How the Car Keeps Americans Apart • Hacker News Board

Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart

#221

Post by remusrm » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 1:46 AM UTC

dionidium wrote: post #98

ef4 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's precisely because I have kids that I prioritize a walkable place. Because kids can't drive! So in car-dependent places, they have no autonomy until they're nearly adults. I think it's much more healthy for them to slowly and steadily expand their autonomy, rather than a sudden discontinuous break when they learn to drive. The same argument applies in reverse to old people too. In places with good transit and wal…

> It's precisely because I have kids that I prioritize a walkable place. Because kids can't drive! This point is tragically under-appreciated. Kids who live in car-dependent suburbs are in a very real sense alienated from the larger society. A twelve-year-old should be able to visit the library, stop by the park, grab a sandwich at a lunch counter, mail a letter, and wander back home all by themselves in an afternoon…

Not sure where you reside, but most new or heck past 20-30 year old developments have such shops around them

Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart

#222

Post by King-Aaron » Sat, Jul 21, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

dbetteridge wrote: post #155

King-Aaron wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perth has a sickeningly low density of residents within the CBD, and as a result you can get some really good deals on apartments within a stones throw to the city. It's also got a pretty good 'small town' sort of atmosphere compared to other cities. It's not exactly the most progressive of places, however. But personally I love it. NB: I'm currently in the position of purchasing land in Perth and you can get some go…

Existing house or empty lot? I'm looking in the near future so would be keen to know where to look.

I'm looking at empty lots.

Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart

#223

Post by maerF0x0 » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 4:04 AM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #205

maerF0x0 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that gocarts are hella fun! My posting said > without someone having a car. Care to share how you go snowboarding, #3 and #5-8 ? I have read mr money mustache write a lot about what can be accomplished by a bicycle + trailer. But even he still has a low cost car.

Snowboarding? Pack my stuff, take the train to the airport, fly to country with mountains, take train to ski resort town, go snowboarding. Optionally rent a car if necessary. Road trips? Rent a car, or fly somewhere interesting and rent a car locally. #5-8 I handle by not being needlessly paranoid and distrustful of other people. "The mentally ill and their obnoxious smells and fecal matter", seriously? Obviously whe…

> "The mentally ill and their obnoxious smells and fecal matter", seriously?

Come to SF sometime. I literally have to dodge poop daily.

Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart

#224

Post by WhompingWindows » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 5:06 PM UTC

GiorgioG wrote: post #165

WhompingWindows wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the choice of an individual to get an F150 which has an unnecessarily large V8 engine roaring and idling when no one is using it for what it was designed for? I am in a city surrounded by cars that are far too large for their designated duties. People choose, like you mention, and yet it's the children with asthma and my mother with asthma who pays the price for the ridiculously oversized and smog-producin…

> I'm all for pickup trucks and minivans and buses, but only in the right application. I'm glad I don't live in a place where it's ok to limit people's choices based on someone's opinion on what is or isn't the 'right application.' I'm sorry about your mother's asthma; my 6 year old son is a type 1 diabetic - that doesn't make it ok for me to go chastising society's choice to put sugar in practically EVERYTHING we ea…

The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity. If I produce a bunch of pollution on my land or on public lands, I should pay for whatever costs that pollution incurs on others. I don't fault you personally, nor anyone driving their Cadillac Escalada to the grocery store solo, however I do fault politicians and the populace at large for not enacting sensible pollution taxes which recompense innocent bystanders to your choices. For you, I'm glad you can utilize that vehicle when you feel you need to, and I think it's only fair that you pay a tax for the increased cost to society that that choice incurs.

Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart

#225

Post by dragonwriter » Mon, Jul 23, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

WhompingWindows wrote: post #224

GiorgioG wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm all for pickup trucks and minivans and buses, but only in the right application. I'm glad I don't live in a place where it's ok to limit people's choices based on someone's opinion on what is or isn't the 'right application.' I'm sorry about your mother's asthma; my 6 year old son is a type 1 diabetic - that doesn't make it ok for me to go chastising society's choice to put sugar in practically EVERYTHING we ea…

The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity. If I produce a bunch of pollution on my land or on public lands, I should pay for whatever costs that pollution incurs on others. I don't fault you personally, nor anyone driving their Cadillac Escalada to the grocery store solo, however I do fault politicians and the populace at large…

> The problem is libertarian viewpoints which espouse individual choice must also account for negative externalities of one's activity.

Well, no, they are quite able to not account for those. “Should”, not “must”.

Re: How the Car Keeps Americans Apart

#226

Post by BooneJS » Fri, Jul 27, 2018, 3:13 PM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #150

BooneJS wrote: post #120

This is true of larger cities and metros, but the size of the US is too large to get rid of cars. I’m currently on a road trip through at least 7 states, and the car is the only way I pull that off.

If the main use of cars were seven state road trips I don't think people would complain about being stuck in rush hour traffic or having to drive twenty minutes to the nearest grocery store.

My point was that cars are versatile people moving machines. They’re very imperfect, but they go almost anywhere. HN seems to have an assumption that what’s good for the Bay Area can be exported everywhere, but that’s simply not true.