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this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Fuck Cars
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I have an F150 with a small bed in the back, heated seats and working AC. I can drive 15-20 minutes to the big-box or local grocery store rain-or-shine and load up my truck bed so I can feel like I'm actually getting some use out of it and grab a latte from Starbucks on the way back in like an hour and a half total. I'll get home, backup into the driveway and unload into the freezer in the garage and the fridge/pantry in the kitchen. Done.
"Yes but imagine if you could walk to the grocery store and have nice things to look at! Imagine spaces that feel comfortable and inviting, small cafes on the corner and people out and about instead of just a bunch of cars."
So what am I walking for? I just want to get groceries and get home why would I deliberately take longer to do a chore? And where do I put all my stuff after checkout? They have those locks on the carts now so you can't even take them outside of the parking lot, do I like bring a duffel bag or something? What if it is raining? I'm not sure where I put that umbrella I bought 10 years ago for my vacation. And snow? Forget it, the plows push all that muddy ice up onto the sidewalk, I could never even make it out of the house.
When everything is built to only be convenient by car, of course it's going to be more convenient by car, and most people are going to use cars. That's the entire problem.
If your local grocery store was 5 minutes walk or bike away in a dense city without highways everywhere and unlimited free parking, you would walk or cycle instead.
We aren't blaming individuals here, the entire culture and built world in the US is fundamentally broken.
That's the issue though: it isn't that way and in order to convince folks that they actually want it you have to overcome my snarky roleplay. This is the attitudes of most American suburbanites. They won't want a car-free life because they can't even conceive of what that would look like, it is an entirely foreign concept
This guy has the car-brained mindset so ingrained, that it's not even crossed his mind that grocery stores could be closer than a 15 minute drive away.
And I can walk to the grocery store, buy my groceries and be back in less time than it takes for you to drive one way.
It's great.
~~I'm trying to determine if this is satire or not. I'll respond anyways if it is just to share a point of view for anybody else reading though.~~
EDIT: I just saw the username and saw you commented above. The below still stands for everything the average big truck American embodies though.
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Besides the fact you have an oversized, $30,000+ vehicle for just grocery shopping (as you say "so you get some use out of it"), the ideal walkable/bikable city will save you time plus has the added benefit of making you healthier too. The exercise you get and reduced air pollution will have a noticeable affect on health and lifespan.
As for time saving, you say you spend ~40 minutes traveling to the big box store, but a walkable city would have more stores closer to you so you could just take a short 10 minute walk or 4 minute bike ride to them.
The umbrella and bag situation is an easy fix though, just spend like $100 on raincoat, backpack, etc.; you didn't mind spending $30,000 on a truck. I know some people need a vehicle for longer travel, but that's the point people are trying to make. Having every American require a multi-thousand dollar more of transportation when $500 for a bike and equipment is just insane.
I probably should have put /s or something but it isn't necessarily sarcasm. While my above comment isn't my take, it is the mindset of most folks in the US (can't speak for Canada). It isn't like they are inconvenienced by driving cars, they think it is great. The downsides of car culture have been slowly eroding all of us from the inside like a parasite we don't know we have. Trying to convince this very realistic F150 owner that they don't need a car, and that there could theoretically exist a world in which they can walk and shop smaller and deal with the weather like the rest of the world is not going to be an easy task because it is a universe away from their current reality, worldview and identity.
My intention isn't to be all "doomer" about this, I really do hope we fix things here. But hard work isn't going to be enough and I guess that is where I'm going with this. To fix America's landscape/infrastructure we need radical revolution levels of change and there are several, imo, higher priority things to do before we even get to those items. I don't blame folks for just up and leaving if they have the means. I plan to and my life and my family's life will be better for it. Universal healthcare, free/affordable tuition, walkable living spaces that feel like home, schools that don't have to do active shooter drills, safety for LGBTQIA+ people, reasonable laws and fewer fascist neighbors: all of these things exist already in places around the world. NJB moved because he could and is shitting on the US because frankly it deserves it and maybe the shock treatment will wake up a few minds to their reality. Is he an asshole? Maybe, but he isn't wrong.
The point of walkable grocary shopping is that you don't have to get so much stuff at once. You just quickly go in on your way home get a few things ang then go home. That way you go grocery shopping more often, but it's not a trip anymore.
And that would be great, but Americans don't have even a remotely close concept of how this works. You may as well be speaking a foreign language to them because our reality is so incredibly far away from this alternative way of living.
This is very true. I lived in a big city for a couple years and I still ended up ordering a huge batch of groceries on the weekend instead of visiting a local store every other day. It's an extremely hard habit to break off.