Public transport will never recreate the freedom of car ownership.

It’s a collectivist dream not rooted in reality.

saagarjha an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I’m not going to try to convince you that you can’t control your immediate environment better in a car, but not having to deal with parking or insurance or traffic is quite freeing.

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unixhero an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yep and politicians believe they can recreate utopian Singapore wherever they are governing. Regarding eliminating car use.

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jodrellblank 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Rarely in everyday life situations do I feel as claustrophobic as being in a car in traffic in a typical road.

Can’t change direction (one lane no junctions), can’t change speed (vehicles in front and behind), can’t stop (flow of traffic), can’t break concentration (driving), can’t change body position (car cabin is tiny, seats and hand/feet controls are fixed, no space to stand), can’t look away for more than a moment (responsibility of driving).

And the only places to go are on the predetermined road, from a car park, to a car park, following a lot of strict prescribed rules about how.

This meme of “freedom” is brainwashing and marketing (which has been picked up as an identity thing by the right wing recently).

There’s nothing free about having to use a $20,000 vehicle to buy bread because no other options are available.

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B1FIDO 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I do not own a vehicle, and most of my life I've depended on public transit. Lately, I take Waymos or I ride scooters, or use public transit as usual.

Sometimes, for special errands, I rent a car. For example, I intended to move across town last year, so I rented a car for 3-4 days.

It was the most excruciating pain I could have. I chose a little Mitsubishi Mirage, and firstly, it was the middle of July in the Sonoran Desert, and the A/C hardly worked, so I was sweating, and the car would heat up real good in parking lots. No sun shades, dark upholstery. Also, the USB connection was flaky, so sometimes my phone didn't charge, and whether or not, it was directly exposed to the Sun and overheating.

By the second day, my legs hurt a lot. I had spent an unexpected amount of time on my feet and walking around, despite the vehicle. Do you know how big parking lots are these days?!

I tried sitting down at every opportunity. I have a running gag/dispute at my bank to see whether they will allow me to "sit down" at the "ADA/Disabled" teller window.

Driving home at night on the last night, my leg cramped up really bad. I was in such pain, I nearly pulled over because it was my accelerator/brake leg and I was going to lose control of the car.

Thankfully I was able to hold it together, and returned the car the next day, but boy I did not want such a vehicle ever again. And it was not a stick-shift; it was an automatic transmission.

Next time I'm going to be really sure that the USB and A/C work. And that my legs are super-comfortable and has cruise control.

	▲	an hour ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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itsprobablyok an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What a hilarious post.

Buddy, the world is a bigger place than the 4 square miles around your downtown studio. How do you plan on visiting without entering one of these claustrophobic compartments, be it plane, train or automobile? The fact that you think you're "free" because you can walk around a little bit...well that's as brainwashed as it gets.

	▲	SideburnsOfDoom 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		"If you think you're free in a walkable city, that's hilarious brainwashing" is a wild wild take, and you should be ashamed of it.

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cbeach an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

No one is forcing you to drive if you have these peculiar feelings about it.

	▲	SideburnsOfDoom 27 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It entirely depends on where you live. You could live in a dense urban area with abundant transport options, where owning a car is more trouble than it's worth, or in a more spread-out community where it's nigh-essential.
	▲	jodrellblank an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That’s not true, that’s your mental gymnastics to try to defend the ideology you have taken on. While there are no alternatives with similar funding and societal support to driving, car dependency forces many people to drive even for trivial things. Most car journeys are less than three miles. That’s a bonkers state of affairs for the planet and for human history. All 110 billion humans who ever lived couldn’t possibly be considered “not free” because they didn’t have cars to get to the nearest stream or nut tree. Wild animals aren’t considered to have “no freedom” because they don’t own cars.

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otabdeveloper4 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Hey! Stop right there! Do you have a license and registration for that freedom?

God I love freedom so much.