227
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
227 points (93.5% liked)
Fuck Cars
9747 readers
7 users here now
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I don't think it is an oversimplification honestly. It might work out as a favorable arrangement if we're only talking about only moving around within a larger city with robust infrastructure, but the scenario of the post with a 4 hour drive speaks to the fact that this isn't the case.
For driving a fair distance your expenses will be gas, tolls, and parking generally. A long-range train ticket will likely cost more than all those combined and then on top of that you'll still likely have to pay for extended parking and/or other transportation on one side of the trip if you don't have someone you can rely on.
I don't by any means live in the middle of nowhere and the nearest train station to me is still over a two and a half hour drive. I don't enjoy it, but the infrastructure just isn't there to make this a feasible option for many people.
You're doing exactly what I spoke about, oversimplifying!
Every km you drive brings you a km closer to needing to change your oil, tires, brake pads, etc. You might only think of these expenses when you visit the mechanic, but they can be amortized out when you drive.
Every km you drive decreases the resale value of your car. You might only see this when you sell the vehicle, but that's part of the price calculation.
EDIT My original comment got cut-off. I've completed my thought there.
@n2burns
@fuck_cars @DontMindMe @Caradoc879 @InquisitiveApathy
Those are tiny factors. The vast majority of the costs of a car are fixed no matter how much or little you use it. You have to pay for it up front, license it, and insure it. Those are items you mention are not free, but they are very small costs compared to the fixed costs.
@yA3xAKQMbq
@fuck_cars @DontMindMe @Caradoc879 @n2burns @InquisitiveApathy
I have had cars that I drove twice the national average, and cars hardly driven at all. In all cases the fixed costs exceed the variable costs. I don't know where the others are getting there data from, but it doesn't match mine. Of course different driving habits, but per lifetime of the car (not km!) the fixed costs are more in my experience.
The argument was not whether fixed cost exceed the variable cost or vice versa.
The argument was that a lot of people severely underestimate the actual cost of any given trip because they only account for (a subset of) the variable costs (i.e. gas).
And it’s true. Rarely anyone does full costing when it comes to cars because „the fixed cost are there no matter how much you drive“.
@yA3xAKQMbq
@fuck_cars @DontMindMe @Caradoc879 @n2burns @InquisitiveApathy
the argument in this thread has been about if fixed vs variable costs where more. I fully agree cars are expensive no matter how you do the math, and most people underestimate it (in part by only considering gas). However I stand by my claim that once you have the car you may as well use it as the additional variable costs from all optional trips is tiny (I'm assuming that you have the car for some purpose that cannot be done by something else - towing the proverbial boat for example).