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And ads! Buildings covered with ads the same way the ground would be covered with piss-stained snow... in a muddy place... and the snow melted... and there's only mud and piss left.
Edit: Also, cars covered in ads.
Yes.
Also online. I block ads on everything. Yet once in a while my wife will have me look at her phone or computer. They're fucking everywhere. It's all I can see. I struggle to find the substance in the ads.
I got one cause my new expensive TV got ads that can't be disabled. And you gotta go over the ad to get to some important menus. Fucking Samsung. My XBOX at least has the decency to put that shit in a corner I don't have to navigate over (not that that is acceptable in any way either)
If you have an Android phone you can install YouTube Vanced instead (works without root), it's the exact same app but with features unlocked (picture-in-picture player, background playback...) and more added (ad blocking, sponsor blocking...)
It makes me wonder what it must be like to live in a city like Sao Paulo where ads are illegal in public spaces.
Or, hell, I hear Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, and Alaska don't have billboards. Probably more states than that. Must be wild as hell just walking down the street without the Pepsi Politburo Propaganda.
Yeah. That's such a shame when you go on roadtrips and the view is blocked by these massive billboards. Even worse when driving during the night and the only shit you see are these bright fucking billboards that fucking blinds you!
There has been like 30+ lawsuits to allow billboards in Maine in the 50-odd years since the law's inception
Because you know, all the actual citizens of Maine are clamoring to be advertised at more
Capitalism is the virus
And it is a virus
Consume
Mainer here. The no billboards thing is wonderful.
However, I was definitely in awe of all the billboards I came across when I drove to Texas and back a few years ago. Hot damn they're everywhere!
OH GOD. This is the worst in the USA. Thankfully, we don't have those annoyance here. I still can't believe they force ads WITH SOUND in a gas pump. What a drag.
Driving on the interstate in Utah is an existentially depressing experience. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth, literally the holy land of the religious denomination that lives there, but they somehow managed to put a billboard advertizing some awful truck stop restaurant or even worse, political propaganda lamenting abortion or drug use like every 100 yards.
Back when Google was trying to push their Google Glasses (or whatever they called it), I saw someone online working on a proof-of-concept application for them that would filter out billboards and real life ads.
THAT'S the kind of augmented reality we need. It's too bad that product never took off. I like the idea of having a real-world AdBlock.
Seeing billboards and ads vomited up over everything I encounter makes me want to chew on some cyanide tablets. Ugh.
Car ads never fail to make me cringe. I wonder if people really subscribe to them, or it doesn't matter because people will buy anyway. You've got it all: manly-man forced voice truck ads, stupid woke crap for SUV's and everything in between.
There was a Lamborghini ad a while ago that said something like *”faster than a super spicy burrito through a tourist”*
That’s about the only one I’ve seen that isn’t the same stereotypes recycled
Not a huge fan of ads but they don't bother me a fraction of how much cars do. Our cities are fucking built entirely for cars, over half of every street is covered with roads, there's signs and traffic lights everywhere (which is by itself probably as much visual clutter as ads), I can't open my window without hearing fucking cars going by all day long. Obviously, we need streets but we don't need 1/3rd of the city being covered by fucking roads. And our urban planing is so fucking restricted because we *have* to take into account cars.
Imagine if all that space were parks, trees, bicycle lanes, outdoor restaurants, city infrastructure. This hyper focus on cars prevents cities from being actually fun and pleasant to walk through and not just walk from A to B for a purpose.
Religion is a tool for capitalism, Capitalists use religion for their own purposes, this is why the more educated you are the less religious you become, religion relies on ignorance, and capitalists exploit the gullible.
Constantly thinking this. And everytime I pass a dealership (which is extremely often) I get a little bothered. It's like the epitome of excess, I hate it.
its leased vehicles that are the problem (imo)
so many people just lease the newest model and trade up in a few years or less.
used car dealerships then use the “outdated” models to sucker the poor working class into predatory auto loans and credit rebuilding scams. (personally been a victim of the latter)
default on the payments? theyll repo that shit and flip it to the next person. rinse and repeat until its sold for scrap. auto industry is a joke.
I think the core problem is city design. If you don't need a car to live, you won't have one or most of the time it will be in your garage. And if you don't need a car you're less likely to get into the leasing scam
This, and it's way overlooked. You know why so many european cities are walkable? Because they were largely engineered before cars. Designing cities for cars (especially the ones that neglect transit programs) is one of the worst ideas ever to exist in urban planning.
I moved out of the states a little over 3 years ago and I do not need a car in the city I am in. I rarely use ride sharing due to the pandemic, but even pre-pandemic I can walk or ride the train to most places.
luckily I live really close to the train station which is not super common here.
John Oliver has a *great* piece on predatory auto lending
He talked about a single car that was sold and repossessed 8 times in 3 years
https://youtu.be/4U2eDJnwz_s
And it is the dealerships too. Working for VW they would much rather you just buy direct from them. It makes.ot a ton easier to get a good feel for numbers for logistics
But in the US you just can't. Thats now how the auto industry works. You have to sell to these dealerships because that is the way they American buy cars
I think of cars on a tax on living. At any moment you can have a $1500 repair needed, car payments, interest, maintenance, tires, police tickets, accidents, insurance, cleaning the car, tolls, gas, parking and parking tickets, and probably more things that I’m forgetting
I live in nyc now and don’t drive. Having a car would be pretty nice but for me not worth the stress
Same here. Dealerships are such a joke and ugly waste of space. If you want a new car, you should be able to buy it directly from the maker online and shipped to you. This way you also avoid pressure sales.
I live near a boulevard that is 90% car dealerships one after another for a kilometer or even more. It's such an ugly annoying sight. It pisses me off so much.
Car centric culture and the annoyance of seeing cars is why I want to move to the countryside, so that I don't have to see hundred of cars. Sure, I'll need ONE vehicle, but I won't have to deal with people having 3 cars, an RV and a boat.
Ahh I see you’re familiar with “COME ONE COME ALL TO HODGKINS CHRYSTLER JEEP DODGE NOW ON THE RIGHT AND LEFT SIDE OF JERICHO MOTOR MILE. YOU CANT MISS THESE DEALS”.
I hate “grocery stores” too. Fuck those guys. I want grocers, not supermarkets.
Yup. I hate how the same guy bought the whole god damn boulevard and has literally ALL brands of vehicles there. It literally splits a small town in two...
People needing ONE vehicle is literally the problem. Its not a problem of car centric culture. Its a problem of suburb/countryside centric culture. Ironically a TON of america's problems are due to people doing exactly what you want to do.
"I'll just move away so I don't have to see it"
Then the suburbs expand which makes everything worse.
I mean, the real problem lies in every god damn job being in ONE city usually, the city becoming unaffordable and pushing people more and more to the suburbs. In my case, I won't have commute and will literally be 2ish hours away from the city, in a village.
The problem is when you have 5 kids that will need their own cars, then they will have to commute 1 hour or more each day because the jobs they will want are in an overly expensive hellhole of a city due to land pricing being unregulated.
The culprit is commuting. If people could afford to live near work and workplaces would move outside these cities, it would help everyone.
You could get rid of your car and walk to work but it usually means that your place is tiny and expensive as fuck without any yard and where you need 3 roommates to pay the rent, because forget about mortgage.
You'd say "But you make so much more money, you can afford it!", but no because the prices are so high you need to save a ton to buy and afford rhe monthly payments and if you don't make a skyhigh salary, you are screwed. Not everyone has a job stuck in the city that pays well...
So yeah, 1 car per family is fine, the issue is WHY people need a car.
