cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26368144
Anons argue in comments
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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Fuck Cars
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To create a pedestrian first world I think we need to legitimately understand what advantages a car has. A car is a true source of empowerment.
Sure, I can ride a bike, but I could never ride a bike 300 miles for a weekend trip to any arbitrary destination. I can take a bus but not at any moment, and not the middle of the night. I can take public transit, but not to the place I need to go.
A car is a portable personal space. I can eat lunch in my car, I can take a nap.
A car is a space protected from the elements - I'm not getting rained on. Protection from wind, snow, sun.
Its locked doors are a barrier between me and potential (and sometimes imagined) threats.
I don't need to list out for this community all the negative things associated with cars. I just list these pros to highlight it's a challenging task to displace cars. It's a list of benefits to replicate.
This is a strawman argument. 300 mile trips are better suited for trains.
There isn't a train running from where I live to anywhere. And even if I lived in the nearest metropolitan area, trains only run to a couple destinations that are 300 miles away.
Don't get me wrong, we should build trains going everywhere. That's a huge expensive goal that has no foreseeable date for completion. I'm talking about why do people view cars as a source of freedom? It's because they offer something not easily accessible by other means. The original post was talking about how great bikes are and why do we think cars are a symbol of freedom?
I think bikes are great, and I'm glad to ponder the nice benefits they offer. To displace cars requires understanding why people want them.