Work by Ron Cobb
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Fuck Cars
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As someone who has a big guilty pleasure for sports/performance cars and racing in general, this comic actually explains really well how I'm able to reconcile that with my dislike of car-centric infrastructure and wishing for better public transportation: without other means for getting around cities for people who don't care much about cars (i.e. most people), everyone will be forced to use cars for basic transport, meaning really clogged highways and traffic jams that directly affect you and your fancy sports car's enjoyment.
Conversely, if infrastructure was more accommodating for bikes, trains and buses to make them more viable, most people would use them, leaving the streets and highways freer for you to have fun driving your sports car the way it was meant to, instead of being stuck in traffic jams most of the time.
I just wish most people who are into cars realized this, instead of raving about how "they want to take away our cars!" and fellating Andrew Tate and other shitheads.
Why aren't sport cars rented instead of sold? Only place you can really use them is the race track.
Lots of racetracks sell packages like this, pay $$ to take out a certain car or groups of cars. But for lots of people it's just as much about the tuning/improving of their own car as it is about the driving.
Ok, good point.
Au contraire, my Fuck Cars fellow. A sports car's agile handling and peppy acceleration are enjoyable even at street legal speeds. They are of course most enjoyable when driven nearer to the limits at a track, but most stock "sports cars" require some modifications to be reliably driven under such intense conditions.
think, for a moment, about the world you're leaving to the future.
is it really worth peppy acceleration when you KNOW that is wasteful and literally costing your children? Because that's who's gonna pay that bill. Not you or me. Our kids and grandkids.
cars for fun made sense before we understood the actual costs.
these days it just seems gross, you got yours, fuck everyone else.
I'm happy to spend my carbon budget on an occasional Sunday cruise with the top down on a sunny afternoon, rather than overseas holidays, excessive consumption, etc. I don't commute by car, I ride my bike as much as possible, and I advocate for improved public transit infrastructure in my community, which all have a far greater impact than my ~460 kg/year of CO2 from my joyrides.
Isn't the more significant problem that the 98% of motorists who don't give a rat's ass about the driving experience, are effectively forced to drive when they could be taking alternative transport, if the infrastructure supported it?
Please, for the love of God, quadruple the carbon tax and invest it all in public transit, so that cars are treated like the luxury they should be.
I'd say they're equally problematic - but at least their use case is part of their employment, and not part of their entirely optional entertainment.
certainly agree with the last.
And if they're driving to an entertainment event, like say a concert, a vacation, or a park, is that any better than me going for a drive for the sake of going for a pleasure cruise of equal distance? Keep in mind that my sports car is no gas guzzler. It gets the same fuel economy as an average, mid-sized sedan, and better than an average SUV or truck which dominate our roads.
If you're the type that buys their car with the leisure in mind, I'm gonna assume you're not cost constrained and should be doing more to help the env anyway.
hypotheticals are irrelevant so you do you, have a good life, and when you wake up to the damage you're doing / have done, do your best to improve things.
My car is over 20 years old and cost well below the average used car price in North America. I'm not rich, just a car enthusiast.
But I keep an open mind. What other things can I do to help the environment?
You can do both!
Buy and rent?
No, seriously. Guzzle more gas, prone to dangerous driving. Thus my idea to only rent them at race tracks.
You have both options.
One of the big draws to things like muscle/sports cars is customization, and upgrading. You can't do that with a rental, so one of the biggest portions of that market will be left out.