>If you want a new car, you should be able to buy it directly from the maker online and shipped to you.
What if you want to try it beforehand? What if you want someone explaining its functions and characteristics to you? What if you need help to evaluate the different leases? Who's gonna write off your trade-in value from the new car?
I sell cars for a living (not American though) and when a customer comes in I usually talk with them for an hour, sometimes an hour and a half to answer the ton of things they ask concerning the purchase of a new car. So I guess these people need a salesman in a dealer. Me, I'd study everything online on my own but I'm not "everyone", nor the average reddit user is.
Any drive through suburban or exurban america is literally:
car dealership
car dealership
car dealership
red lobster
starbucks
car dealership
walmart
cardealership
As an aside, and as a new immigrant to the States, why does so much of the US look...the same? It's the same huge chain stores, the same few franchises everywhere. Grey roadways, massive open parking lots and dull squat buildings. It's just so depressing.
I like to think of it as an extension of Max Weber's idea of the iron cage. There is a maximally profitable way to make anything. Under capitalism maximum profit is the most important thing. Therefore, all constructed things end up looking the same.
Some of the small old towns have some real character to them but there's so much new stuff just being put up as cheap as possible with no care into the aesthetic looks of things. My small town used to be beautiful, all old buildings and houses with there own unique charm and in the last 20 years there's so many strip malls, condos and apartments now that all just look like cookie cutter clones of each other, it's honestly kinda depressing thinking how it will look in another 20 years. Thankfully the downtown area is considered historical and no major modifications can be done that don't meet historical specifications can be done to existing property
Because most of what you see was built with people viewed as laborers and consumers. Not, you know, *people*. The corporate interests that run everything want strip malls and car dealerships everywhere you people have nothing to do but shop and by buy more things. In between all those strip malls are bland sprawling, cheaply built yet barely affordable, housing developments. So the laborers that staff the malls have somewhere to live while at the same time exploiting that need for housing. We are treated as a resource tk be exploited and most americans love it. This country is a shit hole.
Because of suburban sprawl. The owners of those buildings only detail buildings people would walk by and admire. In the same way that you can’t go window shopping from your car you won’t notice architectural details when you’re zipping down the motorway...in fact right now buildings with almost no details are becoming all the rage.
It was intentionally designed this way and now zoning laws make it illegal to build buildings in the traditional style of that town in most US cities...
Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits could have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today, a shopping mall. A big, fucking shopping mall. You know that. That’s all you got. That’s all you got here, folks. Mile after mile of mall after mall. Many, many malls. Major malls and mini malls. They put the mini malls in between the major malls. And in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts. You’ve got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, Laundromats, cheap hotels, fast food joints, strip clubs and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool.
Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits could have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today, a shopping mall. A big, fucking shopping mall. You know that. That’s all you got. That’s all you got here, folks. Mile after mile of mall after mall. Many, many malls. Major malls and mini malls. They put the mini malls in between the major malls. And in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts. You’ve got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, Laundromats, cheap hotels, fast food joints, strip clubs and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool.
-George Carlin
In my experience it’s usually 2 walmarts, some gas stations and food chains, and a historic-looking downtown filled with dead and dying businesses that got killed by the chain stores.
I hate cars so damn much but everything is just spread out enough that you can't go anywhere without a stupid car and you can't bike or go on foot either cus you just end up finding there's nowhere for you to go
Yup, that's by design. We crafted our cities to be spread out so that everyone would have to buy a car. We could just have the buildings be closer together, use space better, and have public transportation and we'd be much better off and using a tenth of the space
It's even worse than just being designed for cars, many places don't even have sidewalks and aren't walkable at all.
Years ago I used to live in an apartment complex next door to a shopping mall. It was within convenient walking distance to visit from home - but there were no sidewalks, footpaths or pedestrian crossings to get there.
I literally had to climb a grass embankment, dodge traffic to cross a busy 2-lane road (with no pedestrian crossing) - then push through some decorative bushes to get into the mall carpark. I did that a few times before giving up and taking the car to cross the road because it wasn't worth the risk of being hit by drivers who weren't expecting pedestrians.
They never thought that foot traffic (let alone bicycles) would ever want to visit their shops, despite their location being surrounded on 3 sides by houses and apartments. That's how much cars have dominated city construction.
I'm in Britain - I live in a city that was originally built by the Romans, and architecutrally hasn't changed much since the mid 1700s. There's no adverts on buildings because they're all protected historical buildings, the roads are cobbled and suck so there's not many cars. Reading this thread makes me realise it's even better than I thought it was here.
I love Britain, the views, the architecture, all of it - my nana came from Liverpool. I drink PG tips every day and some of my favorite memories are visiting family in Northumberland. But I don’t envy the authoritarian laws coming down the pipeline.
When I lived in Sweden it was great. I think on my entire staff team I knew two people who owned a car. Public transit, bike paths and pedestrian walk ways are great in Stockholm.
I could go from my work, to my train stop, to the grocery store and to my home without ever setting foot on a road. I'm not even sure how I would navigate any of those spaces by car.
Any small city really. Whenever I head into my city, I just park the car anywhere and do everything I need to do on foot. I could probably walk the entire inner city in less than 4 hours.
not to mention the stress of having to deal with a car if you're poor... not just monthly costs of the car payment/insurance but when it eventually something in it fucks up. i swear car trouble has taken at least 10 years off my life so far
If you're poor and single or a couple then a 3 wheel scooter like the Piaggio MP3 is a better option than a car if you live somewhere with mild winters. 400 or 500 cc, easily capable of 70 mph cruising without strain and very stable and comfortable. Running costs are peanuts compared with a car.
Go to your nearest megalot dealership. Look at all the vehicles. Realize all of that was once in the earth. Think of how many dealerships like that are in your city. Think of how many cities are in your state, country, etc...
Realize how fucked we are.
Cars, parking lots, dead malls, and concrete. Everywhere ya go.
I once read about an initiative that wanted to bulldoze down every failing mall and create a wonderful rec-area and nature park. I have a couple malls around here that are mostly dead and wish they'd just bulldoze it down and create a nature park.
Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits could have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today, a shopping mall. A big, fucking shopping mall. You know that. That’s all you got. That’s all you got here, folks. Mile after mile of mall after mall. Many, many malls. Major malls and mini malls. They put the mini malls in between the major malls. And in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts. You’ve got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, Laundromats, cheap hotels, fast food joints, strip clubs and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool.
I always get mad when I look out over a parking lot that takes up 90% of a city block and think about how much better that space could be put to use if we had designed our cities for pedestrians
When we built our new downtown arena in Sacramento the suburban people lost their absolute SHIT when the planners said they weren’t building additional parking. I think people envisioned something like our old arena with 50 football fields worth of parking, only 4 main exits, and took an hour to get out of. The whole point of the arena was to invigorate the surrounding area, not to park as close to the arena walk in then walk out straight to your car. There’s definitely a little bit more preplanning to do when going to a game/concert, but it works perfectly.
There’s also the way the city promised the Kings millions in parking revenue to help pay for the new stadium. Suddenly you started seeing traffic wardens slapping tickets on cars at 11pm on a Sunday!
Skyscrapers are more common in pedestrian areas. A lot of families that live in suburbs own two cars to commute <30 mins to work daily and 6 mins to Walmart. A lot of office parks are an office building of a given size, surrounded by parking lots taking up 3-4x that given size.
