1028
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] tdawg@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not disagreeing with the person above me here in the reply chain but wanted to tack onto the conversation that all of the following is historically true:

A) the lack of separation of means of travel has caused traffic issues for everyone involved as long as there have been more than one mode of travel (and those modes of travel weren't separated)

B) most people (but especially urban Americans) were opposed to cars and saw them as a blight on their city. The city was for the people, the road was for the people. This mentality is reflected in many many news articles which interviewed everyone from the average worker, to cops, to mayors.

C) that the car industry learned how to lobby against the American political system to take advantage of zoning laws and implement stricter guidelines for car centric designs such are minimum parking requirements.

Each of these things played a part in what American car infrastructure looks like today. People hated being afraid of cars, so local government was trying to separate cars from people. The car industry wanted the automobile to be the only form of transportation so it pressured the federal and state governments into passing laws which would result in this happening.

Wanted to highlight this because I feel like a lot of people think it was caused by one thing (namely GM), but life and history aren't that simple. It was a multitude of factors all overlapping with one another that were amplified by the lobbyists actions.

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I think big oil and gas pulled a few strings as well. Making people rely on cars also meant making them rely on gas.

Unfortnately cities were in a sense sold out to these companies with promises of prosperity brought by the automobile but instead recieved crippling debt trying to support the automobiles and their roadways.

this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
1028 points (95.0% liked)

Fuck Cars

9663 readers
351 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS