Title. Genuine question. Intended for people owning cars. That’s all.
Edit: Thank you to everyone pointing out that my comments are rude and that I was being an asshole. I lost sight of the intention of this post. I will stop replying in the same manner.
Edit 2: imma downvote those comments I guess cuz there’s no karma fuck reddit
Going to work is the difference between 15-20 minutes or 1 hour or longer with multiple bus changes.
Live in a place with shitty public transport and things being spread apart and unsafe drivers makes even bikes or motorcycles something I would not risk.
Aside from that benefit is in emergencies you can just leave right away without having to wait for someone to arrive at your destination, which I’ve had to do when I was taking care of a family member.
When you live in a place with crappy public transport no car means a loss of independence.
A common theme I’m seeing is assuming public transport is the only other transport aside from cars.
Mostly because there isn’t much bicycle infrastructure in the US.
sad. It does suck to live in the us.
Why do all people think the public transport and bicycle thing is only in the US. I have lived in Belgium and Germany and both had pretty shit public transport and no things for bicycle so. A car is a good option then
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Where I grew up, the nearest movie theatre was 45 min away, the nearest mall was 1:30 hrs away, and the airport was almost 2 hrs away. It would be impossible to not have a car there.
Well this isn’t necessarily true. Electric or regular bikes are always an option. Yes, car dependency still sucks.
Very clear where your bias lives now. No one wants to bike for an hour to work. Depending where you live too, even if you had public transport, it might add an hour or two to your commute time.
Their profile says they are 15. Maybe not really encountered the need for a reliable form of transportation. That is if they aren’t privileged to be living in a country with amazing public transport that makes cars unneeded.
Nope. I am 15, nice observation. I have lived far away from things before, where driving is the only option. We all agreed we needed to move ASAP, so we weren’t driving half an hour to school every day. So glad I’m riding my bike to school now. Public transport is relevant here, but I’m biking.
Distance isn’t the only factor. You need to consider if the place you are biking actually has proper bike lanes separate from cars to actually make it safe. I’d love to ride a motorcycle or bike, but I am not interested in risking my life with the drivers in my country.
And something you may realize is that in some countries being able to live close enough to even consider biking is for those who are in situation of financial privilege or sacrificing financially given the higher costs of rent and home ownership. Not all people live far away because they want to, but because they have to and keep getting pushed further and further out to find more affordable living conditions.
That’s fair. Cars are unfortunately the only solution in some cases. Thanks for the insight.
You need to understand this a very privileged way to think. There are a lot of people far from civilization that moving is not an option for. A lot of people can’t just uproot their lives for. What if they are farmers? They should just leave their farm?
Oh my gosh, I’m not advocating for all cars getting banned, I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clearer. Are you a farmer by chance?
Not everyone can ride a bike safely. Injuries happen. Permanent problems happen. To deal with this you need good public transport. Even in Europe this doesn’t exist unless your entire world is a large city.
I heard that bike injuries are on par with car injuries. Don’t know the source, though. Either way, biking can be safe most of the time if you do it right.
I am biased. I’ve seen too many reasons not to own a car.
So you didn’t post the question looking for legitimate answers?
That’s a cool concept actually
Maybe on the more developed end of “rural”. But rural tends to be sparse and require long distance travel. An electric bike would be better than nothing, but it is not a substitute for a car for a lot of rural areas. If you are going 30+ minutes to get to the grocery store, it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer on an e-bike, and you’re not going to have cargo capacity to do a large grocery trip, so you’re going to need to go there much more frequently. And hopefully the roads are safe for biking. And let’s hope the weather is conducive to being able to do hour long bike rides year round.
Yeah, in rural areas a reliable form of fast transportation is very important if the distance from a hospital is far. Being able to just do with an ebike or regular bike is more a luxury during times of health, but if an emergency happens you have to hope you or someone around you has an actual car.
