Poll of the Day > my primary vehicle is probably worth more than yours

(+) Yeah! (+)

Only Clench could turn "I'm a bus driver" into a flex

But it's not yours. If you had a friend that drove you everywhere in a Lamborghini, you wouldn't say that the Lamborghini was your primary vehicle.

Sure, effective public transit is worlds better than personally driving everywhere in pretty much every conceivable way for the vast majority of people (and if not necessarily on an individual level, the benefits on a societal level easily outweigh any personal issues), but this is a weird way of trying to dunk on personal cars when there are so many other issues you could point out.

Thought experiment: If someone owned a bike of their own but also used bikeshare for 90% of their trips, would you agree it would be perfectly acceptable for them to say their primary bike is the bikeshare one?

No, for the same reason. If somebody starts saying "my bike" in talking about a bikeshare bike, they're obviously wrong.

In the original example/title, "my" is not referring to ownership of the vehicle. It's pointing out who we're talking about. A secondary "my" would be needed to make it like your example, "my primary vehicle is my car/bike/whatever"

The rest of your post depends on that same misunderstanding, so I'll ignore that

It is as I don't have one.

"My primary *object*" indicates ownership of the object. "My primary *decision*" indicates ownership of the decision. "Vehicle" is an object (or class of objects), so if you talk about your primary vehicle, you are talking about your vehicle (note that the adjective can be removed without changing the fundamental semantic structure of the phrase). "Mode of transportation" is a decision, so if you talk about your primary mode of transportation, you're talking about your decision about how to get around.

Mostly, your problem is that you're using the word "vehicle" when you actually mean "mode of transportation." You don't own the vehicle. You do own the decision to use that vehicle to get around. "My primary mode of transportation is my car" is valid for communicating both the ownership of the car and the decision to use it to get around. "My primary vehicle is my car" carries the hidden third semantic piece of implying the existence of more vehicles that you own, then identifying your car as the one you use most often.

Basically, "my primary vehicle is somebody else's bus" doesn't really work at any level (except vaguely implying that you're a bus thief, I guess). Whatever logical gymnastics you manage to pull off in trying to pretend that it does work, it still doesn't work at all for attacking the sense of self-worth that anyone has attached to the value of a car that they own. "You're going to feel like I totally burned you if you interpret this awkwardly worded sentence in exactly the non-standard way that I want you to interpret it" doesn't exactly make for the most robust insult.

imagine actually typing this all out and posting it

I use the Earth to orbit the sun

Checkmate

It's not your primary vehicle though. It's not yours. It's your primary mode of transportation.

Fun fact: Any trucker who owns their own truck is at least a millionaire

That's right! If they own their own truck and use their truck for many years while never spending any of the money they earn, THEN they sell their truck at the end of all those years of working+never spending a dime and yes they'll be a millionaire! It's a really easy strat honestly I'm surprised more people don't do it.

TC is not a bus driver

huh, so he is just a passenger that claims its worth as his own...?...

Seems like it

TC is not a bus driver