“Car owners are arseholes” is not transport policy • Hacker News Board

Re: “Car owners are arseholes” is not transport policy

#11

Post by TheChaplain » Sat, Jun 24, 2023, 7:03 AM UTC

micromacrofoot wrote: post #10

cars are expensive, annoying to maintain, require heaps of infrastructure, make something as simple as crossing a road difficult or sometimes dangerous, create tons of pollution of various kinds, and cause tons of deaths… there are lots of reasons outside of “car owners are arseholes”

Cars are also very useful.

I had to rent a car 4 times this week, first to move some large items to the recycling station, second to head to animal ER with my cat, third to go to an examination site out on the country side and last to see the vet for a followup.

I've decided to buy one, it'll be expensive but make life easier and most importantly I can get faster help for my pet.

Re: “Car owners are arseholes” is not transport policy

#12

Post by jjgreen » Sat, Jun 24, 2023, 9:06 AM UTC

SECProto wrote: post #9

jjgreen wrote: post #2

Thoughtful and well-argued piece. I don't use a car, but don't think that all car owners are arseholes, maybe 5% are? More than that are positively nice, will flash their lights and wave you across the road ..

> Thoughtful and well-argued piece I disagree, it read more like a stream of thought on why public transport and walking sucks, followed up with why car driving is great, a short aside on how bicycle riding isn't even an option because it's dangerous, finished up by telling the readers "please do not @ me on this or any other point in this article" I strongly agree with his conclusion about funding transit as loss-le…

    ... it read more like a stream of thought ...

I get what you mean, it's not a structured essay as one would write on a humanities course assignment, but I find that a breath of fresh air in these days of effort-free chatbot blandness ...

Re: “Car owners are arseholes” is not transport policy

#13

Post by jjgreen » Sat, Jun 24, 2023, 9:19 AM UTC

freetinker wrote: post #8

jjgreen wrote: post #2

Thoughtful and well-argued piece. I don't use a car, but don't think that all car owners are arseholes, maybe 5% are? More than that are positively nice, will flash their lights and wave you across the road ..

I really enjoyed the Betrand Russell quote in your bio, especially in light of the recent tech layoffs. Thank you!

It just jumped out at me when reading the book, fabulous. I found a French translation (by François Rivenc) a few years ago, equally striking:

L'homme qui a nourri le poulet tous les jours de sa vie finit par lui tordre le cou, montrant par là qu'il eût été bien utile au dit poulet d'avoir une vision plus subtile de l'uniformité de la nature.