Sigh...I own an EV and I will tell you that my reasons for buying it are less environmental and more practical. Not having to go to a gas station (charge at home) or how I literally have way more power than I need or that it's just fun to drive. You can shit on EVs, but in all reality they are a superior car if you don't get hung up on the fuel. I want to be better about the environment, but honestly, my EV is hands down my all time favorite car (and it's not a Tesla). So before you mock em, go test drive a few.
Fuck Cars
This community exists as a sister community/copycat community to the r/fuckcars subreddit.
This community exists for the following reasons:
- to raise awareness around the dangers, inefficiencies and injustice that can come from car dependence.
- to allow a place to discuss and promote more healthy transport methods and ways of living.
You can find the Matrix chat room for this community here.
Rules
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Be nice to each other. Being aggressive or inflammatory towards other users will get you banned. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that. Hate cars, hate the system, but not people. While some drivers definitely deserve some hate, most of them didn't choose car-centric life out of free will.
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No bigotry or hate. Racism, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, chauvinism, fat-shaming, body-shaming, stigmatization of people experiencing homeless or substance users, etc. are not tolerated. Don't use slurs. You can laugh at someone's fragile masculinity without associating it with their body. The correlation between car-culture and body weight is not an excuse for fat-shaming.
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Stay on-topic. Submissions should be on-topic to the externalities of car culture in urban development and communities globally. Posting about alternatives to cars and car culture is fine. Don't post literal car fucking.
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No traffic violence. Do not post depictions of traffic violence. NSFW or NSFL posts are not allowed. Gawking at crashes is not allowed. Be respectful to people who are a victim of traffic violence or otherwise traumatized by it. News articles about crashes and statistics about traffic violence are allowed. Glorifying traffic violence will get you banned.
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No reposts. Before sharing, check if your post isn't a repost. Reposts that add something new are fine. Reposts that are sharing content from somewhere else are fine too.
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No misinformation. Masks and vaccines save lives during a pandemic, climate change is real and anthropogenic - and denial of these and other established facts will get you banned. False or highly speculative titles will get your post deleted.
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No harassment. Posts that (may) cause harassment, dogpiling or brigading, intentionally or not, will be removed. Please do not post screenshots containing uncensored usernames. Actual harassment, dogpiling or brigading is a bannable offence.
Please report posts and comments that violate our rules.
A "superior car" is still a fucking car
Yeah, try living anywhere in the US outside NY, Boston, and a few other places. Most city planning outside Europe and Asia assumes a car. Unlike parts of Copenhagen, where you can literally get everything you need, unless you live in NYC (and cities like it) you have to have a car.
So yes, I would love to be able to go anywhere via public transit and I would love to not own a cat. But for most of the world it just is a pipe dream.
IMO, we need to focus on harm reduction. Cars are bad. But EVs are slightly better when public transit is non-existent. Taking an all or non position is one from privilege or life style or environment. Cars are a tool. And while expensive and an obsene waste of resources, the infrastructure and housing to have the mass of society in cities does not exist. If I lived where cars could be an option I would totally not have one.
My point is that EVS are better than ICE. They certainly have their environmental problems but on whole, they are better and safer than ICE. An all or non position is nonsense and denies the reality we live in.
I personally have nothing against the concept of a 'car'. They're the ultimate freedom¹ vehicle that appeal to the anarchist in me; in the sense that you have this mobile device that takes you pretty much anywhere at incredible speed and luxury (radio, heating, cooling, reclinable bed) that is a pinnacle of over a hundred years of engineering.
I do have an axe to grind with cities built around cars. Cities are where people come together to converse, play, trade, and live. They greatly appeal to the communist in me, where people build sustainable democratic communities that thrive on the fruits of everyone's labours. Cars compromise the safety and tranquility of this ideal, and I wish cars were just used outside of cities to get from one town or village to another. Then you go park them outside the city, and walk/cycle/tram to where you want to go in the city.
1: No I'm not a flag waving nut, nor am I american
They are better than a gas car in almost every sense. Except those giant SUV or pickup truck options. Those cars still don't have a real place in a city. But reasonably-sized electric cars are absolutely perfect for commuters that have no real option but driving.
As much as I hate cars, removing them is only possible inside cities. North America has a very large rural area(and population) that needs to be converted away from fossil fuels.
Maybe yes, but a large part of society at least in America and Europe live in cities or suburbs, where cars are just bs
I completely agree with you on that one. Unfortunately I'm one of those rural people.
I'm banking on autonomous busing in hopes that we can eventually drop to one vehicle, we already have bus service but it's only 1/hour to the nearest little town, and only 3/day to the nearest city(commuting busses @ $20 round trip per day)
We did buy an EV though for cost and environmental reasons (I live somewhere with a 99% clean grid)
North America has a large suburban population. The rural population is almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels for the near future because of infrastructure scarcity and the energy density of fossil fuels.
trains
Trains are not financially viable for rural areas.
Cars are not ecologically viable for life to continue on planet earth
That's a pretty shit argument. Humans are not ecologically viable for life to continue on planet earth at our current population, even if we remove all cars.
Yeah no, that's Malthusian shit you're arguing. It's not equivalent to degrowth
Yea no what? We are already setting population targets via immigration right now, the question is about what the target should be (and why) not whether or not to do it.
To do what? Limit immigration so that poor ppl from countries we immiserated, exploited, and put in danger of climate collapse from our overconsumption can die? Sounds like nazi shit to me
That is just not true.
Yes it is. We hunted multiple animals to extinction and poisoned vast stretches of land long before the industrial revolution, we didn't need cars to be assholes to nature.
True, but we could sustain a lot more people and also not bring animals to extinction and destroy the environment with the right policies. Blaming overpopulation is just facist propaganda.
The number of people shouting the word fascist around here is hilarious. It's not fascist to limit immigration, it's a policy employed by literally every country in the world.
Limiting migration is one thing (conservative), but blaming anything on overpopulation is another (facist)
You are right, but many people use electric cars as an excuse to delay or cancel car-related regulations in cities To the sound of "Why should the city be car-free when electric cars are quiet and don't emit fumes?!", and that's something we have to fight, because in the city there should be no (private) cars needed
What about electric buses or trolley buses? Are there also only to save the car industry?
It's not the best solution, but it's better than the internal combustion engine. Obviously bicycles and walking is the ideal solution to transportation short range, while electric or other clean energy options are the way to go for long haul trips of large groups of people and goods.
Sure they are better, but still cars