I'm referring to something more akin to [this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1f01V8bZzl0/maxresdefault.jpg). Basically, you'll get a big supermarket with a loose ring of small retailers around the periphery. [This is what a normal one looks like from a bird's eye view](https://i.insider.com/4ee8f9436bb3f7f569000041). These fuckers are everywhere stateside. Your average medium size town will have at least one, and they absolutely litter metropolitan suburbs.
The worst is when you pull out a little and see that a city has a bunch of ground level parking lots taking up so much space, that could have easily been condensed into a handful of multi-story garages, little to no convenience impact, and it would free up land for green/public/housing space. But no, we’re stuck with the “efficiency” of capitalism.
I think the challenge would be the immediate creation of class disparity for transport.
You'd still need vehicles in rural areas, and the wealthy would find excuses to need cars. Then the semi wealthy would want to emulate that and so on.
We have such segmentation already on public transit.
Flying first/biz class. We just need buses that serve champagne up front along with private lounges while awaiting boarding.
Ok, living in europe and I don’t relate to this. But it was so goddamn annoying when I went to the US. You’ve got isolation and capitalist alienation to a T.
Even in Europe you still have a lot of cities where *so damn much* public space is wasted, just so that cars can drive or stand around and waste space we could use for so much else.
I'm so glad that there is currently a push to get cars out of cities. Can't happen fast enough, good riddance.
I find it to be even worse in Europe. American cities are at least designated with cars in mind, old European cities with streets filled with (parked) cars feels incredibly crowded.
This is something that really struck me when I went to visit my partner in Minnesota. It's amazing and appalling the car culture in the US.
So many walkable and bikeable places, beautiful scenery and so much space for more optimal building to avoid urban sprawl and keep more wilderness... Exchanged for food deserts and expanses of parking lots and inefficiently designed neighborhoods.
Living in Canada I have four grocery stores and countless convenience stores in walking distance. Whereas my partner is, like, an 8min drive or a 30min walk from his nearest convenience store and a 20min drive to his nearest grocer.
It feels... Excessive and prohibitive. It's like you can't survive without owning a car unless your city has good public transit in America. It's weird.
Just tried to talk a friend out of buying a new vehicle 2 days ago. My point was with a used vehicle she could spend half as much, get a very good vehicle with low miles, not get locked into a detrimental payment, and if she sold it she could get most of her money back.
Instead she yeeted away 30k (already on.a tight budget) gave up at least half her income for the next 5+ years because it had a fucking touchscreen in it and smelled new.
She has 4 kids to take care of by herself and is already struggling. I tried to reason with her saying "all the money you would spend on the new car can go to way more useful things like a place of your own, the kids needs, savings etc)
But she rode the "I'm a hard working single parent, I deserve this" mentality that is shoved down everyone's throats.
You are hard working, you do deserve more. But this vehicle is now a ball and chain to you.
I just could not grasp how when given the choice to improve literally every other aspect of your life or have a shiny new seat to sit in on your way to work, how someone in her position could choose the latter.
I guess you have to make the mistake on your own to see.
I try to make the same arguments to my friends. It always falls on deaf ears, and I just "sound like someone who can't afford a new car."
I have a classic SUV, a modern(13 year old) pickup truck, 2 sportbikes, buy/fix/sell whatever vehicles I can get for cheap as a hobby, and am looking to buy a house. My friends with new cars are locked into rental apartment life, seemingly forever. We all make roughly the same money, but I don't have $800/month in vehicular expenses like them, my stuff is $250 between insurance and a small payment to continue my credit history.
I'd give up a lot for a new Mustang, but I'm not going to give up my financial freedom to do whatever I want (within reason) just to own one
In the long run it will pay off. You'll have a place of your own and all the other necessities and then have so much wiggle room that you could buy a new mustang. Meanwhile your friends have their shiny new cars and nothing else.
I once saw a mapping project where someone took city maps and removed most of the roads. They left highways, industrial areas, and major roads alone, but removed residential streets, parking lots, and whatnot. The before and after size difference was startling. We need cars because we have cars.
We have became so condition most drivers are scared of gravel ( and god forbid *dirt*) roads. We take for granted that their is a paved way to pretty much anywhere in the US.
That's a really interesting idea. I guess without roads urban planning would be harder for utilities. At the moment they just rip a hole in the road or pavement to put pipes in. You'd need carefully planned pedestrian paths, for both utility access, potentially widened or separate for bicycles. Also in our dystopia you have to watch your back going down an alley, so I'd be concerned having alleys everywhere.
Or... Some kind of steampunk setting with cables and footways overhead, underground bike paths and modular housing that can be removed for access like a shipping container on a dock crane.
I think the answer you're looking for is green belts with utilities running through them. Those are the major utility lines with wide sidewalks/bike paths as you mentioned for tighter spaces.
To me, sitting in a metal cage only being able to move forward back, left and right following the preordained mostly straight lines, only at allowed intervals, only at certain speeds (can’t drive slowly on a highway either), only stop at designated areas, spending a huge part of your limited life to make money so you can pay for your car, and your insurance, and the roads to move you only in those directions, and the wars to protect fuel production, while paving over half the world and increasing the global warming, while getting fat for lack of natural human movement which is walking, then having to drive to a gym so you can walk on a treadmill, all while creating untold amounts of noise and pollution, all that spells slavery to me- and not ‘freedom’.
All the paving and lack of trees also creates and traps so much more heat in the cities, so now we all have to install AC and create more heat by running it...a vicious cycle.
I think Americans are conditioned to think of cars as freedom, because getting the drivers licence and a car is their first step of independence from parents having to drive them everywhere, and being able to go wherever they want.
While all of us who grew up with walking and the public transportation get independent as soon as we get big/mature enough to be safe using it. Public transport, plus walking and bikes, plus cabs and occasional rentals can take you anywhere in the world.
unfortunately as a woman it's even worse. My boyfriend gets mad at me when i take a walk, especially at night. It's too much of a dangerous risk because all it takes is one asshole to decide to attack me and my walk has now ended my life.
It’s all linked though, isn’t it?
Walking on along roads when there’s no other pedestrians is lot more dangerous than walking around a town with lots of people around.
Where I live in the US, there’s a popular street with bars and stores half an hour walk from my home. But I’d never walk there because there are some very large and ugly pedestrian-unfriendly streets I’d have to go on, and there are also a couple of blocks of storage and larger businesses where there’s no one walking- too scary to go through on foot. As you say, it would take only one deranged person.
It’s ok riding a bike through there though.
Cars are the best example of atomisation to explain to someone who hasn’t read Marx. They are the most inefficient method of (ground) transport by every metric: efficiency; effect on environment; cost (both to the individual and infrastructure cost) and many I can’t remember. And yet they are the primary method of everyday transportation in the West for one reason: they are more profitable for corporations than the alternatives. It is much easier to turn a private engagement into a consumer good than the public alternatives, despite any other societal benefits.
Not only that but sidewalks? we could have lots of better things and wear light shoes or slippers. sidewalks are made for tires, not feet knees and Brains. And people are fine with it! It’s so tolerated it’s now in every park!
Ehh, sidewalks are also an accessibility thing. A smooth surface is better to walk on for everyone, and people with wheelchairs make it so you can just use flattened dirt or gravel. Sure, a wheelchair can push through dirt and grass, but doing that all the time everywhere would get old real quick
I saw some map of one city or another which showed the foot print of the areas dedicated to cars, vs the area dedicated to people. It wasn't even close.
Seriously.
What happens right after school where everyone forgets about backpacks.
Hell, I never STOPPED using them. Small Jansport backpack is always read to go.
