811–820 of 835 posts
I grew up obsessed with cars, I used to play racing video games almost exclusively, attend car shows etc. I now work for a large german car manufacturer as a SWE. I cannot afford the cheapest car they make, it is literally more than I make in a year before tax. I don't own car yet and I'm not sure I will be able to afford one in the next 3-5 years. I don't even care that I (a former car nut) works for a car manufactu…
Bmw?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>First, let's establish that the Netherlands is a car country...On a typical day, 1 million people use public transport. Cars are the norm, not trains or bicycles. Anyone visiting a Dutch city can see what a distortion this comment is. The sheer volume of bike traffic on largely safe infrastructure is phenomenal. Imagine if even half of these people took to cars instead, it would be gridlock. Life may be good for Dut…
> Anyone visiting a Dutch city can see what a distortion this comment is. The sheer volume of bike traffic on largely safe infrastructure is phenomenal. Imagine if even half of these people took to cars instead, it would be gridlock. Life may be good for Dutch drivers, but only because so many others leave their cars at home. I was actually considering making the same point, but sarcastically: "B b but, when I was a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US anti-car narrative often refers to the Netherlands as some kind of beacon of proper public infrastructure, whilst not knowing a damn thing about it. First, let's establish that the Netherlands is a car country. We have 11 million cars on a population of 17 million. On a typical day, 1 million people use public transport. Cars are the norm, not trains or bicycles. Public transport is rarely faster, not even in…
Well it seems you're criticizing Americans' rosy view of Dutch public infrastructure without realizing how absurd the US is in terms of infrastructure. I challenge you to visit the US and not use a car at all. In many cities you wouldn't even be able to get out of the airport. Yet Schiphol has a massive station underneath it with trains that can take you, not only to Amsterdam, but to virtually any city and even smal…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>First, let's establish that the Netherlands is a car country...On a typical day, 1 million people use public transport. Cars are the norm, not trains or bicycles. Anyone visiting a Dutch city can see what a distortion this comment is. The sheer volume of bike traffic on largely safe infrastructure is phenomenal. Imagine if even half of these people took to cars instead, it would be gridlock. Life may be good for Dut…
Generalising from the centre of a city to the whole country is a distortion. Last time i was in the Netherlands, i arrived in Amsterdam, then went out to the countryside, somewhere near Dedemsvaart. I looked at doing the trip by public transport, but it would have taken forever. Instead, we rented a car and drove there, along wide, fast, busy roads. The Netherlands is indeed a heavily motorised country.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a former chicago resident who lived near a station, that wasn't my experience. In the time it took to walk down to the station and wait to get onto a train, I could already be at most restaurants and stores if I used a car in the suburbs. Also groceries became a huge ordeal. There's a lot of time overhead with public transit and unfortunately subways attract a lot of sketchy beggars and rude folk.
I would pay any amount of money or spend any amount of time to not have to deal with a car in Chicago ever again. Traffic, parking, and inflexibility to just hop on a train or bus are killer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that's again because these trains are run for profit, cutting every corner they can, and underpaying their employees. I'd prefer to see trains nationalised and run as national infrastructure with the goal of luring more commuters into mass transit. Because that will mean enormous savings in pollution, traffic jams, noise, and road maintenance.
Even when they were nationalised they were terrible. The biggest problem isn't whether it's for profit or not. The biggest problem is the relatively vast value for money, and value in general, of cars, even with extremely large fuel taxes imposed. People don't want to pay a lot of money for transport because they've seen how much value a car gives, and so having the cost and large numbers of people required to operat…
Fuel taxes don’t even come close to paying for our road networks while rail is lumping all these costs together on a per trip basis.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of research could you possibly do that will help resolve this? And even if you can is everyone supposed to buy those cars? This only scales for a small amount of peolle. I've exclusively owned vehicles from the time period. They've all been around 120k miles when I got them. They aren't any more reliable than any others. They've all had issues that caused me problems. Some of them have even been incredibly…
> What kind of research could you possibly do that will help resolve this? You look at all the cars within your budget and rule out red flags, for me it’s timing belts and CVT transmissions. Then Google the rest and look at the common problems. > And even if you can is everyone supposed to buy those cars? This only scales for a small amount of peolle. This is no different to anything else in life. People who do their…
I was able to do my due diligence and bought an old Volvo, and we knew a mechanic who specialized in Volvos, but even if it's not an expensive repair like a timing belt, the repairs will still be more frequent. And I think this situation will get worse for the next generation as it's more common to have proprietary parts and tooling, drastically increasing the cost of repairs as time goes on (which also makes self repairs a lot more difficult).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You still have that freedom to walk anywhere after parking you know. I have done this 100’s of times. Just park then from there go anywhere you want then just take a taxi or lyft back to your car. Public transport sucks, not sure why so many people people like it. Driving is much better unless you live in a large city like NY or LA. My own climate control, radio for music and podcasts, plus driving is therapeutic. I…
>I hate being around so many people packed in a train, airplane, bus I hate being in traffic. On a bus, people are around but you usually don't have to think about them. You can read a book. In traffic, people aren't next to you, but you have to constantly pay attention to them.
Sounds like someone has never had to take a bus or public transport in a rough area.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars have always felt more restrictive to me. I don’t want to have to worry about parking or road access or fuel when I’m visiting somewhere.
I have never understood the anxiety americans have related to parking. (unless you’re going to a music festival etc) You literally just drive around for 5ish minutes and you find a spot. Ive lived in two major cities in america fwiw.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even when they were nationalised they were terrible. The biggest problem isn't whether it's for profit or not. The biggest problem is the relatively vast value for money, and value in general, of cars, even with extremely large fuel taxes imposed. People don't want to pay a lot of money for transport because they've seen how much value a car gives, and so having the cost and large numbers of people required to operat…
Car travel is only “cheap” per trip because people have already sunk the costs into owning, insuring, and parking their car and paying for roads. Fuel taxes don’t even come close to paying for our road networks while rail is lumping all these costs together on a per trip basis.
If you want an emergency services vehicles to get to your house you need a road anyway.
If you want buses and coaches to function, you need roads.
If you want to transport a bootload of stuff more than three times a year you're financially better off paying for a car than renting.
If yor kids have school anywhere that isn't walking/cycling distance from your house, then you need a car, or two.
If you have a job, and don't want to be beholden to a very local employer, you likely need a car. Except if you live close to a train station and your job is close to another one. And except in the last five years, when some jobs can now be remote.
If you want to go anywhere that a train doesn't go, you need a car, probably. Which is everywhere outside of extremely high density urban areas that can afford an underground rail system.
You need any of those things to be true for a road to be needed. You likely need a car for all but the first two. Cars and roads are valuable. I don't see how that's debatable.
Trains are now location-specific optimisations where we know we have hotspots of usefulness, where it's worth laying track and having massive investment as enough people will use that route.
Just as a circuit-switched phone call is a better connection, but packet-switched is better overall, and cheaper, so are trains and cars.