So don’t take this the wrong way, but I do like cars. I am also against car dependency. I just wanted to make this post here to start a discussion about the benefits of lower speed limits in cities and towns, investment in effective public transit and non car-centric infrastructure, and other “anti-car” policies for car people. My goal with this post is to list the benefits of these policies for car people as I see it, and to hear other opinions on this topic.
- Stroads suck. I am a car person and would rather bike on a well-designed street than drive on a stroad.
- Congestion - I like to drive. Most people I know would rather not and would take other forms of transit if there were viable alternatives. If people who just want to go from a to b had viable alternatives, roads would be free for the people who want or need to be in cars.
- Safety - I don’t want to kill pedestrians. I don’t want to wreck my car. I’m fine with driving fast on a country road where I can see for miles and know that there is nothing in front of me to hit. If I do crash, it was my fault, and it doesn’t endanger others. However, cities should have lower speed limits to keep pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers safe.
- Traffic flow - Where I live, there is a 45 mph speed limit down one of the main roads, but I rarely reach 45 during peak usage times because of traffic. Lower speeds would make traffic flow more manageable and allow car traffic through at a higher average speed.
I feel like the name “Fuck Cars” presents a false dichotomy between well thought out urban design and cars. Good urban design opposes car dependency (which I am against) not cars themselves. With that, I would like to leave you with a few questions: What role should cars play in an ideal world? How would or do you talk to car enthusiasts about this stuff? Do you hate cars or car dependency?
Also because this is fuck cars, fuck some cars. Fuck cars with shitty modified exhausts in built up areas. Fuck cars that run catless exhausts. Fuck big ass trucks and SUVs that run over children to dodge environmental regulations. Especially fuck squatted trucks. Fuck the car manufacturers who lobby to create car dependency and manufacture the child-crushing SUVs.
I hate space yielded to cars that would be better used some other way.
All those cars parked on the side of the road? Could be a bike lane. Could be outdoor seating for the restaurant. Could be benches. Fuck those cars.
Big ass parking lot? Could be something green. Could be another building. Fuck those cars.
i don’t think we should promote private car ownership. If someone needs point to point transit occasionally, we can solve that some other way. I know people that have a car because they go on trips a couple times a year. Wasteful.
If people want a car of their own, they should pay all the externalized costs.
regulating the obscene prices and agest practices of rental companies might reduce car ownership because most rental companies have restrictions on what you can do with the vehicles (no driving on the dirt roads, no using a rental car to haul 2 tons of cement, no using trucks to fel trees) where as if you own a vehicle none of these apply (or more accurately are enforced) and you can haul as much as the little cars heavily overloaded engines can manage.