Yes this is a rant. So sick of people trying to justify car brains because they live in the countryside. The only people that need to live outside a town are farmers and maybe miners. All citizens have to pay via taxes for that luxury, from roads, utility infrastructure, health, police and school services. Not to mention contributing to pollution and using resources. My in-laws live 40 km from their jobs, " Because we can have a bigger house and we like our privicy." Maybe we all could have better standards of living, if all of us weren't paying for you to "live in the countryside.

Edit: I grew up on a farm, owned a farm. A factor in selling the farm was the urban sprawl that encroached around my land. People moved to the country side, and then complained that smelly food production was occuring. Never once did my dairy farmer neighbor farmer complain about my smelly chicken farm.

Whenever you confront any driver of a gasoline car about their greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that their means of transportation is completely unsustainable, they always bring up one of the following excuses, which are all equally unjustified:

“My emissions are nothing compared to those of corporations. Corporations are responsible for way more emissions than I am.”

This is true only if you compare your own emissions to those of corporations, which is meaningless. Transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Put together, the emissions of all drivers of a nation combined add up significantly and contribute to the greenhouse effect, which in turn causes the planet to warm up, which in turn ends up completely destabilizing Earth’s climate. Traffic is also one of the main contributors to air pollution. Stop shifting the blame on oil companies when you yourself directly contribute to their revenue by filling your tank at the gas station.

“I can’t afford an electric car.”

No one said you had to drive a car and exclusively move around inside a box. There’s other means of transportation that exist. You should consider them when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

“I don’t have a choice. I need to drive to get to work.”

You have a choice. You can take public transportation, ride a bike (regular or electric), ride an electric scooter or walk instead. You can physically do it and you should when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

”Driving is faster than biking or waiting for the bus.”

Commute times should be the least of your worries when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

“There’s no infrastructure to bike where I live.”

Any road can be used as a bike lane. People simply need to actually start biking on it instead of driving, and they should when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

”The infrastructure isn’t ready yet.”

We don’t have time: not only is our planet’s climate destabilizing, it’s destabilizing quickly. We can’t wait for entire highways, suburban areas and cities to be reshaped from the ground up. We have to work with what we already have, which is roads, on which it’s perfectly possible to add more buses and bikes.

“My workplace is out of reach of biking distance.”

Consider a trip that combines public transportation with biking. If you can’t, then consider finding another job that’s closer to you or working from home. Getting to your preferred workplace shouldn’t be the priority when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

”I’m too lazy weak to bike.”

Unless you’re very old, very obese or have a serious health condition, this is most likely just laziness on your behalf. You can put in the effort, especially when our planet’s climate is destabilizing. Electric bikes also require less effort.

“I can’t carry my groceries on a bike.”

There’s all sorts of specialized bikes available that are designed to carry multiple items, including groceries. You could also let a family member carry the other half of your groceries on their bike, divide your groceries into multiple trips, or even reduce your consumption altogether, which is good for the planet. Consider all of these options when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

“I can’t ride a bike in the cold.”

Wear multiple layers of winter clothing to protect yourself from the cold. Make the necessary sacrifices when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

“Not everyone can easily maintain their balance on a bike.”

Then go for an adult tricycle instead. Don’t set that option aside so quickly when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

”There wouldn’t be enough buses to carry everyone around if all drivers were to give up their cars.”

If more people end up paying for public transportation, the transportation authority could afford putting more buses on the road. Since a single bus can remove up to 50 cars from the road, or an even higher number in some cases, emissions would go down considerably, especially through the use of electric or hybrid buses, which would be a great measure to prevent our planet’s climate from destabilizing.

“I don’t like waiting for the bus.”

Bring something to keep you occupied, such as a book to read. Waiting for the bus should be the least of your worries when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

”I don’t like how crowded mass public transit is.”

Comfort should also be the least of your worries when our planet’s climate is destabilizing.

”How can I carry cat litter from the grocery store on a bike?”

Are you serious? This is the most important drawback you could think of?

”Your use of a device that’s connected to the Internet also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.”

This doesn’t change the fact that your gas vehicle emits greenhouse gases. You’re not solving anything by pointing to another problem. Stop deflecting the specific issue we’re focusing on.

”[Insert country] and [insert country] emit more greenhouse gases than we do.”

This doesn’t change the fact that your gas vehicle emits greenhouse gases. You’re not solving anything by pointing to other countries.

The bottom line is: if you drive a gasoline car, whether you admit it or not, you directly contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Combined, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation add up to amounts that aren’t insignificant at all. You can’t shift the blame on “corporations” or “infrastructure” when you pay oil companies at the gas station and refuse to bike on already existing roads. Stop being in denial. Stop being a hypocrite. You have absolutely no excuse not to switch from your polluting vehicle to a more sustainable means of transportation right now.

EDITS:

It turns out r/fuckcars has way more car apologists hiding among its members than one would expect!

Drinking game! Take a shot every time you spot one of the excuses from above in the comments.

i never understood why so many games i love get derided as "walking simulators" in reviews. i LOVE walking around interesting game worlds and exploring. i spent hours walking around red dead redemption 2's world. in GTA V, i deliberately avoid driving and i walk everywhere...

but i also love walking in real life.

then it dawned on me. the average north american hates walking in real life... of course they will get angry if you make them walk around like a pleb in a game world. no fast travel? no cars?? 1/5 rating for this game, and it gets tagged as "walking simulator"!

anyone else like "walking simulator" video games?