I see where your coming from, but those problems aren’t nearly as prominent as you think they are. Weather can be compensated by casual gear. Cargo bikes can haul practically anything. Getting an electric bike also helps. There are lots of bikes out there, so you can get one optimized for you.
You also just said
Nope. I am 15, nice observation. I have lived far away from things before, where driving is the only option. We all agreed we needed to move ASAP, so we weren’t driving half an hour to school every day. So glad I’m riding my bike to school now. Public transport is relevant here, but I’m biking.
So, the issues aren’t prominent as long as you move out of a rural area?
Yes, if you live in a poorly mapped out city with car dependent infrastructure, then you’re going to need a car, sorry for the confusion.
Side comment: I just looked at your profile and saw your most recent comment regarding you realizing you came in with a close mindset and now realize that. Good on you! You’re young and learning. I totally get the general “cars bad” mindset. I wish that at least US cities and major suburbs were designed to be livable without cars. Some are, or at least some areas are, of course, but cars and car infrastructure almost always comes first.
Getting away from needing cars would be awesome and it should become a bigger goal in the US. I don’t disagree with you at all there.
Keep in mind that the US is BIG and, from an area perspective, a vast majority is rural. Out there, cars really are a necessity. Maybe there are long term solutions to reduce the dependence on cars in rural areas, but I have a hard time imagining what they are. Keep in mind that rural means that there simply isn’t the population density to support public transit because, pretty much by definition, rural areas don’t have centralized locations for people to be picked up at; small numbers of people are going long distances to a variety of places.
That said, cities and big towns are the “low hanging fruit” for reducing car reliance with by far the largest return on investment.
Edit: it’s great to be passionate and have goals. It’s great to want to reduce or eliminate reliance on cars. But, as I think you’ve learned here, you need to keep perspective on what is practical and recognize the system people are currently living in. When you revcieve new information that doesn’t fit with your view, think about it and learn. It doesn’t mean you are wrong or your overall goal is a bad one, but it’s good to understand the perspective of people you disagree with. In this example, take the reasons people give for needing a car and try to understand those reasons. Assuming that people are giving vailid reasons, try to figure out how we might be able to change things so that those people don’t need to rely on cars. Don’t tell them “just ride a bike”. In many many situations, that isn’t reasonable. Instead, try to figure out how we, as a society, can fix this over the long term.
Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time to lecture some kid online. I’d probably do the same.
Maybe look up what rural means.
Brother I live a 25 minute drive to the closest grocery store.
On a bike that’d easily be 1.5 to 2 hours each way.
To get enough groceries on a bike to last a month I’d have to make at least 8 trips, probably double that. Its 104°f today.
straight up you’re asking me to die of heat stroke
Electric bikes go pretty quick. If that’s mostly backroads, you’d probably get about the same time. If you’re hitting highway, there’s no comparison though. My 15m car commute is a 25m e-bike commute, and I don’t show up all sweaty and gross like I would on a regular bike. I can only do that about 8-9 months of the year though, the rest of the time it’s car or don’t go to work.
Thanks for doing data. I could never.
You expect someone to fucking BIKE a 2 hour car ride to an Airport? You must be off your rocker.
Renting a car is way cheaper unless you drive like every day. Edit: to be clear, no, you don’t have to use your bike and your only source of transportation.
Renting a car is definitely not cheaper than owning one. Rentals have a fixed daily cost. If you pay cash for a car, you own it and don’t incur a fixed monthly bill to pay off the car. Your costs become upkeep, insurance, and gasoline. Which, you still have to pay Gas and Insurance on a Rental too, and often maintenance if the rental is in your possession and it needs maintenance.
Where I can afford to live versus where I can afford to work, I have a commute of 1 hour and 23 minutes, or 90 miles one way. This means I have only one option for work, and work from home as often as I’m able to.
Do I like being dependent on a car? No. Is it my only option currently? Yes.
