People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities—Until They Live in One
People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities—Until They Live in One
Removing cars from urban areas means lower carbon emissions, less air pollution, and fewer road traffic accidents. So why are residents so resistant?
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A bicycle is not good enough to transport cargo or large items and this is very important when the city is large. In a very large city, riding a bicycle is problematic. It is very easy to accidentally puncture a bicycle wheel tube and the bicycle will become a burden. A bicycle can be stolen from you more easily than a car. The bicycle does not protect you from rain and snow and is more difficult to ride on ice, mud and puddles.
A bicycle is not good enough to transport cargo or large items
Skill issue
It is very easy to accidentally puncture a bicycle wheel tube
Skill issue
A bicycle can be stolen from you more easily than a car
True, but a bike costs a fraction of a car, so it's also much less of an issue if it happens
The bicycle does not protect you from rain and snow and is more difficult to ride on ice, mud and puddles
Skill issue
True, but a bike costs a fraction of a car, so it's also much less of an issue if it happens.
I'm gonna say I disagree. The only reason a bike is easier to steal is because the cops give even less of a shit about it.
Nah, I saw some kids stealing a bike in town the other week, and they did it in a few seconds maybe 3 or 4 metres from a security guard. Smart kids, they acted in the moment I walked between them and the guard with pit crew-like efficiency - two steadying the bars, one cutting and removing the lock, and the last getting on the bike - so by the time the security guard called out they were already riding and running away. You can steal a car fast, but not that fast, and not in the middle of a crowded city centre.
The cops definitely don't give the slightest shit, but it's not the only reason.
If you urgently need to quickly take someone close to you somewhere far away, is that also a problem with skills? Especially if you need to take two people at once to the hospital or, for example, to a nightclub or to the forest outside the city for fishing and barbecue or somewhere else.
Nobody's proposing banning ambulances. You should be able to take the metro to the club. You should also be able to take it outside of the city and you can figure out the remainder of your journey from there. Reclaiming land from cars would also allow more space within cities for parks and such and decrease the need to get out of the city to escape dickheads leaning on their horns.
How would ambulances work in a car free city? They seem kind of bulky for a city built for bikes. Unless we're assuming those cities will still have huge roads to drive on?
The roads are huge because of multiple lanes in two directions with street parking on the side. An ambulance only needs one lane.
Probably need two in case multiple emergency vehicles need to be on the scene. Imagine a bombing - you need ambulances, fire trucks, police, etc. That's easy with huge car-based infrastructure but a bike-city seems complicated.
Unless you just build huge roads everywhere despite the lack of cars, which would be sad.
Fine, two. Two-lane, no parking roads are still only a third of the size of four-lane roads with parking on both sides.
Eliminating parking space for cars would be huge.
Might be able to cheat a little with the gravel shoulder, so it's "two lanes" but only if vehicles on the left and right dirve half-off the road.
what the other guy said and, to be honest, i really don't see us just destroying all of the infrastructure our predecessors built. itd be a waste not to convert, say, a city street to a light rail track or something or other.
if you need to take two people at once to the hospital
ambulance
to a nightclub or to the forest outside the city for fishing and barbecue or somewhere else.
shut up, those aren't remotely urgent. Get on your bike.
What if it turns out that all the ambulances are occupied at the most inopportune moment?
What if the wheels fell off every single car in the world at the same time? I can come up with ridiculous hypotheticals too.
What about all the ambulances that no longer have to pick up to traffic collision victims? What about the ambulances being able to transport people faster due to the roads being clear of traffic? It's not just a ridiculous hypothetical, it's one that's much more likely to happen with cars around.What if the wheels fell off every single car in the world at the same time?
What if pens got hot?
If you need to go to the hospital, you can call an ambulance that will be able to quickly and easily reach you due to there not being any car traffic. (The utterly ludicrous cost of US healthcare is its own separate problem)
Going to the countryside? Take a bus to the outskirts, or even out into the country itself, and cycle to a particular spot. Going to or from a club? Take the metro, take the bus, maybe even (depending no the strictness of 'no cars') a taxi, which you can afford on special occasions with the literally tens of thousands of dollars you'll have saved by not needing to buy, insure, repair and fuel a car.
You have to also understand that for a car-free society to even be on the table, a number of other social changes will have to have been made too. So just arguing that going without cars is impossible due to the limitations of the car-centric society that currently exists is just circular reasoning. There SHOULD be ways to do the things you've listed without using a car, and the reason there aren't is BECAUSE of cars.
What if it turns out that all the ambulances are occupied at the most inopportune moment?
What if an ambulance gets stuck in traffic? What if a road's blocked by an accident? Or because it's being repaired or relaid because of all the car traffic over it?
What if all the ambulances are occupied tending to one of the ~2,500,000 people injured in car accidents each year?
What happens more often where you live -- ambulances reach capacity or somebody gets run over and dies?
It is very easy to accidentally puncture a bicycle wheel tube and the bicycle will become a burden.
things dreamt up by people who have never made physical contact with a bicycle. what are you even talking about
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Also with the space and cost that's saved from not having cars you could have completely covered bike lanes
The car is more convenient, more comfortable and more prestigious. Almost all beautiful girls, if they have a choice between you and a guy who has a nice car, will choose the guy with the car under any pretext. They want to live comfortably and prestigiously and richly, so they will reject you and your bicycle and go to visit a guy with a good car.
Is this a bit?
In terms of?
Are you making a joke or is your pro-car argument sincerely "girls like them more than bikes"?
I'm not kidding. :-) Besides, if you think about it, there may be other reasons for choosing a car rather than a bicycle.
it's time for you to go back to reddit now
So if we banned cars, all women would stop being attracted to men?
Perhaps women will begin to be strongly attracted to horses, and not to men without a horse, but with a bicycle. Because horses have become the privilege of the rich ;-)
🤡
shut the fuck up cager
Death to America
@Hello1000 @ylai Yeah, the Dutch have solved this one already. It's called a bakfiets: https://youtu.be/rQhzEnWCgHA?si=jc9mn4E_0SYhG78q
As for cycling in the snow, here's @notjustbikes on why the Finns can happily cycle in the snow but Canadians can't: https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU?si=9OWyiLYq3kgEsfAU
Posting videos as answers to questions can be useful, but in this case it might pay to summarize.
You can buy really good bike tires for like $60 that are very unlikely to puncture. and cargo bikes exist. plus, you can still have small trucks that are designed to transport things instead of these lifted monstrosities that are only going to lead their office worker driver to throw out their back trying to clean a couch onto them.
small trucks that are designed to transport things
The optimal city transport network: people on trolleys and ebikes, cargo entering the city on trains and being "last mile"d with electric kei trucks.
Somebody ban this fuckin loser.
Your parents failed in raising you
@Hello1000 @ylai
> In a very large city, riding a bicycle is problematicI live in London and I cycle all over, all the time. Have you bumped your head?