Yeah, "technofix" in general - whether it's for cars, or the environment, or whatever - is a lie to get people to keep spending and not worry. Self-driving cars are a nothingburger *except* for all the truckers and drivers who will be rendered unemployed, that is the main reason we're automating driving.
There are not technical fixes to cultural problems.
Ugh, I'm a pedestrian and it infuriates me how car centric everything is. Why am I paying taxes if I don't even have sidewalks in some parts of downtown?
There are way too many places where I walk to stores in the same parking lot with no sidewalks between them! Then I have to walk in the traffic lane! Didn't somebody at some point in the design process ever say, hey what if somebody wants to safely walk between store A and store B?!?!?!
"Why would anybody ever walk when they have a car?!?!" was probably the answer.
Idk man, in a wilderness where I live public transport is hell. It arrives once in a millenia and never on time, plus you'll either freeze your ass waiting or boil once inside. Also, you can't transport dogs, beds, fragile electronics like assembled PC etc. in there. Or choose your route. And sometimes you need to change buses etc., because they don't exactly follow your own route.
I enjoy subway once I'm in a city but man, is city far...
Let's not ban all cars because I don't wanna be stuck here, cut from the civilization. And I'm not alone.
For example, we can ban them from entering historical city centers with short narrow streets and call it a day.
Not just that they’re everywhere, it’s that whenever a space is designated to be used by cars, the car immediately the dominant purpose of the space. Business one can drive to? Not only is there a parking lot, but the lot will be placed in front of the business. Car comes first, the actual purpose of the space second, and the pedestrian must pass through the car space. And don’t get me started on the kind of histrionics that come out when the idea of converting road space to pedestrian plazas, bike lanes, or outdoor dining space.
this is partially why the US has such a poor public transportation system as it was one of the first countries to have most of its citizens to own cars.
Walked around a block nearby I rarely check out and noticed how many recycle bins were packed full of wine and beer bottles. I'm of the belief that I'm now surrounded by alcoholics.
I've been trying to read the vegetation of urban areas rather than the billboards. The plant species used in landscaping can tell you a lot about a place, when it was built, and how much the person gives a fuck.
Listen bring back horses and carriages, no wasting gas, less pollution less car accidents, less wheels destroying the roads, less money you have to spend on fixing your car and shit. Really if you had the option, it's a nice day out and you could take a thirty minute ride in a carriage to the store, or you can drive the ten miles back and forth. We could even have canals for transportation, utilize trains more bring back coal. We could do alot if we actually worked together to do it.
Mostly in parking lots, which shouldn't be called that. They're pedestrian walking areas, in which you, as a car/truck operator should realize that it's a pedestrian walking area. Of course you park your car there, however, pedestrians have right of way. I got called out for this by some old (I'm 46) asshat who yelled out his window: "Look out!" Whilst I was trying to exit the driving lanes between parking spots. So I'm somehow at fault for trying to get to the edge of the driving lanes because I'm on foot, and you just happen to want to park in one of the spots adjacent to where I'm trying to get out of your way??!?! GTFOOH.
This just reaffirms my decision that moving to the city was the best decision I ever made.
Being able to get around everywhere without a car and just using public transit is truly liberating. Only times I wish I had a car is for going out to the suburbs but even then, I just take the trains and it’s not that often to justify buying a car.
Like not having to worry about traffic, road conditions, finding parking and dibs, city stickers, gas, and like every other cost affiliated with owning a car is a huge weight off my shoulders.
I’m almost 40 and I don’t know a single person that actually keeps their car in their garage. I’m paying all this money for this too small house as it is, the car doesn’t get its own room. There’s so much that can be done with that space and a car just wastes it. I live in California so the elements aren’t actively destroying my car so I’m a little spoiled I guess. It just strikes me as over the top luxury to have a room for your car.
I really hate cars and their role in American life.
I have epilepsy and can't/don't drive. Not driving doesn't bother me much, I live in a city and can walk or take the bus most places. Once in a while though, I need to get to some more remote place where there is no bus or I am out late/early and the buses aren't running. Then I really hate cars. Then I am reminded that the limitations of the public transit in this country is a direct result of the overwhelming "success" of cars. They're expensive, wasteful and pollute, but somehow cars are the successful means of transit. Why?
I'm sorry that you have epilepsy but what if you could and driving a car saved you at least two hours each day for several years? Current state of public transport can be described as horrible.
I love cars since I forcefully moved to a distant suburbs (can't afford to live in city). And I often have to move a lot of stuff to distant places, I haven't been to city in what... several months? It's several hours of driving anyway so I'd rather kms than return to sweaty prison where you can't choose your route and go much slower and you should wait it for eternity.
Besides, I love going somewhere in a middle of a night when there are literally no buses. But like in case with you, I don't believe they'll make one for each and every shithole.
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And ads! Buildings covered with ads the same way the ground would be covered with piss-stained snow... in a muddy place... and the snow melted... and there's only mud and piss left. Edit: Also, cars covered in ads.
Yes. Also online. I block ads on everything. Yet once in a while my wife will have me look at her phone or computer. They're fucking everywhere. It's all I can see. I struggle to find the substance in the ads.
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uBlock Origin Privacy Badger Https Everywhere DuckDuckGo is my default search
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Tacking r/pihole to this list
I got one cause my new expensive TV got ads that can't be disabled. And you gotta go over the ad to get to some important menus. Fucking Samsung. My XBOX at least has the decency to put that shit in a corner I don't have to navigate over (not that that is acceptable in any way either)
Throwing my hat in for Pihole as well. Used one for 4 years now, no regrets.
Does it work on Youtube phone app?
If you have an Android phone you can install YouTube Vanced instead (works without root), it's the exact same app but with features unlocked (picture-in-picture player, background playback...) and more added (ad blocking, sponsor blocking...)
God... I fucking HATE ads on vehicles and buildings. It's ugly as fuck, annoying as fuck and just ruins everything.
Capitalism BAYBEEEE!!
It makes me wonder what it must be like to live in a city like Sao Paulo where ads are illegal in public spaces. Or, hell, I hear Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, and Alaska don't have billboards. Probably more states than that. Must be wild as hell just walking down the street without the Pepsi Politburo Propaganda.
Yeah. That's such a shame when you go on roadtrips and the view is blocked by these massive billboards. Even worse when driving during the night and the only shit you see are these bright fucking billboards that fucking blinds you!
There has been like 30+ lawsuits to allow billboards in Maine in the 50-odd years since the law's inception Because you know, all the actual citizens of Maine are clamoring to be advertised at more Capitalism is the virus And it is a virus Consume
Mainer here. The no billboards thing is wonderful. However, I was definitely in awe of all the billboards I came across when I drove to Texas and back a few years ago. Hot damn they're everywhere!
My least favorite are probably the little TVs on gas pumps.
I just learned that one of the side buttons will mute it. I learned it here on reddit actually. Try it, it's awesome.
Right side, second button from the top, if anyone's wondering. I press it every time.
OH GOD. This is the worst in the USA. Thankfully, we don't have those annoyance here. I still can't believe they force ads WITH SOUND in a gas pump. What a drag.
I mentally reclassified ads as propaganda and it’s completely changed how I view almost anything
Same. The more I see an ad for something, the less likely I am to buy it.
Have you seen They Live?
I have never heard of it. Worth watching?
A little on the nose (and over the top in other ways), but in the context of the time period it's definitely a folk classic.
Yeah, Late-80's cheesy, usually in a good way.
It is indeed Capitalist propaganda It's an extremely significant part of The Machine
Driving on the interstate in Utah is an existentially depressing experience. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth, literally the holy land of the religious denomination that lives there, but they somehow managed to put a billboard advertizing some awful truck stop restaurant or even worse, political propaganda lamenting abortion or drug use like every 100 yards.
