Current Events > It's kind of bizarre how US infrastructure is set up

(+) Yeah! (+)

We all need cars because everything is so spaced out, but it's so spaced out because we need so much room for parking and stroads

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There are also many highways that were built specifically to split up black neighborhoods.

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Please bring back the railway system.

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Auto sector probably did some lobbying to keep it like this.

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shame there aren't more nuclear power plants, it would speed up the turnover to electric cars a lot if there were more

the waste really isn't an issue, just sell it off to a 3rd world country for a pittance or dump it in the ocean

Mr Hangman posted...

Autonomous vehicles will change that. Owning your own car will become much rarer, and even if you do, you can tell it to park a good distance away and then come get you later.

I hope we live to see this

Also because everyone drives their car everywhere, public transport is just as slow as private transport so only poor people use it. And since only poor people use it, no one wants to use it lol

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You can always move to a city and ditch the car altogether

Thats what I did and never looked back. Few times a year I actually need/want a car I just rent one

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VigorouslySwish posted...

You can always move to a city and ditch the car altogether

Thats what I did and never looked back. Few times a year I actually need/want a car I just rent one

Many cities aren't built for pedestrian life.

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CableZL posted...

Many cities aren't built for pedestrian life.

True. There are plenty of post-automobile cities that are just massive messes of roads.

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CableZL posted...

There are also many highways that were built specifically to split up black neighborhoods.

Robert Moses sure was a piece of shit
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Njolk posted...

Also because everyone drives their car everywhere, public transport is just as slow as private transport so only poor people use it. And since only poor people use it, no one wants to use it lol

When the bus goes from my house to tacobell and then the liquor store, at 1 in the morning, then public transportation will be worthwhile.

Then you have NYC that's trying to get rid of cars by taking away all the parking for bike lanes and spots for cops to park their personal vehicles and putting tolls to go in and out of Manhattan during the day and tolls on every bridge in and out of the 5 boroughs. Meanwhile, they also want to increase the fare to use public transportation.

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Questionmarktarius posted...

When the bus goes from my house to tacobell and then the liquor store, at 1 in the morning, then public transportation will be worthwhile.

Well if there weren't massive parking lots and pointlessly long and wide roads, taco bell, your house, and the liquor store could be walkable

We've done this to ourselves it's so crazy

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Njolk posted...

Well if there weren't massive parking lots and pointlessly long and wide roads, taco bell, your house, and the liquor store could be walkable

So... like a two minute drive?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8KEoZwMRY

came across this video recently and was baffled at how horrendously designed us cities are.

apparently they love parking minimums as opposed to maximums when it comes to urban planning.

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Solution: Flying cars.

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Njolk posted...

Well if there weren't massive parking lots and pointlessly long and wide roads, taco bell, your house, and the liquor store could be walkable

We've done this to ourselves it's so crazy

Youre forgetting the fact walking takes way more time and you cant transport as much at once. That is a big problem. Youre also opening yourself up to potential theft. I dont worry about it since I am bigger than most people but its an issue.


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MrDrMan posted...

Youre forgetting the fact walking takes way more time and you cant transport as much at once. That is a big problem. Youre also opening yourself up to potential theft. I dont worry about it since I am bigger than most people but its an issue.

i mean maybe it's true of the US but i'm pretty sure the rest of the world don't need a trunk full of stuff every single time they're out buying anything.

same goes for crime... i can't imagine living in a place where i have to be worried about getting jacked for it to be a viable argument against proper city planning.

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Mr Hangman posted...

Autonomous vehicles will change that. Owning your own car will become much rarer, and even if you do, you can tell it to park a good distance away and then come get you later.

Yeah I'm looking forward to when autonomous vehicles become the norm. It's funny just how hard car insurance companies are lobbying against it though.

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SrRd_RacinG posted...

