cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26368144
Anons argue in comments
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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I'm generally in support of this. The car allows for more freedom in certain conditions, though:
At least the people with handicaps that can still drive.
It actively makes the transportation landscape worse for those without hearing or sight or a mobilty reducing handicap that disallows driving.
Yeah, reducing car usage would be much better for all handicapped people (those who can drive get better traffic.)
And there small low power cars for people with disabilities that can drive that are still safe for people around them. In some countries like Netherlands they can even use the bike lanes.
A wheelchair powered or otherwise should be well accommodated by a city designed around bikes.
I mean we already have people who clearly can't drive/can't afford a car riding rascals around but they have to ride them on shitty uneven sidewalks or in the gutter because America
Yes, I should've specified *certain physical handicaps
Someone addressed your first point. But the second two are only true when your city is so spread out to make room for huge roads and parking lots between everything. Not to mention zoning laws that make it illegal to build denser housing, or to build a grocery store near where people live.
Id rather be in a tram on rails in snowy conditions than in a private vehicle thats subject to slippery conditions and other vehicles hitting it. The tram if hit often has more mass and survives the hit better than a sedan would.
The rail transport is always the safest option, barring staying at home in the first place.
And if there's no trams or subs, but buses?
Here in Turku we have good public transport, but they're buses. Unlike personal vehicle, buses don't require winter tires. Theyre literally driving on slicks. (it's because there's so many and so much weight).
This will sound racist, but my city has a problem of hiring bus drivers and quite a lot of them may not be as experienced in driving in winter conditions.
There's also no seat buses on the city buses. (Long distance ones do)
A personal vehicle will have studded tires, won't have to use the completely shiny bus lanes (the buses stopping and going with those slicks really grind them into mirrors), and has seatbelts and airbags. So definitely personal transport is safer in my city.
Here what the bus stops and lanes look like at times. And this isn't even the worst, just one say napped a photo as it was slightly frozen.
Here's like worse weather. That. But everywhere. Then the most dangerously one is that plus a hint of powdery snow, because then you won't see the super slippery ice underneath and step on it unprepared.
Do you have any data or proof to back up your claim that private vehicles are safer than buses in your city? Buses running tires that slip could also be a symptom of underfunding, not an inherent flaw in buses. My car would slip too if i kept summers on it instead of quality winter tires. Buses tend to be much higher off the ground and much larger than everything else on the road, unless the bus rolls over most passengers would walk away with minor injuries in a collision.
Pff.
Mister hasn't ever been in a proper winter or understand how one drives in winter.
It's rare they crash, yeah. But it's happened and and then there's lots of tiny personal injuries, at the worst. Because of the speed in cities.
You don't understand how friction works with larger vehicles. They don't change them for a reason, not because we're a cheap country who doesn't regulate safety.
You can dig up data if you want to be but thinking a bus is less prone to losing control than a personal vehicles shows your inexperience.
Me too. The post is about bicycles though
This comment thread is about how cars shield you from the weather. I'd also rather tram part way and bike the rest if the conditions are nasty out.
I used to live steps from an LRT station. It was amazing. Didn't even need to bike because the LRT took me everywhere I needed to go in the city! (Well, I also had the option of walking where the LRT didn't go, lol)
That's all definitely true! Sometimes people just live in areas that weren't designed well, or they live in a different place than where they work by preference or availability.
If someone normally cycles to work in 20 minutes, it might be worthwhile to have a car available as a backup for days that are extra hot or extra blizzardy.
Even if someones neighborhood wasn't designed well, changing zoning laws to allow for more density may make it more viable to put transit there. Then this hypothetical person's normally 20 minute cycle could become a 5 minute walk + 10 minute tram ride on extra hot or extra blizzardy days.
Yeah, definitely. The post was about bicycle vs. car though, so that's what my comment was based on. When we add public transit into the equation, it becomes a bigger and more wholesome picture.
Also, the car will be way faster