this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

In the US at least, Trump has validated half the country to express naked contempt for anyone they deem "other." This includes: any person of color, any woman, anyone younger than them, anyone that "looks" educated, anyone walking, anyone on a bicycle, and anyone in an electric car, among others.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I love that you worked a Trump reference into this but I’ve seen this sort of terrible behaviour from drivers since I was a kid (I’m 40). It’s also not unique to North America, nor even the West (seen the same thing in China).

No, it’s something about cars that creates a disconnect between us and other people. It’s like people outside the car’s windows are TV characters, not real people.

[–] lone_faerie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

It's been an issue for a long time, but Trump, as well as COVID, severely exacerbated the issue

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago

Its a mech suit that the more you consider it a freeing source of maneuvering the world the more attached to it you become and safer you feel from the rest of the world. No matter it makes people have all kinds of emotional responses that are unpleasant for the rest of us.

[–] WoahWoah@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sorry for triggering you, bro. But the cartoonist is trans, lives in New York, the comics where she is depicted are regularly set in NYC, the comic specifically references "in the last two years," she regularly makes comics about Trump, I specified in the United States, bicycle deaths from cars rapidly increased in the US starting in 2016 and reached their highest ever in 2022 (the last year with comprehensive data), and pedestrian deaths from cars increased 83% since 2009 with a larger increase occurring in the second half in the 2010s.

The comic isn't directly about the fact that people in cars behave poorly around bikes and pedestrians in the last four decades. It clearly addresses the recent spike in aggressive behavior from motorists, especially towards pedestrians and, by extension, cyclists.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Do you have some statistics to back up that claim? Wikipedia shows much higher cyclist fatalities per 100k population in the 1990s and prior decades. The only recent trend I can see there is an abnormally low fatality rate in 2010 followed by a return to 2000 levels.

Anyway, the point of my inquiry is to try to make sense of car drivers. This is a community about the impacts of cars on society, not the other way around.

[–] Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wrong data. Look up cyclist fatalities by automobile. You looked up the total.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I’ve only been able to find absolute numbers for those. I can’t find statistics based on number of bicycle trips, miles travelled, or per capita.