this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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Fuck Cars

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I'm getting a lot of 'but my car is more convenient' arguments lately, and I'm struggling to convey why that doesn't make sense.

Specifically how to explain to people that: Sure, if you are able to drive, and can afford it, and your city is designed to, and subsidizes making it easy to drive and park, then it's convenient. But if everyone does it then it quickly becomes a tragedy of the commons situation.

I thought of one analogy that is: It would be 'more convenient' if I just threw my trash out the window, but if we all started doing that then we'd quickly end up in a mess.

But I feel like that doesn't quite get at the essence of it. Any other ideas?

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[–] mrcleanup 60 points 7 months ago (15 children)

Your car is more convenient because they designed it that way. Visit Europe and everyone's like "get a eurail pass, it's so convenient!" But here we don't have the infrastructure so alternative transport sucks, because we decided to make the car, king, instead of building railway lines.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 11 points 7 months ago (8 children)

It is political at heart. You just can't pit the "power of the consumer" against industry interests and expect an ideal outcome. The Not Just Bikes guy, from what I hear, has given up hope for America at this point. Whatever happens, I hope other nations can learn from our example: Cave to auto and oil interests at your own peril.

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