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Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

economist.com

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Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#381

Post by jltsiren »

erik_seaberg wrote: post #375
jltsiren wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in a city, you typically go to a supermarket 3-5 times a week. And if your family is small enough to fit in a normal car, you can easily carry the groceries. Those trips don't take too much time either, because urban supermarkets are smaller than suburban hypermarkets and designed for quick visits.

That's a lot more time and effort than should be necessary. You should have at least a week of food just to prepare for an emergency.

Those two things are unrelated.

Going to a grocery store a few times a week is not a lot of effort. Urban grocery stores are nearby, they are optimized for quick visits, and you can often buy groceries when returning from somewhere else.

You should have emergency food at home, but many kinds of fresh foods are best eaten within a day or two. If you only go to a grocery store once a week, the quality of the food you eat is worse.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#382

Post by sseagull »

amrocha wrote: post #332
bradfox2 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And where I live it's 110F+ for three months of the year. No one sane is biking or walking anywhere as it's too dangerous. Not everyone lives in some temperate small European city.

First off, you're exaggerating. There is no place on earth that averages 40C for 3 months. Second,I live in Tokyo, where the summer has been miserable with average temperatures of 32C, with regular highs of 36+ with 80% humidity. And yet I walked and biked everywhere and was just fine, and that's true for most of the 40M people that live here as well. Third, it sounds like you live in a place that's not suitable for…

> First off, you're exaggerating. There is no place on earth that averages 40C for 3 months.

I dunno about 3 months exactly, but some areas of India are pretty close. And Delhi has 15-30 million people, depending on how you count

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Delhi#Climate_data

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#383

Post by creer »

dham wrote: post #315
AstralJaeger wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who regularly drives on German highways, including the Autobahn, I may ad my two cents. While German drivers are often praised for their discipline, the reality I've observed, especially in unlimited speed sections of the Autobahn, can be quite different. Many drivers there seem to focus primarily on their perceived right to drive as fast as they want, often creating dangerous situations for others who may…

If you drove 150 MPH on an American road you would end up 100 yards into the woods flipping over 90 times, after hitting 1 of 65 potholes that are 4 feet deep on the interstate.

That would be a poor excuse for just a few cars driving scattered across 6 lanes to make sure to block the whole thing. It's not always about driving much faster.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#384

Post by creer »

abenga wrote: post #364
AstralJaeger wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who regularly drives on German highways, including the Autobahn, I may ad my two cents. While German drivers are often praised for their discipline, the reality I've observed, especially in unlimited speed sections of the Autobahn, can be quite different. Many drivers there seem to focus primarily on their perceived right to drive as fast as they want, often creating dangerous situations for others who may…

> comprehensive driver education systems What are they learning, other than (at least partly) discipline and ways to be safer?

Americans wouldn't even understand the meaning of "discipline". "Lane discipline" for example - paying attention to what lane you are in and for what reason. Minimizing your use of left-more lanes for whoever might want to drive past you; paying attention to who has the right of way in the right-most lane, while not blocking people from entering or exiting.

But for a specific example, many Americans are let loose with a driver's license but scared of entering or exiting a freeway. When it's just about impossible to drive in the US without using freeways. (They are scared for good reason considering their lack of practice and understanding of how that works.)

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#385

Post by dnadler »

Zigurd wrote: post #167
dnadler wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in US suburbs frequently live several miles from their town center, if they even have a town center at all. Cycling simply isn’t viable to large swaths of the US. There isn’t an easy answer to this either, given that you’d probably need to tear down entire neighborhoods and rebuild a more dense town

E-bikes fix most of those problems. A 10 mile trip, out and back, at 20mph, with no concern for loss of momentum at stop signs and lights is easily do-able by anyone who doesn't need mobility aids.

That fixes it for certain types of people, but certainly not for most people in in the north east during winter.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#386

Post by dnadler »

jeffbee wrote: post #202
dnadler wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in US suburbs frequently live several miles from their town center, if they even have a town center at all. Cycling simply isn’t viable to large swaths of the US. There isn’t an easy answer to this either, given that you’d probably need to tear down entire neighborhoods and rebuild a more dense town

> People in US suburbs frequently live several miles from their town center It is not the responsibility of the citizens of the central city to accommodate suburban drivers.

Well, commutes into a central city is a bit of different beast, and many metros in the US have trains that service the suburbs.

Driving in and around the suburbs is what I was talking about.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#387

Post by dnadler »

amrocha wrote: post #345
dgfitz wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Second,I live in Tokyo And this is where you need to remember that the rest of the world is not Tokyo. I have faith you’ll get there.

Ok, so it's a city planning problem, not a weather problem. I'm glad we agree.

It can be more than one thing - it's both, and more.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#388

Post by dgfitz »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #374
dgfitz wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it’s can’t. Full stop, end of argument. You clearly are not well-traveled if you believe this.

Why not? What is so special about Tokyo/Japanese that it can’t be emulated?

I can’t bro, it’s not worth my time. Look it up.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#389

Post by Zigurd »

dnadler wrote: post #385
Zigurd wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-bikes fix most of those problems. A 10 mile trip, out and back, at 20mph, with no concern for loss of momentum at stop signs and lights is easily do-able by anyone who doesn't need mobility aids.

That fixes it for certain types of people, but certainly not for most people in in the north east during winter.

Most of the sprawl in America is not in the northeast. E-bikes are perfect for US suburbs.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#390

Post by therealdrag0 »

dgfitz wrote: post #388
therealdrag0 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? What is so special about Tokyo/Japanese that it can’t be emulated?

I can’t bro, it’s not worth my time. Look it up.

I don’t even know what to look up.
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