this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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I hate Elon musk but Tesla is the best thing that happened to this planet because no other car manufacturer was bothered to do the groundwork required to get electric cars going. They lie and spread corruption before Elon came along.
Other people are just too awful to share space with. Cars are going to be around as long as people are irritating.
I've changed jobs, and moved, to get my commute down to 10 min each way.
As much as I can I ride my motorcycle.
There is nothing I can do to actually be rid of a car, and people who think that can change in American society are just fooling themselves.
Sure it would be great to have high speed rail, and a variety of public transit options, none of that is going to change the suburban sprawl.
While I'm not naive enough to think there will be any meaningful reduction in personal car usage in my remaining lifetime (~20-30 years), I'd like us to START making infrastructure investments that will at least point us in the right direction. But no, it's endless stroads and sprawl and retail development and single family housing as far as the eye can see.
Many people spend their whole lives in cities like New York never owning a car.
Its not absurd to expect Americans to never own cars it's absurd to expect it to happen before you built cities that enable car free lifestyles. People like to frame it as chicken and egg but it's not, density and lifestyle always follow transportation infrastructure.
A) society is not planned by a god that sees the most optimal path and picks it, it works like evolution tweaking and building and slightly shifting what came before it. Do you have a viable plan for convincing 7 billion people to give up their cars without literal revolution in the streets? No? Then guess, what, cars might be part of the future.
B) from a basic ablist standpoint how are you going to get a frail 90 year old woman from the train station or her house without using a car? On a special bike with extra suspension and an enclosed carriage and a motor to haul all of that? Oh look you've designed a Pontiac Aztec!
Should we all use trains? Yes. Should we all support the government buildout of more trains? Very yes. But it is flat out dogmatic to the point of absurdity to suggest that the future of transportation will not involve electric cars? Absolutely.
Bingo. They are better than burning fuel, full stop. Further EV shipping is also a net good. Biking and walking is the best, but if you are like me you live 10+ miles from work with no public transport to fill the gaps. It was either that or getting fucked over with rent.
People down on EVs are letting perfect be the enemy of good.
We are not to the point of climate change where we can expect rapid, radical changes to the way the majority of Americans live. And when we hit that point, it won't be made by complaining to the people driving cars, it will be made by politicians abolishing zoning laws, setting stronger restrictions on rent within cities, and heavy investment into public transportation.
Blaming the huge number of people who can't afford to live in a city and must drive an hour each way for work just makes you an asshole.
I'm not meaning to be disrespectible here, but if you think zoning laws, rent restrictions, or public transportation will have any noticeable impact on climate change, you're kidding yourself.
When you called them heroin addicts?
The best thing that happened transportation-wise is walkable cities. No car will beat that.