That said, I do enjoy driving, and part of that is having responsible drivers on the road. The more people that have public transportation, the better, IMO, since it means less people and less bad drivers. In my ideal world, the only people on the road would be people who just enjoy driving, but do not need it. A pipe dream for sure.
OP: Asks “genuine” question about benefits
Lemming: Gives genuine answer
OP: NO, YOU’RE WRONG. THE CORRECT ANSWER IS “THERE ARE NO BENEFITS”
Oops, I accidentally came in with a closed mindset. Sorry about that.
Honestly, I’m not good that I noticed. And clearly, so did others. It is kinda funny. I just see the need to reply to every comment in my inbox, and my brain goes into “CAR PEOPLE BAD” mode, when really, I’m mad at the way cities and neighborhoods are built. Sending good vibes with my messages, sorry if I came across as one-sided, my ego is at steak.
Freedom.
I can live in a city and work in the country. Otherwise I would be SOL.
Then there is the fun of motorcycles, scooters, and my classic just for a cruise for fun.
I have 1 SUV, 1 truck, 1 classic, 2 scooters, 1 adventure bike. They are so much fun and useful.
Get where you need to go without having to wait on public transport or an uber. Leave when you want. Pick your route. If you decide to detour in the middle of your trip, you can if you own a car, for public transport you gotta wait for the next closest stop on the preselected route. Joy that comes from driving.
These benefits are with cars and bikes alike.
When you’re cycling 10 minutes to the local shop? Sure.
Not when you’re travelling 50 miles each way.
I’m sorry, 50 miles is a pretty crazy commute. I hope things get better.
I cycle 80km all the time
Just need to carb the fuck up!
An ebike isn’t getting me to work. At least not in as timely fashion. And especially not in the snow, rain, or summer heat. Worse yet, it isn’t getting me home after being exhausted from working all day, or in the dark winter afternoons.
These aren’t as big of a problem as you’d think. At least try renting one with an open mindset to see if it is a viable option. If you mind me asking, what’s your profession?
Say you need to go work and it takes 15 minutes by car. By bike takes 30 minutes. Great, very doable if weather allows.
But wait, you need to drop off and pick up your kids for whom you could only find a daycare spot somewhere that isn’t on you way to work. The shortest distance by bike forces you through the centre where other bike and school traffic means it takes another half hour on top of your journey. By car you could take a ring road so it only adds 7 minutes. (This road exists for bikes too, but since the difference in max speed with a bike it’d take even longer)
This is not even taking shopping into consideration. Or hobbies or visiting friends and family.
I’m all for reducing car usage and I try to do so when I can. But cars do have a purpose and free up a LOT of time for you to actually live your life with your family.
That’s fair. I don’t entirely understand this all, but I guess that’s how it works. Thanks for your perspective.
Im not getting to work without one, thats for sure.
I can go anywhere at anytime without relying on the poor public transit in my city. Sometimes I just like driving around with no destination because it helps relax me and clear my head.
The benefits to a car are self-evident. Ability to go anywhere you like on the schedule you like without need for excessive advance planning.
I’m absolutely a “fuckcars” advocate, but pretending there’s NO benefits to owning one is insane. The problem isn’t the cars themselves - it’s that the REQUIREMENT of cars for basic life is AWFUL and as much as possible a car should be a special occasion, recreational use vehicle that you might use say, a few times a year for road trips, or maybe on weekends for personal exploration. The commute culture is how we get ridiculous traffic, excessive road construction, and most of the other unpleasant aspects of cars we hate in society.
But if say, 90% of the current drivers didn’t have to do ANY daily driving and could walk or take public transportation instead, only using a car, say, once a week or less exclusively at their leisure rather than as a requirement? Car ownership would be MUCH more pleasant.
To put it more simply, a world where you MUST use a car all the time to go everywhere is incredibly inconvenient.
