only thing I wish is they would build even more trains, including to the nearby mountains so I could easily go hiking and camping, too.
Scooters and bikes are not viable when it's literally freezing outside, especially with bad weather conditions. Unless there is transportation literally right out of my door, I would sooner keep my eyes on the road and drive myself. Trains and buses don't stop at the gas station on my way into work to grab my drink for the day, and if they do, they aren't waiting for me. If I need to run some errands, like go to the doctor or run to the hardware store, that is significantly less convenient with public transportation. I just got 4 bags of softener salt the other day that totaled 160 lbs. Not a chance I would try to lug that on a bike or carry it on and off a bus or train. I'm not saying I wouldn't use it sometimes, and have in cities like Minneapolis and New York, but I was visiting and either didn't have a car or wasn't in condition to drive so worked around it. Again, they can coexist , but fighting electric vehicles of all things is a dumb fight.
Bikes work just fine when it is freezing.
Source: Have biked in sub zero often.
Btw it is possible to plan cities so you are not car dependent:
If I need to run some errands: I walk
If I need to go to the doctor: I walk
Hardware store: I walk
Do I need 80kgs of crap at home? Seldomly, but if I need it I put it in my bike trailer.
And if any of the distances between your errands or home are too much for you to walk, a frequent public transport network makes it easy to just hop on and off as needed, and not have to worry about parking. And for carrying a lot, cargo bike rentals are really cool, but just paying for delivery works well too.
I’m with you here
I’m not biking in the rain. Period. That is miserable and I’m not subjecting myself to it. I’ve done it, it sucked. I turned up to work soaking wet and very unhappy. Snow is a complete non-starter since my city is famous for poor snow management.
I live in Canada. I rode my scooter to work all winter (including in -14 celsius weather) without issue thanks to good bike infrastructure that gets plowed promptly. Quite a few cyclists in my city do the same, as it's actually not nearly as bad as you might imagine it, provided your city actually cares about bike infrastructure. It was actually pretty fun.
For more, there are cargo ebikes or even just renting a car for the occasions that you do need to carry heavy stuff. And for most average people, we don't lug around 160 lbs on a daily basis.
My point in all of this is not that we should make a car-free society. It's that our focus on "oh, let's just switch to EVs and change absolutely nothing else in society!" is misguided. Sure, there are certain things cars can do that won't be replaced, at least not any time soon, but plenty of places in the world already thrive with much fewer cars and much more micomobility and public transit.
Nobody is forcing you to only use the transit. We just want the option to be available and be effecient because for some of us it is cheaper or more convenient.
Just remember that resources are limited and if you want to use your part of the pie for stuff like that, you’ll have to save in other places. Possibly eating less/no meat, not/rarely going on vacation, living in a small home and using less energy for heating/cooling or whatever works.