Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

The situation sucks to begin with. There's just too many cars here, because this country is so fucking car-centered and public transportation is a joke even in this city, the 9th-largest in the country, as soon as you deviate from the subway lines.

This sentence is still so weird to read on a forum that is ostensibly populated by people who like cars.
 
Nope, I'll agree. There's not much reason to have counties so dependent on cars inside a city. Unless you want to sell more cars.

I don't like that if I want to go almost anywhere I have to get in my expensive vehicle, pay for the fuel, easy the cost of insurance, etc. Most of the time I'd rather walk or ride a bicycle.

This isn't too say I don't like cars, it's obvious I do, but sometimes I wish I could live in a metro area where it was a luxury, not a necessity.
 
sorry for the rant. tldr: car-centric city admin sucks butt. feel free to skip the rest :|

This sentence is still so weird to read on a forum that is ostensibly populated by people who like cars.
tbh what I find weird is that you don't (want to?) distinguish between "people liking cars" and society being dependant on them, including (but not limited to) the abovementioned issues. the former very much suffers from the latter as well, I feel. if there were far less cars around, driving would be much more pleasant for everyone involved.

another thing in that same car-centric annoyance: BIL owns a swimming school. as such, a large part of his clientele is very young kids. his swimming school however is in a still developing area which, as of yet, does not have any sidewalks. if we go there, we still walk (because it's 1.5km, why would I ever drive that?), only to then feel threatened by asshats driving by way too close at 50, just because the city deemed it unnecessary to build a sidewalk. how is it even legal to have a street without a sidewalk?
the argument goes: but they're still building there so we'd have to clean the sidewalk and change it in places where people build their driveways - so what, make those people building there pay for that shit, but do your job and provide non-discriminatory infrastructure you morons! :mad:

People with strollers or wheelchairs can't use the sidewalk anymore;
as a person with a pram many times nowadays, I am getting more and more irritated by the inconsiderateness displayed by a vast majority of drivers (or rather: parkers). by law, in theory, as soon as I can't pass on the sidewalk with my pram anymore (or wheelchair), this should be considered endangerment (depending on the road in question, fair enough) and warrant towing tbh. otherwise those asshats won't learn anyway. sadly, the sidewalk-parking (where actually illegal) has been tolerated for so long, that the authorities will actively refuse to do their job and just tell you to "suck it up and walk in the street" - right, fuck you, too.
your example is actually kinda nice, because the city decided to do something about it (ticket those asshats en masse), but in their endless privilege the inconsiderate asshats actually made the situation worse. also: still illegal (if the bus can't pass?) - I'd love to see what happens if the city keeps ticketing those now parking fully in the street.
 
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This sentence is still so weird to read on a forum that is ostensibly populated by people who like cars.
As others have said: Liking cars and driving does not mean you have to like that it's so ingrained in society and people's minds that one "needs" a car, which then stands around wasting - and blocking - space for over 23 hours a day on average. Most people don't like driving(as is evident by how and what kind of car they drive), they don't like having to spend enormous amounts of money on it, but the sad reality is, it's still by far the most practical solution mostly.

I do like cars, I think they're awesome pieces of engineering (some more, some less awesome). I like driving as such. But a city is no place for a car.
 
they don't like having to spend enormous amounts of money on it
That is actually a very fascinating aspect of car-ownership (and dependency) tbh: a vast majority of people will estimate the cost of their driving far lower than it actually is. like less than half of what it actually is. and this is just the actual cost to the individual, i'm not even talking the uncovered cost to society & state (which, i'll admit, is probably a point for debate and varies wildly depending on who you ask).

but the sad reality is, it's still by far the most practical solution mostly.
also fascinating: i think this is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and has been for a long time. people are lazy and thus like the effortlessness of going everywhere by car (and, if possible, parking basically inside the shop - see perc's post above). thus, policy goes "well everyone likes cars so much" and starts building the automotive city (i actually like the german autogerechte stadt more), starting the bloody self-reinforcing cycle that we find ourselves in nowadays and are struggling to break out of (with some exceptions ofc - compare todays amsterdam to 1970s amsterdam for example - or todays paris to... basically 2015 paris lol).
 
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The situation sucks to begin with. There's just too many cars here, because this country is so fucking car-centered and public transportation is a joke even in this city, the 9th-largest in the country, as soon as you deviate from the subway lines.
If people in charge of urban planning weren't idiots who planned around public transport then personal transport being a hassle would be a non-issue. I live in Detroit and honestly GM lobbying against a subway being built was the best thing that ever happened to this city. My eyes were opened when I went to Chicago and had the realization that to get anywhere in that dumb city you have to get on the highway and sit in 10 mph traffic as there literally is no viable route through the main roads. Then I come home to Detroit where everyone from the neighborhoods inside the city to the suburbs (where millions of people live) have their own driving roads leading directly to downtown and the financial districts.
detroit traffic.PNG
image_2022-01-10_032737.png

Detroit roads vs Spaghetti (Chicago)

This is all to say, that if you live in a city with roads that are actually somewhat functional, taking the subway sucks and how crowded it is gets really annoying, taking the tram is a novelty that's only slightly faster than walking, and taking the bus is dirty, crowded, and slower than driving. Stop pouring taxpayer money into public transport that isn't a pleasant experience for anyone involved, and instead make it somewhat viable to get from one side of the city to the other without getting on the highways by undoing the horrible city planning that's so prevalent in America.
 
