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The End of Car Culture

nytimes.com

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Re: The End of Car Culture

#11

Post by veemjeem »

6d0debc071 wrote: post #8
BadassFractal wrote: post #2

For urban dwellers blessed with proper public transportation and a good Walk Score, a car is a huge headache and drain on finances. They simply all need to go and be replaced with extremely efficient, clean and safe transit systems. Nobody enjoys sitting in traffic for hours a day commuting. Nobody enjoys wasting time on maintenance. Nobody enjoys the process of acquiring the vehicle. At the very least, car sharing i…

> Nobody enjoys sitting in traffic for hours a day commuting. Nobody enjoys wasting time on maintenance. Nobody enjoys the process of acquiring the vehicle. Maybe not, but some of us find it vastly preferable to being crammed in with others on public transport. So don't tar everyone with your particularly preferences thanks.

I guess one has to balance the time spent in traffic and being crammed with others in public transport. Here in the bay area, one can get stuck on 101 for 2 hours when it would take only 40 minutes via Caltrain. I'm sure quite a few people would rather save 1.5 hours every day being crammed in with others.

Re: The End of Car Culture

#12

Post by sowrong »

andyl wrote: post #5

The end of car culture can't come soon enough.

this article is wrongheaded in many, many ways. The crux of the problem is that cars are designed and produced ahead of what is actually wanted and desired without concern whether there is actually an impedence mismatch with what consumers want in a car. For example, modular design in cars no longer exists. You can't find a car anywhere that can be transformed with add-ons between a commuter car to a weekender car to a car for hauling things to a car for being sporty. The same is true with manual transmission, you can't find it on the market ANYWHERE. For tinkerers, you can't get information about your car's computer chips or any kind of API that could serve a buyer's use, not someone elses. Not only that, you pay a lot of money for a car, and then find out that it's easily hackable, by anyone except the rightful owner. People love cars, and definitely prefer them to public transformation, which is unreliable at best, but there just aren't any cars on the market that match what consumers want.

Re: The End of Car Culture

#13

Post by seanmcdirmid »

nostromo wrote: post #10

One thing missed by most of these post-auto stories: transit used to be sooo boring , and no longer is. I'm old enough to remember riding the bus before mp3 players and smart phones. Your only options were to read or to bring a CD player. Walkmans (Walkmen?) were a pain: batteries got expensive, and carrying more than 1 or 2 CDs was a pain, so you ended up listen to a few tracks over and over. Newspapers and books we…

I wish I could say this about transit in Beijing. The subways are so crowded you barely get to sit down, perhaps you would have enough room to fiddle with your smartphone if only there was signal for it in the tunnel (damn China Unicom), and standing for 45 minutes kind of sucks.

Taxi!

Re: The End of Car Culture

#14

Post by seanmcdirmid »

veemjeem wrote: post #11
6d0debc071 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody enjoys sitting in traffic for hours a day commuting. Nobody enjoys wasting time on maintenance. Nobody enjoys the process of acquiring the vehicle. Maybe not, but some of us find it vastly preferable to being crammed in with others on public transport. So don't tar everyone with your particularly preferences thanks.

I guess one has to balance the time spent in traffic and being crammed with others in public transport. Here in the bay area, one can get stuck on 101 for 2 hours when it would take only 40 minutes via Caltrain. I'm sure quite a few people would rather save 1.5 hours every day being crammed in with others.

Caltrain also has seats most of the time. The worst is that you might have to sit next to someone...cry me a river.

Re: The End of Car Culture

#15

Post by Zigurd »

unimpressive wrote: post #3
BadassFractal wrote: post #2

For urban dwellers blessed with proper public transportation and a good Walk Score, a car is a huge headache and drain on finances. They simply all need to go and be replaced with extremely efficient, clean and safe transit systems. Nobody enjoys sitting in traffic for hours a day commuting. Nobody enjoys wasting time on maintenance. Nobody enjoys the process of acquiring the vehicle. At the very least, car sharing i…

>and free up a lot of human talent to do something more productive. Or starve, as the case may be.

Mincome. That won't be the only thing driving a post-jobs future, so we'll have to deal with it anyway.

Re: The End of Car Culture

#16

Post by axuaq »

BadassFractal wrote: post #2

For urban dwellers blessed with proper public transportation and a good Walk Score, a car is a huge headache and drain on finances. They simply all need to go and be replaced with extremely efficient, clean and safe transit systems. Nobody enjoys sitting in traffic for hours a day commuting. Nobody enjoys wasting time on maintenance. Nobody enjoys the process of acquiring the vehicle. At the very least, car sharing i…

Give me a public transportation system that runs on time, doesn't spread disease, doesn't have punk kids who confront you for no reason, is safe, and has sane time schedules and I'll be happy.

Until then, I'll always prefer driving/walking/biking/anything. Unfortunately, I'm in a situation where I can't drive now, and I have to deal with an awful San Francisco public transit system that does 0 of the things I listed.

Re: The End of Car Culture

#18

Post by veemjeem »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #14
veemjeem wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess one has to balance the time spent in traffic and being crammed with others in public transport. Here in the bay area, one can get stuck on 101 for 2 hours when it would take only 40 minutes via Caltrain. I'm sure quite a few people would rather save 1.5 hours every day being crammed in with others.

Caltrain also has seats most of the time. The worst is that you might have to sit next to someone...cry me a river.

Not to mention the amount of time spent circling city blocks in SF to find parking. I hate myself every time I need to drive to SF and find street parking. I remember spending 30 minutes circling blocks around pacific heights to find street parking, only for the purposes of eating at a restaurant near there.

Re: The End of Car Culture

#19

Post by nemothekid »

axuaq wrote: post #16
BadassFractal wrote: post #2

For urban dwellers blessed with proper public transportation and a good Walk Score, a car is a huge headache and drain on finances. They simply all need to go and be replaced with extremely efficient, clean and safe transit systems. Nobody enjoys sitting in traffic for hours a day commuting. Nobody enjoys wasting time on maintenance. Nobody enjoys the process of acquiring the vehicle. At the very least, car sharing i…

Give me a public transportation system that runs on time, doesn't spread disease, doesn't have punk kids who confront you for no reason, is safe, and has sane time schedules and I'll be happy. Until then, I'll always prefer driving/walking/biking/anything. Unfortunately, I'm in a situation where I can't drive now, and I have to deal with an awful San Francisco public transit system that does 0 of the things I listed.

Is driving really safer than public transit?

Re: The End of Car Culture

#20

Post by potatolicious »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #14
veemjeem wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess one has to balance the time spent in traffic and being crammed with others in public transport. Here in the bay area, one can get stuck on 101 for 2 hours when it would take only 40 minutes via Caltrain. I'm sure quite a few people would rather save 1.5 hours every day being crammed in with others.

Caltrain also has seats most of the time. The worst is that you might have to sit next to someone...cry me a river.

One of the more depressing things is that the conversation around transit is so frequently: "But... [horrified whisper] other people!"
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