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Cars don't belong in cities, says Top Gear's James May (www.standard.co.uk)
submitted 6 days ago by Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml to c/fuck_cars@lemmy.ml
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[-] Termight@lemmy.ml 113 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

James May added: “The thing that really bothers me is road sectarianism. Quite a few people in cars seem to be somehow offended by people riding bicycles because they’ve paid all this money for a car and think therefore they should be rewarded for it, but often they’re just not using the car very intelligently.” 👍

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 42 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I have to admit I'm a bit guilty of this, but from both sides. I bike more than I drive, and when I'm driving all cyclists are a menace and are in the way, but when I bike all drivers are reckless idiots who are trying to kill me.

[-] Thebigguy@lemmy.ml 13 points 5 days ago

The rule of the road is that any one going slower or faster than you is a menace, this applies to everyone with pedestrians being at the bottom of the food chain.

[-] OlPatchy2Eyes@slrpnk.net 6 points 4 days ago

I still think about the time I passed a bicyclist on the road, reached a red light, and saw him pass between all the cars that had just passed him to stop in front of me again. We all had to pass him again.

[-] MisterOwl@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

That's every bicyclist.

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[-] Katana314@lemmy.world 65 points 5 days ago

Never forget Top Gear’s episode racing through the center of London. Results as follows:

  1. Bicycle
  2. Boat
  3. Tube (public transit)
  4. Car

It wasn’t even really close.

[-] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 144 points 5 days ago

I know that James May was always the hippie of the group, but I'm still happy he said it.

[-] xavier666@lemm.ee 43 points 5 days ago

Captain Slow will reach the correct conclusion...after some time.

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 140 points 5 days ago

Could not be more correct. Public spaces and transit, cities need to be for the people that live there. Not for suburban commuters

[-] rippersnapper@lemm.ee 21 points 5 days ago

I just wish cycle theft wasn’t as prevalent as it is. If journalists can track down the shipping of stolen cycles, cops should be able to stop it.

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

Agreed theft is always a issue, there are ways to try and mitigate it. Proper storage, dedicated parking, lighting, cameras or security. Not all all 100% full proof though, not going to lie. Cars even get broken into when all these above listed items are in place.

Side note, I know in Europe it's common to have a secondary "beater bike" in the city, you ride your bike to the train in your local town, then grab your beater in the city train station.

[-] rippersnapper@lemm.ee 5 points 5 days ago

Trouble is when you need to keep replacing your beater bike…

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 106 points 5 days ago

He's always been the one that's not as much of a cock as the other two

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 15 points 5 days ago

What did I miss about Hammond?

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

Constantly upside down when he gets in the driver's seat

[-] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

Actually he's the right way up in the driver's seat, he just rolled the car again

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[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 121 points 6 days ago

The polar opposite to Jeremy Clarkson

[-] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 93 points 5 days ago

Factually incorrect, because there's proof May and Clarkson were both at the same pole.

[-] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

Yes, but have you ever seen them in the same roo... Oh.

[-] buzz86us@lemmy.world 22 points 5 days ago

This times 1000 any dense cities with sufficient transit should be car free.

[-] TipsyMcGee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 4 days ago

with sufficient transit

That's an unnecessary qualifier. Cities without sufficient transit should also be car free – and get sufficient transit.

[-] WaterFoul@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Some will need to be rebuilt. The entire design forces cars. You'd have to level half the city where I live to even make a start at making it transit friendly.

It's still worth it, but we need to understand this is something that will take our lifetimes. We will not see the benefit. It will be our children, or possibly their children. We're going to have to rebuild nearly everything.

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[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

If you banned private vehicle use in cities without sufficient transit, overnight such transit would, as if by magic, suddenly appear. Private bus services are a thing.

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[-] j_elgato@leminal.space 15 points 4 days ago

You all heard Captain Slow.

Hand over them keys.

Actually, that would be amazing. Unfortunately, living in a major North American city, I don't have enough wealth to be without a car.

[-] Lumbardo@reddthat.com 11 points 4 days ago

Man I really wish we weren't so entrenched in this car-centric city planning philosophy. Public transit just doesn't get it done around here compared to abroad.

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Cars need lots of space. Streets and roads need to be wide, and parking lots are needed when cars are not in use.

These factors push everything far apart. If you think of North American shopping plazas in suburban areas, they are generally large empty spaces with parking lots between stores.

If you want to cross the street or road to the Walmart or HomeDepot in the plazza accross the one you are in, you generally need to drive or walk 20 min or more, and you need to walk to a main intersection with pedestrians signals, good luck trying to cross 4-6 lanes of suburban traffic with shopping bags.

Let alone, local transit stops are located outside the plaza's at a major intersection generally with a 15min walk to the store entrance.

The urban planning is extremely inefficient and poor.

[-] j_elgato@leminal.space 4 points 4 days ago

Works fine as long as you don't mind being late. Limiting your travel times. Tripling the length of your commute. And braving a mobile-psychiatric dayroom environment in order to go anywhere..

[-] b_tr3e@feddit.org 61 points 5 days ago

Obviously TV stars are the right people to ask about city planning. Because city planners and architects have given up the concept of automotive cities as recently as 1970 and nobody has been giving a fuck since then. On of the fathers of the original idea, Le Corbusier, declared the automotive city as failed because of the sheer number of cars . The automobile revolution had, in his opinion turned into an automobile explosion and no reasonable concept could handle the volume of traffic that were far beyond the estimations the original idea was based on. Nevertheless reasonable political reactions on the total failure of dealing with permanently increasing inner city infvidual traffic are still an exception. Because Hans Wurst and Joe Moron must have their car an arm's length away from their sofas or they'll either die from exhaustion walking to the convenience store or from acute lack of beer and potato chips...

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this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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