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@DanRoM only solution I can see to fix this is ban parking on certain streets. But I’m sure that will go over like a lead balloon. It’s convenient to park in these areas currently. If it’s a residential area that might be difficult thing to get rid of. Hopefully with those couple of bud routes removed, they come back, but I’m sure it’s like here. Once something is removed, it has no chance of coming back.

I’m all for getting drivers that hate driving off the road. If we can reduce those drivers, then it’d be nicer to drive.
 
@DanRoM only solution I can see to fix this is ban parking on certain streets.
hijacking this!
the thing is, at least in large parts of cologne where i live, this is already the case! parking in the street and on the sidewalk (half or full, doesn't matter) is in theory already banned and always has been! but the last 50 or so years nobody gave a shit about it, so now everyone's gotten used to doing it and will get doubly mad if you tell them "guys honestly, this has been illegal forever, we just didn't care". people got used to it and now think it's the cities obligation to provide an alternative to the illegal parking (wtf) as soon as they actually try to enforce it. which in turn means the city won't enforce the parking bans. that's what i mean with them not doing their jobs... ugh. bunch of entitled asshats. it's not the cities job to provide parking for your car ffs.

edit: sorry everyone, this seems to really drive me all sorts of mad. @DanRoM seems to have triggered something :|
 
Same here in Dortmund, actually, as described in the post that set this off.
Parking is illegal here? - Always has been. *boom"
 
Me: "I think this sentence is weird in this location"
Everyone: Inhales

jfc people :p

Though the rest of the...I want to say conversation, it's rather more everyone nodding in agreement at one another, is interesting. I don't find the ideas of superblocks and 15-minute cities and all the other rebrandings of the idea very attractive, but that's because I don't like densely populated places to live in anyway. Not to mention I have very strong opinions on personal vehicle ownership, by and large dislike using public transportation (I far prefer to walk), and my ability to move long distances independently as I want. All opinions on which I am evidently in the minority. Also please note that Dan said "country", which was the bit that I found interesting. Fun fact, Germany is not just a densely packed city, or so I am told. :p

I also disagree with Craig on the concept of vehicles as a luxury, though that one mostly because it has been my experience that when someone says something is a luxury, it just means I will not be able to partake in it. :p
 
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I also disagree with Craig on the concept of vehicles as a luxury, though that one mostly because it has been my experience that when someone says something is a luxury, it just means I will not be able to partake in it. :p

Point taken. But let's be honest, vehicles are a luxury. I see plenty of people walking instead of driving because they can't afford a car and meth. Luckily, I have always been able to keep at least one running vehicle in all the years I have had a license. Sometimes more than one. It's been a huge expense, money that would have probably been better suited on education, housing, food or the like.

I would also like to point out that the parking problem isn't an issue where I live, The Land of the Free Parking. Except for airports, I have rarely paid for parking. I've also never paid for something else, but that's not this issue here. I've strayed from the subject, oops. I guess this the irony of the minimum parking standards that many US cities adopted. Plenty of places to park that's not the street/sidewalk (Why is it called pavement elsewhere?), but you need a car to get there.
 
Point taken. But let's be honest, vehicles are a luxury. I see plenty of people walking instead of driving because they can't afford a car and meth. Luckily, I have always been able to keep at least one running vehicle in all the years I have had a license. Sometimes more than one. It's been a huge expense, money that would have probably been better suited on education, housing, food or the like.

I would also like to point out that the parking problem isn't an issue where I live, The Land of the Free Parking. Except for airports, I have rarely paid for parking. I've also never paid for something else, but that's not this issue here. I've strayed from the subject, oops. I guess this the irony of the minimum parking standards that many US cities adopted. Plenty of places to park that's not the street/sidewalk (Why is it called pavement elsewhere?), but you need a car to get there.

And we’ve had our discussions previously about that. It’s a frustrating outdated standard that nobody is willing to change.

Lazy fucks everywhere I guess is the take away from this.
 
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I had the audacity to write a comment under a Youtube video that an electric skid steer might be a very good idea if you're working indoors, and that a four hour runtime might not be the end of the world for some because not every skid-steer is in active use all day long.
I was promptly told by someone named "Bob" to quit my "save-the-planet bullshit narrative".

I felt like complementing the person on the other end for being able to afford a computer and figuring out how to get online dispite being a trump-voting spawn of incest, but I don't think much good would have come out of that. Arguing on the internet, etc.
 
I think this gets to the crux of the problem with the right/MAGA/Karens, they really think that because things change, they are no longer relevant, so they lash out in extremely dumb ways.

This makes a lot of sense.
 
Aaaaaaand we're on politics now....

Walks away
 
I prefer to have options. I don’t like having just a car or just a train or bus as a means to get around.
 
If public transport was less shit more people would use it and the times when you have to use a car in a city would be more bearable. I never take the car into town, I use the train.

Even people who like cars don't enjoy commuting at 1mph. Yesterday I had to drive from Edinburgh to Glasgow, it took 2.5hrs and is only 45 miles... I don't have a choice because I have a van full of equipment, but there are loads of people using a car to commute tiny distances and clogging things up.
 
I commuted by train for 11 years before getting tired of them taking the piss and trying to hide how crap their service was, by randomly (and with no notice) cutting out the stops I used from their services. Just so it wasn't as late to London.

I'm not going to lie, commuting by car wasn't going to be fun either but at least I had some control over when/where I was going, had a seat and I had some personal space away from the great unwashed (increasingly rare on the train). Pretty glad my commute is just to my desk now, with rare visits to the office.
 
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