31–40 of 78 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>and free up a lot of human talent to do something more productive. Or starve, as the case may be.
Wealth redistribution could solve that problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an economic issue, the roads in beijing are most likely croweded too and to boot most of those people are using public transport because they can't afford cars. (I am using genaralisations about China to make these statements)
True. The subway is actually very nice, and in Beijing, very cheap (just 2 RMB a trip, no distance limit!). Those who can afford cars aren't using transit, and many of us in the middle are using taxis anyways because they are still not that bad (50 RMB = ~$8 taxi vs. 2 RMB subway...). I would prefer nice public transit though, or better yet, the ability to bike without getting killed by a car.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What? When was the last time a car could be converted from a sports car to a capable tow vehicle with an add-on ? You can bolt a tow hitch on just about any car, but tow vehicle/sports car/commuter/weekender runs so much deeper than that- at least if you want it to be better than "poor" in all of the above categories. The same is true with manual transmission, you can't find it on the market ANYWHERE. Patently false.…
"certain vehicles no longer offer a manual transmission" Exactly right.
Henry Ford famously said "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black" and that's the problem today. An entire market of buyers is being ignored.
If you accept that only grey color cars are being made and wonder why people aren't buying grey cars, nothing can help you.
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…
New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia are towns with the best walk-score in America. For various reasons, it is still much cheaper to live in the suburbs and commute into the city than to live in San Francisco. I wonder how the other walkable cities are fairing. Perhaps when people buy homes, they tend to not buy a new car at the same time - prior to the housing crisis, many people bought lots of…
The suggestion that destroying operational vehicles would be a net gain for the economy is an excellent illustration of the broken window fallacy.
Cash-for-clunkers helped middle and upper-middle class people, including some friends of mine, who wanted to buy new cars. The cost of the program was born mostly by poor people, as is often the case.
My dads tire and wheel business is screwed. 40+ years in the business, and it has dwindled down to practically nothing.
I live in Colorado, in a super bike-friendly city, and I'm buying a car. Can't take public transportation to a campground. Can't take public transportation to a mountain bike trail. Public transportation for skiing is a huge pain in the ass.
What if Google or another company perfects self-driving cars? You could have "cars" that are basically motorized shopping carts. You go online and register your car with a particular store. Your car could drive from store to store having the workers load everything for you. If a lot of people use this it could be efficient since these self-driving vehicles drive optimally and won't get into accidents and will cooperate with each other to get to where they're going.
This way I can spend more time doing what I want and less time stuck in traffic and more time doing what I want. Basically it's automating a set of tasks you used to do with a car. I hope that day comes very soon.
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…
I don't know about that. The Tesla Model S seems to be just that, according to every reviewer and customer I've heard. What other mainstream car has a waiting list?
I don't know, man. I live in Colorado, in a super bike-friendly city, and I'm buying a car. Can't take public transportation to a campground. Can't take public transportation to a mountain bike trail. Public transportation for skiing is a huge pain in the ass.
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.