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No I get that, but there's this prevailing sentiment that cars are somehow more necessary in rural areas because...they're not worth serving with transit or something? I don't know. I think it's ridiculous. Big cities should obviously have excellent transit and non-car infrastructure but so should small towns and villages

Funny you should mention Asian countries, considering both I and the author of the tweet in the screenshot live in an Asian country. We do use individual transport -- but it's not cars, it's usually motorbikes or scooters. The "meme" (actually a serious opinion from someone who studies urbanism and transport for a living) is aimed at manufacturers and governments (like mine) who are pushing electric cars that most people can't afford (and that people in rural areas definitely can't afford) to the exclusion of public transit, which practically everyone can afford.

You are STILL missing the point.

Let's apply your marathon analogy to this situation. Your daughter's signed up to run a trail marathon. There are comfortable, ergonomic, rugged footwear options available that are specifically and scientifically designed to cushion runners' feet, protect them from debris, pebbles, dirt etc. on the trail, provide them with extra grip, and reduce the strain of long-distance trail running. You can afford to get the best of the best of these shoes to make sure her running experience is as low-strain and as comfortable as it can be.

Your daughter has instead chosen to eschew all of these and run completely barefoot and unprotected on boiling hot asphalt and uneven trails strewn with sharp stones and animal droppings, because it's "natural". She has arrived at the finish line, limping with a twisted ankle and her soles bleeding all over the place from cuts and scratches galore.

For some reason you're trumpeting that you're proud of her for doing this and not opting for "the comfort of trail running shoes", when you have absolutely zero say or opinion in this situation.

The rest of us are looking at you like you've got two heads.

Do you understand now?

I don't think you'll find anyone with a lick of sense in here that's advocating for zero cars -- just that the way the system is currently set up prioritizes cars above everything else when it ought to be the other way around -- cars ought to be the very last resort instead of the first option most people go for. Taxis absolutely have their uses, and yes they should be cheap, but not so abundant as to divert people from using mass transit like buses or trams

The money wasted in electric car subsidies is much better spent on mass transit and cycling and pedestrianization initiatives, all of which move far more people at much less cost per person. Electric cars are being posited as the solution (as opposed to drastically improved mass transit) because that's the only way auto companies can stay relevant and maintain their supremacy

I think the confusion stems from the fact that the actual vehicle that the Brisbane Metro rolling stock is based on is also called a Hess LighTram. There's a good chance that this is also going to end up just being a BRT like the Brisbane Metro, or (maybe) an adapted guided bus system. We'll have to see, it's still extremely early days for this project. Honestly I'm just glad they're considering something like this, we have precious few modernized transit options in any of our cities.

I'm on the web interface so I do actually see the headline in the body (plus the beginning of the article itself), but I think maybe it doesn't show up on other clients?

There's also a water metro for offshore islands in the city

Oh, my bad -- I thought the headline showed up in the post too!

I live in Mumbai -- while the commuter trains have lots of room for improvement, they do run at ~3 minute headway for most of the day, and that's on tracks shared with the national rail network. I'd expect a metro system with its own dedicated tracks to be able to do even better, at least at peak hours.

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining -- 5 minutes is pretty great, and the Mumbai Metro system (separate from the commuter trains) is also worse at about ~6 minutes -- but even so, I was hoping this system might be able to achieve times like the Paris or Moscow Metro

My dad was like that, except he was "bad" with money in a very calculated way that made it crystal clear that he was frittering money away on everyone except his family (me and my mother, who is her own horrible can of worms) as punishment for not toeing his line. And yet they both were shocked to the point of rage when I mentioned I'm not going to have kids. My mother even went so far as to say "just make the kid and give them to me, I'll raise them while you and your wife go to work". Fuck that.

I think the point being made is that having to drive everywhere makes people even less kind than they usually are, as borne out by road rage incidents