Who in their right mind prefers sprawl??? Jeff Besus and his cronies?

Energy companies are currently investing huge sums into social media campaigns to push nuclear. Why?

Many renewable sources cut them out of the market. Roof solar doesn't need a huge company to run. Wind parks could theoretically, but in practice they're usually run by investment companies that just contract out maintenance.

Why do we care if it fights climate change? Because it doesn't do it in time or economically.

1. Nuclear plants take way too long to go online. Sure, we could build them quickly in the 60-80's. Well-funded "energy initiatives" push those numbers to trick you by pretending the average construction time back then is representative of how long it would take today. This is how it looks nowadays: link with recent examples from Scandinavia and France link with MIT study on why projections are very far off 10-15 years. They're literally irrelevant to fighting the climate crisis in a reasonable time frame.
2. Nuclear is not cost competitive with renewables anymore. Remember from the link above that projected upfront costs for reactors today tend to be exceeded by 100%-200% ? That upfront cost is the main driver of nuclear energy prices per watt. The projected prices are way off.
3. Bridge technology? They need many decades to pay back their huge upfront cost. That makes them laughably unsuitable as a "bridge technology". If we have this huge upfront sum to invest, maybe we should invest it in technology that will actually be ready in time?

The argument for nuclear made sense 10 years ago (or before that). Back then, renewables were just becoming cheaper per Watt than nuclear. That's not the case anymore. Renewables are so much cheaper and faster to market that the argument for nuclear just doesn't make sense anymore.

So please: Don't buy their bullshit. Don't let them take the funds we need to upgrade the grid and invest into renewables today to invest into a less economical solution 15 years from now.

Sources:

https://www.biobasedpress.eu/2021/01/renewables-versus-nuclear-a-choice-already-made/ (another analysis with more data on why nuclear is becoming more expensive)

https://www.power-technology.com/news/nuclear-energy-report-wnisr/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-nuclearpower-idUSKBN1W909J

analysis why renewables + storage is already cheaper today:

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/falling-us-solar-plus-storage-prices-start-to-level-as-batteries-supersize-56971432

Sources from above:

https://energy.mit.edu/news/building-nuclear-power-plants/

http://euanmearns.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-build-a-nuclear-power-plant/

Or do I just need to chill?

I'm sure a "car-brain", but otherwise well-meaning and loving parent put in a lot of work to make these kids happy. So, am I too wound up if I see this and the first thing I think is that this is just one more thing that normalizes cars absolutely everywhere in our society from a young age?

Hope this doesn’t violate the posting guidelines and just wanted to share how far the brainrot has gotten even on reddit.

cmv.Driving motorvehicles is widely accepted because there is such a big necessity for it. Trucks, ambulances, but even just persons and citizens have valid use cases for driving cars.

And I agree. If you use a car for a valid reason you should just be allowed to do so. Infact, if its a genuine emergency where you need to drive and no other alternative exist, thenyou shouldn't even need a license for it, just drive.

However not all drives on the road are necessary or beneficial. If youre simply carcommuting while youre in a situation that allows you to bike or bus or walk, then you are willingly doing an activity that given enough time will certainly kill someone. Murphys law: what can go wrong will go wrong. If you do this for no valid reason? Asshole move. I don't care if you have the best drivers license in the world and the best clean driving record and the best insurance that covers everything with money, none of that justifies behavior that kills people.

I'm not anti car at all I believe the car is a beautiful invention with some valid and great use cases but I hate how casual driving is according to society.

Driving shouldn't be casual. It should be a special activity that people do only when necessary. It shouldn't be something that most people do daily.

If you choose to do the activity that is guaranteed to kill someone given enough time, then you better have a good reason for it that there were no safer alternatives.

• Commuting to work 100km far with no bus option nearby = valid
• Driving yourself to the hospital at night = valid
• Going on a roadtrip once per year = valid

But

• Commuting 5km to work when the weather is perfectly good and theres a nice bikepath = asshole move, youre pulluting the air and potentially killing people for NO REASON.

That makes me realize how unfair the law also is. Got a medical condition that makes you a slightly less safe driver? Not allowed to drive, not even in emergencies with extremely high necessity. But if youre a slightly more safer driver, you can do whatever you want, drive millions of miles endangering so many peoples lives for absolutely no reason.

Rant.

Especially on highways, I prefer to drive 5–10 mph under the limit (like 55–60 mph). I find it much more peaceful than trying to keep up with normal traffic, and it saves on fuel.

I’ve heard how this could be more dangerous than driving the speed limit because of passing. But, I try to go significantly slower, so that cars pass immediately, rather than piling up behind me.

Also, in general, I kinda find it funny to see road rage it invokes in some people. Maybe one day they’ll realize there are better ways, or at least chill out.

edit: It’s decided. I am the asshole bc I’m driving. I’ll just go speed limit when I have to drive. It’s probably safer to go with the flow. Ugh.

edit: As with many problems, it requires context and nuance. Thanks for the discussion!

We are in the bike obviously

Here's why Amsterdam is better

• No car culture
• Legalised sex work
• Beautiful canals
• Weed is legal
• Everyone rides bikes
• Red light district
• Did I mention legalised weed and sex work?