But by the same token, a world where you CAN’T use a car EVER to go ANYWHERE is ALSO incredibly inconvenient (Yes, I know plenty of people who will disagree with this, but usually even a cursory asking of places they’ve gone and things they’ve seen will reveal they’re either cheating on the purity of their vision and getting rides somewhere, or there’s a bunch of places they’d LIKE to go that they’ve just given up on, or desperately hope will SOMEDAY become viable destinations).
The best answer lies somewhere in-between - a car as an occasionally used recreational vehicle that complements a basic foundational lifestyle of walking, bikes, and a mix of public transportation.
Thanks, I needed the reminder
If I didn’t have my pickup bed, I would have had to pay thousands of dollars to transport all I have in there. That doesn’t include the priceless memories it’s taken us to by just being able to randomly drive down a country road on a road trip. So many little know spots found just because I was able to explore new directions thousands of miles from my house thanks to my truck.
I love hiking. I’ve hiked many more miles because I was able to first kinda explore with my truck. I can go on. They might not be the best for the planet, but I’ve gotten to experience way more of it with one.
I like going places where other people don’t go, and thus almost by definition will not be connected by public transport.
Being able to just go anywhere you want. If I wanted to, I could hop in my car right now and be in the Rockies by Monday, doing an epic roadtrip. I can haul groceries and model train supplies without worry. I can pick up family members, I can go eat in the next town over, I can do all sorts of things.
Also, I have air conditioning. Even if I lived in a walkable city, Id still use my car because fuck 100+ degree heat and other bad weather.
There are lots of reasons why the necessity of owning cars (particularly in the US) is unfortunate- bad for poor people, bad for quality of life, and bad for the environment.
that being said, asking questions is bad faith (ie asking just so you can tell them you think cars suck, and that living in the US sucks) is shitty behavior. Either go take your bullshit somewhere else, or actually try to foster reasonable discussion between folks of differing perspectives. You have the power to bring people together, foster community, and inform the perspectives of others. Don’t waste that power on condescending to others for dumb shit like whether they live in a country where cars are vital to most folk’s lives just so you can feel good about yourself as though you’ve accomplished anything other than mired an important topic of discussion in more toxicity than it already was.The world has enough people being antagonist shitheads, there’s no reason you have to be one of themI conveyed my point in a way that was probably a lot more harsh than appropriate, and I’d like to recognize that OP acknowledged and apologized having engaged in a way that wasn’t entirely in good faith without meaning to
I’ve said this before, I am sorry for that. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hey, props to you for being able to hear what I and others were saying and reflect, thats genuinely an incredibly difficult thing to do when critical comments on the internet almost always read as an attack. The emotional intelligence to reflect on your behavior when criticized by multiple faceless internet accounts is genuinely worth being very proud of ❤️
For my part, definitely could have conveyed my feelings less harshly, which is perhaps especially important when the person you’re speaking to will be hearing many many voices all at once and you’re just one of them. I let my frustration dictate how I conveyed my perspective and I’d like to apologize for that
Thank you for being willing to engage with me as a human despite my critical comment- this is what makes community, what builds common ground and respect among folks of differing perspectives. You’ve contributed very admirably to it by hearing folks’ critisisms and reflecting on how you might want to engage differently
I hope you have a great day :)
OP is disingenuous and doesn’t care for any discussion or your answer. It’s just an opportunity for a nobody to belittle and dismiss on car owners.
Yea, I guess I need to work on that. I have made a few comments, though saying that car travel is required. To be clear, it’s mostly not the car drivers I’m mad at, it’s the dependent infrastructure. I’m sending good vibes with my responses.
Not dying riding a bicycle or walking down the highway at 430am to get to work everyday. I live in a small very rural area we literally don’t have public transport or bike lanes. Hopefully there will be alternatives one day but I’m not holding my breath.
In the city where I live? Coverage from rain or cold weather, plus some privacy…and not much else really. Traffic jams scare me away from seriously considering a car for daily commute if I’m being honest.
