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.
My town is an older one so we really don’t have stroads, but ….
A couple years back, they repainted the lines on a major street to cut it from two lanes down to one plus turn lanes. Sure enough, it proves out: traffic is slower and calmer yet timing verifies we consistently get through noticeably faster.
Now the lines for bike lanes are fatalities waiting to happen but I guess it’s progress that they tried.
My biggest objection to “fuck cars” people is the insistence on removing parking, and otherwise restricting driving. Maybe my experience is different than most Americans, living without stroads and with functional transit., but a lot of that talk is counterproductive. I’m all for reduced parking minimums for businesses assuming there are other ways to get there but for housing is where I object. Transitioning to a world where fewer people need cars is laudable but until we get there, cars are still necessary for most of us, some of the time. Give people a place to put their cars, because they do still need them, and work on them needing their cars less and less. Anyhow that was my experience trying to live without a car. Even using transit or walking most places, in a city with functional transit, I couldn’t entirely do without. Give me a reliable place to stash my vehicle , and I’m all for trying g that experiment again.
I personally like the idea behind car sharing companies:
go to some random car 5-10 minutes away, check for damages, drive, park the car close to the destination, pay a fee, done
Conter argument would be that the driver does not own any car but uses a service
I did this in SF for several years before Uber and it was perfect. We had a motor scooter for getting around the city quickly, but usually just used public transit. On weekends we’d get a zip car and cruise the coast, and we’d get a normal rental car for Yosemite or Tahoe trips. It was the perfect setup, imho.
For sure, my experiment with going carless was before ride services like uber and before car sharing like zipcar. Would that have made the difference? I don’t know. I’m not in a position to try again any time soon but maybe in the future.