this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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Maybe on the more developed end of “rural”. But rural tends to be sparse and require long distance travel. An electric bike would be better than nothing, but it is not a substitute for a car for a lot of rural areas. If you are going 30+ minutes to get to the grocery store, it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer on an e-bike, and you’re not going to have cargo capacity to do a large grocery trip, so you’re going to need to go there much more frequently. And hopefully the roads are safe for biking. And let’s hope the weather is conducive to being able to do hour long bike rides year round.
I see where your coming from, but those problems aren't nearly as prominent as you think they are. Weather can be compensated by casual gear. Cargo bikes can haul practically anything. Getting an electric bike also helps. There are lots of bikes out there, so you can get one optimized for you.
You also just said
So, the issues aren’t prominent as long as you move out of a rural area?
Yes, if you live in a poorly mapped out city with car dependent infrastructure, then you're going to need a car, sorry for the confusion.
Side comment: I just looked at your profile and saw your most recent comment regarding you realizing you came in with a close mindset and now realize that. Good on you! You’re young and learning. I totally get the general “cars bad” mindset. I wish that at least US cities and major suburbs were designed to be livable without cars. Some are, or at least some areas are, of course, but cars and car infrastructure almost always comes first.
Getting away from needing cars would be awesome and it should become a bigger goal in the US. I don’t disagree with you at all there.
Keep in mind that the US is BIG and, from an area perspective, a vast majority is rural. Out there, cars really are a necessity. Maybe there are long term solutions to reduce the dependence on cars in rural areas, but I have a hard time imagining what they are. Keep in mind that rural means that there simply isn’t the population density to support public transit because, pretty much by definition, rural areas don’t have centralized locations for people to be picked up at; small numbers of people are going long distances to a variety of places.
That said, cities and big towns are the “low hanging fruit” for reducing car reliance with by far the largest return on investment.
Edit: it’s great to be passionate and have goals. It’s great to want to reduce or eliminate reliance on cars. But, as I think you’ve learned here, you need to keep perspective on what is practical and recognize the system people are currently living in. When you revcieve new information that doesn’t fit with your view, think about it and learn. It doesn’t mean you are wrong or your overall goal is a bad one, but it’s good to understand the perspective of people you disagree with. In this example, take the reasons people give for needing a car and try to understand those reasons. Assuming that people are giving vailid reasons, try to figure out how we might be able to change things so that those people don’t need to rely on cars. Don’t tell them “just ride a bike”. In many many situations, that isn’t reasonable. Instead, try to figure out how we, as a society, can fix this over the long term.
Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to lecture some kid online. I'd probably do the same.
Maybe look up what rural means.