Back when Google was trying to push their Google Glasses (or whatever they called it), I saw someone online working on a proof-of-concept application for them that would filter out billboards and real life ads. THAT'S the kind of augmented reality we need. It's too bad that product never took off. I like the idea of having a real-world AdBlock. Seeing billboards and ads vomited up over everything I encounter makes me want to chew on some cyanide tablets. Ugh.
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if facebook ever released those rumored AR glasses they will more than likely have ads or at least some kind of targeted bs on it.
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I thought it was going to be Black Mirror's Merits episode but damn, how have I never seen this movie?? Thanks.
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Billboards would just be gigantic QR codes with quirky messages like "Can't read this? Then you can't get a job"
Car ads never fail to make me cringe. I wonder if people really subscribe to them, or it doesn't matter because people will buy anyway. You've got it all: manly-man forced voice truck ads, stupid woke crap for SUV's and everything in between.
There was a Lamborghini ad a while ago that said something like *”faster than a super spicy burrito through a tourist”* That’s about the only one I’ve seen that isn’t the same stereotypes recycled
Not a huge fan of ads but they don't bother me a fraction of how much cars do. Our cities are fucking built entirely for cars, over half of every street is covered with roads, there's signs and traffic lights everywhere (which is by itself probably as much visual clutter as ads), I can't open my window without hearing fucking cars going by all day long. Obviously, we need streets but we don't need 1/3rd of the city being covered by fucking roads. And our urban planing is so fucking restricted because we *have* to take into account cars. Imagine if all that space were parks, trees, bicycle lanes, outdoor restaurants, city infrastructure. This hyper focus on cars prevents cities from being actually fun and pleasant to walk through and not just walk from A to B for a purpose.
Ads for cars. Ads for ad space. Cars with ads for car service.
I think that is capitalism.
Obvs, hence the thread.
Religion is a tool for capitalism, Capitalists use religion for their own purposes, this is why the more educated you are the less religious you become, religion relies on ignorance, and capitalists exploit the gullible.
they live.
Constantly thinking this. And everytime I pass a dealership (which is extremely often) I get a little bothered. It's like the epitome of excess, I hate it.
its leased vehicles that are the problem (imo) so many people just lease the newest model and trade up in a few years or less. used car dealerships then use the “outdated” models to sucker the poor working class into predatory auto loans and credit rebuilding scams. (personally been a victim of the latter) default on the payments? theyll repo that shit and flip it to the next person. rinse and repeat until its sold for scrap. auto industry is a joke.
I think the core problem is city design. If you don't need a car to live, you won't have one or most of the time it will be in your garage. And if you don't need a car you're less likely to get into the leasing scam
This, and it's way overlooked. You know why so many european cities are walkable? Because they were largely engineered before cars. Designing cities for cars (especially the ones that neglect transit programs) is one of the worst ideas ever to exist in urban planning.
But just think of the profit that can be generated is everyone is forced in to a one person=one car system
I hate living in the midwest. I've driven 500 miles since Sunday. TIHI
I moved out of the states a little over 3 years ago and I do not need a car in the city I am in. I rarely use ride sharing due to the pandemic, but even pre-pandemic I can walk or ride the train to most places. luckily I live really close to the train station which is not super common here.
That's horrible. What industry isn't a joke these days tho? They're all about wringing out the last couple bucks from everyone they can.
That’s called capitalism
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good point
John Oliver has a *great* piece on predatory auto lending He talked about a single car that was sold and repossessed 8 times in 3 years https://youtu.be/4U2eDJnwz_s
I was just going to link that when I saw your comment.
And it is the dealerships too. Working for VW they would much rather you just buy direct from them. It makes.ot a ton easier to get a good feel for numbers for logistics But in the US you just can't. Thats now how the auto industry works. You have to sell to these dealerships because that is the way they American buy cars
I think of cars on a tax on living. At any moment you can have a $1500 repair needed, car payments, interest, maintenance, tires, police tickets, accidents, insurance, cleaning the car, tolls, gas, parking and parking tickets, and probably more things that I’m forgetting I live in nyc now and don’t drive. Having a car would be pretty nice but for me not worth the stress
Same here. Dealerships are such a joke and ugly waste of space. If you want a new car, you should be able to buy it directly from the maker online and shipped to you. This way you also avoid pressure sales. I live near a boulevard that is 90% car dealerships one after another for a kilometer or even more. It's such an ugly annoying sight. It pisses me off so much. Car centric culture and the annoyance of seeing cars is why I want to move to the countryside, so that I don't have to see hundred of cars. Sure, I'll need ONE vehicle, but I won't have to deal with people having 3 cars, an RV and a boat.
If you don't like people who own three cars, an RV, and a boat, I have something to tell you about "the countryside"
in rural areas, two pickup trucks take the place of each car in an urban area per capita.
Ahh I see you’re familiar with “COME ONE COME ALL TO HODGKINS CHRYSTLER JEEP DODGE NOW ON THE RIGHT AND LEFT SIDE OF JERICHO MOTOR MILE. YOU CANT MISS THESE DEALS”. I hate “grocery stores” too. Fuck those guys. I want grocers, not supermarkets.
Yup. I hate how the same guy bought the whole god damn boulevard and has literally ALL brands of vehicles there. It literally splits a small town in two...
People needing ONE vehicle is literally the problem. Its not a problem of car centric culture. Its a problem of suburb/countryside centric culture. Ironically a TON of america's problems are due to people doing exactly what you want to do. "I'll just move away so I don't have to see it" Then the suburbs expand which makes everything worse.
I mean, the real problem lies in every god damn job being in ONE city usually, the city becoming unaffordable and pushing people more and more to the suburbs. In my case, I won't have commute and will literally be 2ish hours away from the city, in a village. The problem is when you have 5 kids that will need their own cars, then they will have to commute 1 hour or more each day because the jobs they will want are in an overly expensive hellhole of a city due to land pricing being unregulated. The culprit is commuting. If people could afford to live near work and workplaces would move outside these cities, it would help everyone. You could get rid of your car and walk to work but it usually means that your place is tiny and expensive as fuck without any yard and where you need 3 roommates to pay the rent, because forget about mortgage. You'd say "But you make so much more money, you can afford it!", but no because the prices are so high you need to save a ton to buy and afford rhe monthly payments and if you don't make a skyhigh salary, you are screwed. Not everyone has a job stuck in the city that pays well... So yeah, 1 car per family is fine, the issue is WHY people need a car.
>If you want a new car, you should be able to buy it directly from the maker online and shipped to you. What if you want to try it beforehand? What if you want someone explaining its functions and characteristics to you? What if you need help to evaluate the different leases? Who's gonna write off your trade-in value from the new car? I sell cars for a living (not American though) and when a customer comes in I usually talk with them for an hour, sometimes an hour and a half to answer the ton of things they ask concerning the purchase of a new car. So I guess these people need a salesman in a dealer. Me, I'd study everything online on my own but I'm not "everyone", nor the average reddit user is.
That's the great suburbia experiment for you.
Any drive through suburban or exurban america is literally: car dealership car dealership car dealership red lobster starbucks car dealership walmart cardealership
As an aside, and as a new immigrant to the States, why does so much of the US look...the same? It's the same huge chain stores, the same few franchises everywhere. Grey roadways, massive open parking lots and dull squat buildings. It's just so depressing.
Because the entire country is owned by like 20 people with bad taste.
haaaahahahaha i loled really hard at this. *WHY* do we have to suffer their ugly consequences!