Please bring back the railway system.

railways aren't all that they're hyped up to be

they're not as fast as using the airlines, nor do they have the simple "get up and go" access of the interstates

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Public transportation is awful. There are weirdos, drug addicts, thieves, and psychopaths. I'd rather drive my car.

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Prestoff posted...

Yeah I'm looking forward to when autonomous vehicles become the norm. It's funny just how hard car insurance companies are lobbying against it though.

To be fair, we are probably two decades away from autonomous cars that are truly road ready, so I could understand why insurance companies wouldn't want to see them fielded.

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Prestoff posted...

Yeah I'm looking forward to when autonomous vehicles become the norm. It's funny just how hard car insurance companies are lobbying against it though.

Car insurance commercials are the worst thing ever so I 100% support making car insurance companies useless

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AsucaHayashi posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8KEoZwMRY

Great video.


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MrDrMan posted...

Youre forgetting the fact walking takes way more time and you cant transport as much at once. That is a big problem. Youre also opening yourself up to potential theft. I dont worry about it since I am bigger than most people but its an issue.

The more walkable a place is, the less that stuff is an issue.

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Pepys Monster posted...

Public transportation is awful. There are weirdos, drug addicts, thieves, and psychopaths. I'd rather drive my car.

But that's only because of the car system... If we didn't base our lives around cars then public transport would be faster than cars and rich people and normal people would use it. If everyone used it then there'd be more public options and it would ultimately be faster than a car trip is now...


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Njolk posted...

Also because everyone drives their car everywhere, public transport is just as slow as private transport so only poor people use it. And since only poor people use it, no one wants to use it lol

The issue with this isn't that everyone drives but that public transport doesn't have a dedicated path to travel along. Public transit gets stuck in the same traffic making it unreliable to stay on time and ultimately slower than driving your own car. That forces the mentality of only using public transport when you have no other alternative.

It does work in the US when public transit does gets its own dedicated pathway. Boston's MBTA network of light rail and heavy rail is an example of where it works and does get packed with people that use it daily as a method of transportation.

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Mr Hangman posted...

Autonomous vehicles will change that. Owning your own car will become much rarer, and even if you do, you can tell it to park a good distance away and then come get you later.

Depends on if the laws keep up with reality, which is no guaranteed thing. As it stands now, a vehicle has to have a person in the driver seat otherwise it cannot move an inch.

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AsucaHayashi posted...

i mean maybe it's true of the US but i'm pretty sure the rest of the world don't need a trunk full of stuff every single time they're out buying anything.

same goes for crime... i can't imagine living in a place where i have to be worried about getting jacked for it to be a viable argument against proper city planning.

You dont have to have a trunk full of stuff. Even a couple bags is a pain in the ass to walk around with. People also buy groceries in bulk. Going to the store for 1-2 days worth of stuff is a waste of time.


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MrDrMan posted...

People also buy groceries in bulk. Going to the store for 1-2 days worth of stuff is a waste of time.

During my time in villages in the Alps people went to the market every couple days for food

Because you could WALK TO IT. It's right there! Americans put their stores miles away to support cars for no reason

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MrDrMan posted...

Going to the store for 1-2 days worth of stuff is a waste of time.

again maybe true where you live... but here the absolute majority of people i see in small grocery or convenience stores only buy enough stuff to carry around in one single bag(and not even a full bag mind you) because it's convenient to just grab small amount of stuff when going to and from places because of proper city planning.

of course, that doesn't mean cars aren't abundant... just that they are nowhere near a necessity as you seem to make out.

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Pepys Monster posted...

Public transportation is awful. There are weirdos, drug addicts, thieves, and psychopaths. I'd rather drive my car.

Make a "luxury" bus-line running from the 'burbs and back, and maybe also burb-to-burb, with a Starbucks inside for the morning run, and a bar in the evening, and suddenly it'll be a hell of a lot more popular.

Njolk posted...

During my time in villages in the Alps people went to the market every couple days for food

Because you could WALK TO IT. It's right there! Americans put their stores miles away to support cars for no reason

Detroit actually has no major grocery chains within the city. They're all in the suburbs (Dearborn, Southfield, etc.).

