I have read plenty of articles about how The Kids Today don’t play outside anymore, but would like to read one about how the olds today want to sic the cops on them the moment they step outside
I sincerely hate cars. Everything about the contemporary culture concerning cars is just disgusting. Somehow US has it on steroids with the gigantic cars, miniscule space for everybody else and so on
And yes, I do need to make it clear, yes, I am aware I am quite lucky to live in a country in which there are alternatives. I am also aware that there are people who do need cars since there are no accommodations for them.
it's so fucked up that you have to make this second post because we all know the argument-addicted gadflies are going to come swarming in on that first post
Sometimes it is a bit annoying. Especially since usually the implication is that we share enough of social and cultural background to know that this part is implied. Alas.
random thought I won't follow through on: a feed just for posts that include a "this is about pancakes not waffles" disclaimer
just to see what things people think they will be misunderstood on
This is easily fixed by elevating diverse disabled voices in these discussions. Including more Black and Latine voices will insure the role of cars to maintain racially segregated communities is also not overlooked.
The weird thing is how OBVIOUS it is. It does not require a tinfoil hat or a board with a lot of pins and red string. No. It is so blatant, denying it is on par with insisting that the sky is not blue.
There are a few ways to opt out. But those ways are extremely popular and expensive because there just aren't enough of them.
NY, SF, Boston, DC, Seattle.
a couple are less expensive:
Chicago, Philly.
might be 3 or 4 others.
It's not an opt out at all! Those cities are the best we've got but you're still fucking swimming in cars. Pedestrians get killed at bus stops and standing on the sidewalk all the time in SF and NYC.
We can't even get fucking congestión pricing in NYC because you can't escape the car hegemony
I dumped my car when I moved to Providence and I primarily get around on foot bike and bus, but it's not an opt out. I'm threatened by automobile violence and inconvenienced by overwhelming car oriented thinking every day.
Yup. And from what I hear, traffic deaths in Seattle are higher than ever. And don’t even try getting from one island-like neighborhood to another on a bus in under a half hour.
I got a little hybrid sedan recently which I love, and I would happily give it up in a heartbeat for walkable infra and public transit.
Feeling like I’m gonna get smushed by a F350 around every corner fucking sucks.
I recently got a 2006 Prius. It’s noticeably diminutive compared to most other vehicles on the road, but the interior feels cavernous to me. I can’t fathom what people are doing with huge cars, especially in the width.
the worst part is, some of the largest cars i've been in have some of the least passenger space
this is a full size suv, why is my head brushing the headliner? where did all the space go
or a hummer (non ev)... most claustro, cramped interior ive ever had the displeasure of riding in.
Drove a new pickup a few months ago; think it was a Dodge. Big Three, anyway. Was jammed off to the side, with the left third of my vision blocked by the A pillar. Horrible thing to drive. Uncomfortable seat, too.
Mostly I picked the figures based on the point where accidents become much more likely to be fatal. At 40km/h a pedestrian getting hit has a 40% fatality rate, but at 50km/h it's 90%. Kinetic energy goes up quadratically with velocity so even a small increase in speed makes a dramatic difference.
Just out of curiosity, where abouts do you live? Is it part of the US that has good transit like NY or Chicago, or is it another country that’s better at this than we are?
Here in Jacksonville, FL I live on what people consider a through street. Through meaning my dog and I can't walk through the neighborhood without being concerned about poor visibility trucks and SUVs barreling through at 40 mph. There are zero sidewalks, despite the road being barely 2 cars wide.
"oh, you must live out some dirt road near farmland!"
No, we live in the single family home sprawl of a city that designed neighborhood street sizes back when cars were still a bit of a novelty and nobody in the neighborhood could afford one.
Same. I live in central Ohio. The apartment complex I lived in for years was adjacent to a big highway on-ramp, so there was LEGALLY and PRACTICALLY no way to travel on foot. It was a shame because it was near a posh, walkable area, but I always had to talk my car to get there.
This is becoming a real problem- as people favor SUV’s over smaller bodies, and trucks just keep expanding, and EV’s become more popular as opposed to gas vehicles, cars are getting too heavy. Statistically it was easier to survive impact with a car before these trends emerged.
*defund and close public areas like pools and parks
*restrict access to paid and semi-paid areas like malls
*make foot traffic the most fatal form of local travel
*ensure local cops harass anyone 18 and under just for existing
"man these kids dowanna go anywhere"
This is a huge issue, why don’t kids go out? Because any remaining places where you don’t have to pay money to go there such as parks they get moved on because people don’t like “gangs of youths” hanging around.
My dad was in a local civic group in the 90s which was mostly middle aged and retired people and they constantly bemoaned the kids hanging around the pedestrianised town centre but when he pointed out there was nowhere else to go they looked at him like he’d grown an extra head
The feeling was “we don’t want them here, we don’t care where else they go” and even then people complained that kids (me) watched too much TV and played video games too much and we should go outside, but not in groups and must always keep moving.
yep, i'm in that age bracket to have watched all these public areas become extinct in real time and the rise of the "surveillance state or stay home" vibe, it sucks
and then to hear peeps blame youth for not bootstrapping their own cultural/structural freedoms, oh man i will hurt a mfer