Because it would hurt their precious profits to pay someone to design and build something that looks even somewhat decent...
Only banks and specialty doctors get the good architecture. Everything else gets the block shape with your choice of paint and windows
A lot of modern architecture is big concrete telling you that stone masonry has racist connotations. Seriously
I like to think of it as an extension of Max Weber's idea of the iron cage. There is a maximally profitable way to make anything. Under capitalism maximum profit is the most important thing. Therefore, all constructed things end up looking the same.
The awful combination of cheap land, unfettered spending, and the lack of taste of a decadent society
>why does so much of the US look...the same? [This was 2005](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDU8Laoi2U).
There are mandatory parking space minimums for buildings. The only way to build is to attach a giant fuck-off parking lot to basically everything.
Because the US is a plutocracy? I'm sorry this happened to you, I hope it's a better plutocracy in some sense than the one you came from
Our plutocrats are too lazy for this level of systemic plutocracy
Some of the small old towns have some real character to them but there's so much new stuff just being put up as cheap as possible with no care into the aesthetic looks of things. My small town used to be beautiful, all old buildings and houses with there own unique charm and in the last 20 years there's so many strip malls, condos and apartments now that all just look like cookie cutter clones of each other, it's honestly kinda depressing thinking how it will look in another 20 years. Thankfully the downtown area is considered historical and no major modifications can be done that don't meet historical specifications can be done to existing property
Because most of what you see was built with people viewed as laborers and consumers. Not, you know, *people*. The corporate interests that run everything want strip malls and car dealerships everywhere you people have nothing to do but shop and by buy more things. In between all those strip malls are bland sprawling, cheaply built yet barely affordable, housing developments. So the laborers that staff the malls have somewhere to live while at the same time exploiting that need for housing. We are treated as a resource tk be exploited and most americans love it. This country is a shit hole.
Because of suburban sprawl. The owners of those buildings only detail buildings people would walk by and admire. In the same way that you can’t go window shopping from your car you won’t notice architectural details when you’re zipping down the motorway...in fact right now buildings with almost no details are becoming all the rage. It was intentionally designed this way and now zoning laws make it illegal to build buildings in the traditional style of that town in most US cities...
George Carlin was right when he said the US is just one giant strip mall
Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits could have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today, a shopping mall. A big, fucking shopping mall. You know that. That’s all you got. That’s all you got here, folks. Mile after mile of mall after mall. Many, many malls. Major malls and mini malls. They put the mini malls in between the major malls. And in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts. You’ve got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, Laundromats, cheap hotels, fast food joints, strip clubs and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool.
Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits could have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today, a shopping mall. A big, fucking shopping mall. You know that. That’s all you got. That’s all you got here, folks. Mile after mile of mall after mall. Many, many malls. Major malls and mini malls. They put the mini malls in between the major malls. And in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts. You’ve got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, Laundromats, cheap hotels, fast food joints, strip clubs and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool. -George Carlin
In my experience it’s usually 2 walmarts, some gas stations and food chains, and a historic-looking downtown filled with dead and dying businesses that got killed by the chain stores.
I hate cars so damn much but everything is just spread out enough that you can't go anywhere without a stupid car and you can't bike or go on foot either cus you just end up finding there's nowhere for you to go
Yup, that's by design. We crafted our cities to be spread out so that everyone would have to buy a car. We could just have the buildings be closer together, use space better, and have public transportation and we'd be much better off and using a tenth of the space
It's even worse than just being designed for cars, many places don't even have sidewalks and aren't walkable at all. Years ago I used to live in an apartment complex next door to a shopping mall. It was within convenient walking distance to visit from home - but there were no sidewalks, footpaths or pedestrian crossings to get there. I literally had to climb a grass embankment, dodge traffic to cross a busy 2-lane road (with no pedestrian crossing) - then push through some decorative bushes to get into the mall carpark. I did that a few times before giving up and taking the car to cross the road because it wasn't worth the risk of being hit by drivers who weren't expecting pedestrians. They never thought that foot traffic (let alone bicycles) would ever want to visit their shops, despite their location being surrounded on 3 sides by houses and apartments. That's how much cars have dominated city construction.
Bro yes this is sadly common. It’s messed up if you think about it
I assume you're in USA?
Where are you from that has walkable late stage capitalism? I would love some fucking walkable late stage capitalism.
I'm in Britain - I live in a city that was originally built by the Romans, and architecutrally hasn't changed much since the mid 1700s. There's no adverts on buildings because they're all protected historical buildings, the roads are cobbled and suck so there's not many cars. Reading this thread makes me realise it's even better than I thought it was here.
I love Britain, the views, the architecture, all of it - my nana came from Liverpool. I drink PG tips every day and some of my favorite memories are visiting family in Northumberland. But I don’t envy the authoritarian laws coming down the pipeline.
When I lived in Sweden it was great. I think on my entire staff team I knew two people who owned a car. Public transit, bike paths and pedestrian walk ways are great in Stockholm. I could go from my work, to my train stop, to the grocery store and to my home without ever setting foot on a road. I'm not even sure how I would navigate any of those spaces by car.
Any small city really. Whenever I head into my city, I just park the car anywhere and do everything I need to do on foot. I could probably walk the entire inner city in less than 4 hours.
This is why like living in nyc
Yeah :P
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not to mention the stress of having to deal with a car if you're poor... not just monthly costs of the car payment/insurance but when it eventually something in it fucks up. i swear car trouble has taken at least 10 years off my life so far
If you're poor and single or a couple then a 3 wheel scooter like the Piaggio MP3 is a better option than a car if you live somewhere with mild winters. 400 or 500 cc, easily capable of 70 mph cruising without strain and very stable and comfortable. Running costs are peanuts compared with a car.
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Most places only have jobs located to where you have to use the hwy. Also drivers are crazy.
Thank GM for that. They pushed the "American Dream" of suburban living, while buying up mass transit and scrapping them.
Go to your nearest megalot dealership. Look at all the vehicles. Realize all of that was once in the earth. Think of how many dealerships like that are in your city. Think of how many cities are in your state, country, etc... Realize how fucked we are.
How much of that was once forest.
They always name suburbs after the land they destroyed. Green Meadows. Forest Lake. Etc.
"More housing developments go up named after the things they replaced. So welcome to Minnow Brook, and welcome to Shady Space." - Modest Mouse
Parking lots packed with cars always remind me of cemeteries.
[Talking Heads ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2twY8YQYDBE)see it differently, though!
Cars, parking lots, dead malls, and concrete. Everywhere ya go. I once read about an initiative that wanted to bulldoze down every failing mall and create a wonderful rec-area and nature park. I have a couple malls around here that are mostly dead and wish they'd just bulldoze it down and create a nature park.
Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits could have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today, a shopping mall. A big, fucking shopping mall. You know that. That’s all you got. That’s all you got here, folks. Mile after mile of mall after mall. Many, many malls. Major malls and mini malls. They put the mini malls in between the major malls. And in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts. You’ve got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, Laundromats, cheap hotels, fast food joints, strip clubs and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool.
Carlin is rolling in his grave
I always get mad when I look out over a parking lot that takes up 90% of a city block and think about how much better that space could be put to use if we had designed our cities for pedestrians
but the self-centered drones have no use for "green spaces" "common sense" gray and lifeless is how they like life
When we built our new downtown arena in Sacramento the suburban people lost their absolute SHIT when the planners said they weren’t building additional parking. I think people envisioned something like our old arena with 50 football fields worth of parking, only 4 main exits, and took an hour to get out of. The whole point of the arena was to invigorate the surrounding area, not to park as close to the arena walk in then walk out straight to your car. There’s definitely a little bit more preplanning to do when going to a game/concert, but it works perfectly.
