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I don't think a car-centric rural model of society is really the way of the future. Better zoning laws and urban development to make living in cities more affordable and more attractive is going to be a key, but also reconceiving the concept of public transportation as a public good rather than a service to be run at a profit will help out significantly outside of urban and suburban areas.
Public transportation, like high speed internet, is only unviable in rural areas because current models are so fixated on them being run as profitable businesses rather than focusing on the good they do for communities. Not every private car can be taken off the road, but many are unnecessary.
Dec 27 · 1 day ago
👻 shikitohno · Dec 27 at 15:58:
If people knew they could walk 10 minutes and catch a bus into town once every 30 minutes or so for a reasonable fee and get where they needed to go, how many would really need to maintain a car, with all its associated costs?
Those who ride 1:15 to work with the bus coming every 30 minutes, while the car drive is about 40 minutes and starts anytime. Both ways. It adds up to 6 hours per week, almost a full working day or the amount of time a healthy person invests in sports every week.
This is a trivial use case. The call for personal sacrifice goes nowhere as it lacks realism. And it's not the we really are that busy: society asks for long working hours; quick intelligent results are not often honoured. What gives? Mobility, family, hobbies.
Better go for a systematic change of opportunities: what if work, the market and the school are all within 20 minutes by foot? That is a change!
I like this discussion.
I'd like to add that around where I live public transit is seen as unsafe by a lot of people, especially in off hours. Not sure how to change that perception and/or reality.
I failed to mention that insurance rates appear to be much (even several times?) higher for electric cars, according to some reports...
@karel: true, driving is usually faster in many (most?) places. But I've lived in NYC most of my life, where driving is just not an option and public transit is decent, mostly. Millions of New Yorkers just take the subway to/from work. We've learned to spend the time wisely - reading, resting, watching movies on our phones, chatting with strangers (NYC is amazing for casual conversations), or just thinking or daydreaming. Not so bad.
Electric cars: reprise — [gemini link] Thank you for this and other responses. No cars is better than any cars of any kind -- that is true; public transit, density and sensible city planning are much better. In the meantime, electric cars do offer a reasonable-seeming solution for short suburban commutes with lots of time to recharge, in places where infrastructure is available. But I still think we are fooling ourselves about pollution (unless we are in Norway or some place that does not use...