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Njolk posted...

During my time in villages in the Alps people went to the market every couple days for food

Because you could WALK TO IT. It's right there! Americans put their stores miles away to support cars for no reason

A lot of European cities have smaller shops and stuff where you can get certain things. But they do not have a giant supermarket on every corner. Americans probably have more options that they can just get in their car and drive 5 or 10 min down the road to get to.

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VigorouslySwish posted...

You can always move to a city and ditch the car altogether

Thats what I did and never looked back. Few times a year I actually need/want a car I just rent one

But then you're living in the city

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VigorouslySwish posted...

You can always move to a city and ditch the car altogether

Thats what I did and never looked back. Few times a year I actually need/want a car I just rent one

. Fuck that. Coming from Chicago, why would I pay double my mortgage for nothing. I drive a challenger to work and have an f150 to carry/haul stuff. I park in my own driveway. Fuck that public transit and walking shit

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Houston posted...

A lot of European cities have smaller shops and stuff where you can get certain things. But they do not have a giant supermarket on every corner. Americans probably have more options that they can just get in their car and drive 5 or 10 min down the road to get to.

At a horrible cost. Ugly countryside and processed garbage food

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Njolk posted...

At a horrible cost. Ugly countryside and processed garbage food

There's definitely a lot of processed garbage food. But a lot of stores have really fresh, quality stuff. I guess it depends where you live.

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Njolk posted...

During my time in villages in the Alps people went to the market every couple days for food

Because you could WALK TO IT. It's right there! Americans put their stores miles away to support cars for no reason

Ive given you multiple reasons and you just ignore them. Everyone doesnt want to walk. I have a grocery store 0.3 miles away and I still drive. The one time I did walk it was hot as hell and I couldnt carry much. It was inconvenient to me.

When I drive I dont have to prepare for the weather really since I wont be outside long. Im able to get a days worth of groceries or weeks at a time.

I think public transportation should be expanded but dont act like theres no reason to have cars. It is much more convenient.

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Njolk posted...

Ugly countryside

Have you ever been to America?

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AsucaHayashi posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8KEoZwMRY

came across this video recently and was baffled at how horrendously designed us cities are.

apparently they love parking minimums as opposed to maximums when it comes to urban planning.

Is this guy not aware that people commute into all the major cities in America to work? Of course you need more parking. Sure the underground parking is a valid point, but making only one parking space per three people will make going to major cities impossible. It's already hard enough to find parking as it is.

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Parking minimums are an absolutely terrible idea, tbh. It results in never used parking spaces taking up land that could be put towards something useful.

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Maybe the better idea would be to put all those parking spaces under the Walmart.

Gamerguymass posted...

It's already hard enough to find parking as it is.

This. Only twitter and youtube "influencers" complain about too much parking.

Foppe posted...

Solution: Flying cars.

Yes let's have 9/11's once a week great idea.

Please God no.

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Njolk posted...

I hope we live to see this

Also because everyone drives their car everywhere, public transport is just as slow as private transport so only poor people use it. And since only poor people use it, no one wants to use it lol

No one wants to use public transport because it's much, much slower than using your own car. At least in Los Angeles.

With traffic, it takes me about 35-40 minutes to get from my house to my job in the morning. Public transportation takes 110-120 minutes to make the same trip.

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NoxObscuras posted...

No one wants to use public transport because it's much, much slower than using your own car. At least in Los Angeles.

With traffic, it takes me about 35-40 minutes to get from my house to my job in the morning. Public transportation takes 110-120 minutes to make the same trip.

Yes because they put public transport on the same roads they built for car culture

If they didn't have the insane amount of car roads, then they could build more efficient public transport that takes less time than your car now

If they had more efficient public transport, they wouldn't need all the space for cars. So things could be built more closely. So public transport would be EVEN faster

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