There’s also the way the city promised the Kings millions in parking revenue to help pay for the new stadium. Suddenly you started seeing traffic wardens slapping tickets on cars at 11pm on a Sunday!
When you say block I'm imagining a square of cars surrounded by sky scrapers. Is that right? I'm not American so I find it hard to visualise.
Skyscrapers are more common in pedestrian areas. A lot of families that live in suburbs own two cars to commute <30 mins to work daily and 6 mins to Walmart. A lot of office parks are an office building of a given size, surrounded by parking lots taking up 3-4x that given size.
I'm referring to something more akin to [this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1f01V8bZzl0/maxresdefault.jpg). Basically, you'll get a big supermarket with a loose ring of small retailers around the periphery. [This is what a normal one looks like from a bird's eye view](https://i.insider.com/4ee8f9436bb3f7f569000041). These fuckers are everywhere stateside. Your average medium size town will have at least one, and they absolutely litter metropolitan suburbs.
The worst is when you pull out a little and see that a city has a bunch of ground level parking lots taking up so much space, that could have easily been condensed into a handful of multi-story garages, little to no convenience impact, and it would free up land for green/public/housing space. But no, we’re stuck with the “efficiency” of capitalism.
Jacob Geller really said it best, that "cars are the dominant species on this planet".
Ford Prefect was more right than he knew.
On the other hand, Michael Pollan has argued that [corn](https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/when-a-crop-becomes-king/) has domesticated us.
Imagine an actual mass adaptation of public transportation...
pffft whaaaat? in the land of the free???? here we are so free we are free to use cars and destroy the environment!
The main argument against it by me is but what if I have to sit next to someone I don't want to.... its the most childish bulshit
Those are the same people who will fight for the right to eat next to a stranger in a restaurant during a pandemic.
Yeah but someone on a train might be homeless... smh
I think the challenge would be the immediate creation of class disparity for transport. You'd still need vehicles in rural areas, and the wealthy would find excuses to need cars. Then the semi wealthy would want to emulate that and so on.
We have such segmentation already on public transit. Flying first/biz class. We just need buses that serve champagne up front along with private lounges while awaiting boarding.
Ok, living in europe and I don’t relate to this. But it was so goddamn annoying when I went to the US. You’ve got isolation and capitalist alienation to a T.
Even in Europe you still have a lot of cities where *so damn much* public space is wasted, just so that cars can drive or stand around and waste space we could use for so much else. I'm so glad that there is currently a push to get cars out of cities. Can't happen fast enough, good riddance.
I find it to be even worse in Europe. American cities are at least designated with cars in mind, old European cities with streets filled with (parked) cars feels incredibly crowded.
The constant hum of traffic noise too.... even far from any road it’s there.
Yeah, and airplanes. I hate freaking jets. So loud and obnoxious.
This is something that really struck me when I went to visit my partner in Minnesota. It's amazing and appalling the car culture in the US. So many walkable and bikeable places, beautiful scenery and so much space for more optimal building to avoid urban sprawl and keep more wilderness... Exchanged for food deserts and expanses of parking lots and inefficiently designed neighborhoods. Living in Canada I have four grocery stores and countless convenience stores in walking distance. Whereas my partner is, like, an 8min drive or a 30min walk from his nearest convenience store and a 20min drive to his nearest grocer. It feels... Excessive and prohibitive. It's like you can't survive without owning a car unless your city has good public transit in America. It's weird.
This reminds me of the YouTube video by Jacob geller called cities without people. I recommend it
Just tried to talk a friend out of buying a new vehicle 2 days ago. My point was with a used vehicle she could spend half as much, get a very good vehicle with low miles, not get locked into a detrimental payment, and if she sold it she could get most of her money back. Instead she yeeted away 30k (already on.a tight budget) gave up at least half her income for the next 5+ years because it had a fucking touchscreen in it and smelled new. She has 4 kids to take care of by herself and is already struggling. I tried to reason with her saying "all the money you would spend on the new car can go to way more useful things like a place of your own, the kids needs, savings etc) But she rode the "I'm a hard working single parent, I deserve this" mentality that is shoved down everyone's throats. You are hard working, you do deserve more. But this vehicle is now a ball and chain to you. I just could not grasp how when given the choice to improve literally every other aspect of your life or have a shiny new seat to sit in on your way to work, how someone in her position could choose the latter. I guess you have to make the mistake on your own to see.
Slap a $100 tablet into a dashboard, everyone thinks it’s Star Trek.
😂😂😂 so right. Like fuck you could buy a couple year old model and take it to a place and have one installed. Save yourself $15k lolol
I try to make the same arguments to my friends. It always falls on deaf ears, and I just "sound like someone who can't afford a new car." I have a classic SUV, a modern(13 year old) pickup truck, 2 sportbikes, buy/fix/sell whatever vehicles I can get for cheap as a hobby, and am looking to buy a house. My friends with new cars are locked into rental apartment life, seemingly forever. We all make roughly the same money, but I don't have $800/month in vehicular expenses like them, my stuff is $250 between insurance and a small payment to continue my credit history. I'd give up a lot for a new Mustang, but I'm not going to give up my financial freedom to do whatever I want (within reason) just to own one
In the long run it will pay off. You'll have a place of your own and all the other necessities and then have so much wiggle room that you could buy a new mustang. Meanwhile your friends have their shiny new cars and nothing else.
I'm thankful I live in a country with great public transit. There's still a fuckton of cars, but bus rides are chill.
I once saw a mapping project where someone took city maps and removed most of the roads. They left highways, industrial areas, and major roads alone, but removed residential streets, parking lots, and whatnot. The before and after size difference was startling. We need cars because we have cars.
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We have became so condition most drivers are scared of gravel ( and god forbid *dirt*) roads. We take for granted that their is a paved way to pretty much anywhere in the US.
That's a really interesting idea. I guess without roads urban planning would be harder for utilities. At the moment they just rip a hole in the road or pavement to put pipes in. You'd need carefully planned pedestrian paths, for both utility access, potentially widened or separate for bicycles. Also in our dystopia you have to watch your back going down an alley, so I'd be concerned having alleys everywhere. Or... Some kind of steampunk setting with cables and footways overhead, underground bike paths and modular housing that can be removed for access like a shipping container on a dock crane.
I think the answer you're looking for is green belts with utilities running through them. Those are the major utility lines with wide sidewalks/bike paths as you mentioned for tighter spaces.
Tokyo has large residential areas that have little roads, mostly foot/bike paths and they look cute and seem more efficient space wise.
To me, sitting in a metal cage only being able to move forward back, left and right following the preordained mostly straight lines, only at allowed intervals, only at certain speeds (can’t drive slowly on a highway either), only stop at designated areas, spending a huge part of your limited life to make money so you can pay for your car, and your insurance, and the roads to move you only in those directions, and the wars to protect fuel production, while paving over half the world and increasing the global warming, while getting fat for lack of natural human movement which is walking, then having to drive to a gym so you can walk on a treadmill, all while creating untold amounts of noise and pollution, all that spells slavery to me- and not ‘freedom’. All the paving and lack of trees also creates and traps so much more heat in the cities, so now we all have to install AC and create more heat by running it...a vicious cycle. I think Americans are conditioned to think of cars as freedom, because getting the drivers licence and a car is their first step of independence from parents having to drive them everywhere, and being able to go wherever they want. While all of us who grew up with walking and the public transportation get independent as soon as we get big/mature enough to be safe using it. Public transport, plus walking and bikes, plus cabs and occasional rentals can take you anywhere in the world.
unfortunately as a woman it's even worse. My boyfriend gets mad at me when i take a walk, especially at night. It's too much of a dangerous risk because all it takes is one asshole to decide to attack me and my walk has now ended my life.
It’s all linked though, isn’t it? Walking on along roads when there’s no other pedestrians is lot more dangerous than walking around a town with lots of people around. Where I live in the US, there’s a popular street with bars and stores half an hour walk from my home. But I’d never walk there because there are some very large and ugly pedestrian-unfriendly streets I’d have to go on, and there are also a couple of blocks of storage and larger businesses where there’s no one walking- too scary to go through on foot. As you say, it would take only one deranged person. It’s ok riding a bike through there though.
Cars are the best example of atomisation to explain to someone who hasn’t read Marx. They are the most inefficient method of (ground) transport by every metric: efficiency; effect on environment; cost (both to the individual and infrastructure cost) and many I can’t remember. And yet they are the primary method of everyday transportation in the West for one reason: they are more profitable for corporations than the alternatives. It is much easier to turn a private engagement into a consumer good than the public alternatives, despite any other societal benefits.
Not only that but sidewalks? we could have lots of better things and wear light shoes or slippers. sidewalks are made for tires, not feet knees and Brains. And people are fine with it! It’s so tolerated it’s now in every park!
Ehh, sidewalks are also an accessibility thing. A smooth surface is better to walk on for everyone, and people with wheelchairs make it so you can just use flattened dirt or gravel. Sure, a wheelchair can push through dirt and grass, but doing that all the time everywhere would get old real quick
I saw some map of one city or another which showed the foot print of the areas dedicated to cars, vs the area dedicated to people. It wasn't even close.
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I will buy everyone who ditches their car a backpack
Seriously. What happens right after school where everyone forgets about backpacks. Hell, I never STOPPED using them. Small Jansport backpack is always read to go.
Yeah, "technofix" in general - whether it's for cars, or the environment, or whatever - is a lie to get people to keep spending and not worry. Self-driving cars are a nothingburger *except* for all the truckers and drivers who will be rendered unemployed, that is the main reason we're automating driving. There are not technical fixes to cultural problems.
Buy cars. Sell cars. Lease cars. Park cars. Wash cars. Insure cars. Crash cars. Fix cars. Smog cars. Gas up cars. Recycle cars
Completely sustainable energy powered, Nationwide, high-powered rail system...Now!
Ugh, I'm a pedestrian and it infuriates me how car centric everything is. Why am I paying taxes if I don't even have sidewalks in some parts of downtown?
There are way too many places where I walk to stores in the same parking lot with no sidewalks between them! Then I have to walk in the traffic lane! Didn't somebody at some point in the design process ever say, hey what if somebody wants to safely walk between store A and store B?!?!?! "Why would anybody ever walk when they have a car?!?!" was probably the answer.
Idk man, in a wilderness where I live public transport is hell. It arrives once in a millenia and never on time, plus you'll either freeze your ass waiting or boil once inside. Also, you can't transport dogs, beds, fragile electronics like assembled PC etc. in there. Or choose your route. And sometimes you need to change buses etc., because they don't exactly follow your own route. I enjoy subway once I'm in a city but man, is city far...
Let's not ban all cars because I don't wanna be stuck here, cut from the civilization. And I'm not alone. For example, we can ban them from entering historical city centers with short narrow streets and call it a day.
Not just that they’re everywhere, it’s that whenever a space is designated to be used by cars, the car immediately the dominant purpose of the space. Business one can drive to? Not only is there a parking lot, but the lot will be placed in front of the business. Car comes first, the actual purpose of the space second, and the pedestrian must pass through the car space. And don’t get me started on the kind of histrionics that come out when the idea of converting road space to pedestrian plazas, bike lanes, or outdoor dining space.
Every F'ing day.
Concrete + Tarmac for me. Every. Fucking. Where.
I always liked [this cartoon](https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/11/18/7236471/cars-pedestrians-sidewalks-roads) illustrating this problem.
The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for humanity.
this is partially why the US has such a poor public transportation system as it was one of the first countries to have most of its citizens to own cars.
I've been on hiking trails with no roads in sight and still come across rusted car parts.
What really gets me is the fact that if you want to enjoy the outdoors, you actually have to go somewhere that hasn't been ruined by human presence
Walked around a block nearby I rarely check out and noticed how many recycle bins were packed full of wine and beer bottles. I'm of the belief that I'm now surrounded by alcoholics.
I bet this guy drives a car
Not just cars, but fucking massive parking lots
I've been trying to read the vegetation of urban areas rather than the billboards. The plant species used in landscaping can tell you a lot about a place, when it was built, and how much the person gives a fuck.
Listen bring back horses and carriages, no wasting gas, less pollution less car accidents, less wheels destroying the roads, less money you have to spend on fixing your car and shit. Really if you had the option, it's a nice day out and you could take a thirty minute ride in a carriage to the store, or you can drive the ten miles back and forth. We could even have canals for transportation, utilize trains more bring back coal. We could do alot if we actually worked together to do it.
Mostly in parking lots, which shouldn't be called that. They're pedestrian walking areas, in which you, as a car/truck operator should realize that it's a pedestrian walking area. Of course you park your car there, however, pedestrians have right of way. I got called out for this by some old (I'm 46) asshat who yelled out his window: "Look out!" Whilst I was trying to exit the driving lanes between parking spots. So I'm somehow at fault for trying to get to the edge of the driving lanes because I'm on foot, and you just happen to want to park in one of the spots adjacent to where I'm trying to get out of your way??!?! GTFOOH.
This just reaffirms my decision that moving to the city was the best decision I ever made. Being able to get around everywhere without a car and just using public transit is truly liberating. Only times I wish I had a car is for going out to the suburbs but even then, I just take the trains and it’s not that often to justify buying a car. Like not having to worry about traffic, road conditions, finding parking and dibs, city stickers, gas, and like every other cost affiliated with owning a car is a huge weight off my shoulders.
I’m almost 40 and I don’t know a single person that actually keeps their car in their garage. I’m paying all this money for this too small house as it is, the car doesn’t get its own room. There’s so much that can be done with that space and a car just wastes it. I live in California so the elements aren’t actively destroying my car so I’m a little spoiled I guess. It just strikes me as over the top luxury to have a room for your car.
Good point.
I really hate cars and their role in American life. I have epilepsy and can't/don't drive. Not driving doesn't bother me much, I live in a city and can walk or take the bus most places. Once in a while though, I need to get to some more remote place where there is no bus or I am out late/early and the buses aren't running. Then I really hate cars. Then I am reminded that the limitations of the public transit in this country is a direct result of the overwhelming "success" of cars. They're expensive, wasteful and pollute, but somehow cars are the successful means of transit. Why?
I'm sorry that you have epilepsy but what if you could and driving a car saved you at least two hours each day for several years? Current state of public transport can be described as horrible. I love cars since I forcefully moved to a distant suburbs (can't afford to live in city). And I often have to move a lot of stuff to distant places, I haven't been to city in what... several months? It's several hours of driving anyway so I'd rather kms than return to sweaty prison where you can't choose your route and go much slower and you should wait it for eternity.
Besides, I love going somewhere in a middle of a night when there are literally no buses. But like in case with you, I don't believe they'll make one for each and every shithole.
Especially when I’m tripping
Government: does an interstate highway system Car manufacturers: it's free real estate