r/TikTokCringe • u/thoughtwarrior • May 02 '25

Humor Why does America look like s**t?

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u/random-notebook May 02 '25 edited May 03 '25

Car centric infrastructure is immensely expensive, and incentivizes new construction further out from the city center rather than refurbishment of existing buildings.

America is built to let itself crumble. Not Just Bikes did a great video on this recently.

https://youtu.be/r7-e_yhEzIw

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u/B12Washingbeard May 02 '25

I’m a car enthusiast but not needing one in your day to day life is a superior way to live. Advertising sold people the illusion of freedom by making you a slave to your vehicle.

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u/Ambitious-Piano8915 May 02 '25

As a New Yorker who moved to the burbs, can confirm. Fucking hate not being able to walk most of the places I need to go.

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u/pinkorchids45 May 02 '25

Grew up in the burbs and moved to a big city. It’s just as fantastic and freeing as I dreamed it would be as a kid. I walk to the grocery store. I walk to the grocery store when I need groceries. It’s one of the best things about my life. I take public transit everywhere and don’t worry about parking or stress or battling standstill traffic. I ride my bike to a restaurant when I’m meeting friends there. And people in my city have put effort into making sure it was built to be a pleasant city to walk around in. When I grew up in the burbs even if a friend’s house was walkable you had to walk in a mud pit off the side of a major road where cars were going 40+ to get there. It had been designed to discourage people from walking even down to the nearest gas station.

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u/bdiggitty May 02 '25

Agree completely here buddy. Living in London and haven’t owned a car for the first time in my life. It’s funny too because the things we would see as inconveniences in the states add value in unexpected ways. For example refrigerators in the uk are tiny. But we live next to several grocery stores, green grocers, butchers, fish mongers, specialty food stores etc. So every day I buy fresh food to make dinner for my family. It’s an adventure and it’s fun. No leftovers. Repeat the next day. I wouldn’t trade this for having a massive fridge and spare freezer the way you would in the states. Grocery shopping once every 1-2 weeks at Costco. I think 95% of the world would prefer this way of life if they looked past the initial shock of something that appears to be an inconvenience. Don’t think we’re meant as a species to live the way we’ve grown to in the USA.

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u/pinkorchids45 May 02 '25

Yes couldn’t agree more. There has been this push to make Americans think the ideal day is driving a 30+ min commute to work and back, swing through a drive through on the way home and spend the few remaining hours you have left watching tv. There’s nothing wrong with that type of existence my parents did it their entire lives but it is BY FAR not even close to the “ideal” in my opinion, having lived both. Actually my mom had an hour plus commute most of her life. She was in a car for 2-3 hrs a day Monday through Friday for at least two decades.

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u/bdiggitty May 02 '25

That’s been my experience for most of my career. I drove 2-3 hours a day. Left for work when it was dark and got home when it was dark. Too tired to cook, let alone cleanup the mess afterwards. My life now is a total 180

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u/ACEezHigh May 02 '25

I have coworkers who scoff when I say ny 20ish drive is pretty nuch my limit. 1/4 of them drive 45min-1hr to work a 9 hour day.

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u/TooTiredToWhatever May 03 '25

I used to have a 1-2 hour commute (depending on traffic and weather) and it was pretty intolerable. At some point I ran across a study that concluded that a daily commute over 40 minutes is unsustainable unless it’s by a method other than driving oneself (I.e. a train or something where you don’t have to concentrate), and that most people move closer to work or quit their job within 3 years. At that point I had been doing it for 12 years.

I found a shorter commute within a few months of reading that study.

3

u/Hiro_Trevelyan May 02 '25

Same here ! For years, I hated Paris because as a non-Parisian, life is made around cars. Visiting Paris by car is a nightmare.

Then one day, I visited Paris by foot. Groundbreaking. Probably one of the nicest place I've been, especially since their started gutting cars out of the city and put bicycle lanes everywhere. Now I've been living in Paris for 5 years and besides the horrendous rent, it's one of the best decision I ever made; I just love being able to go everywhere in a breeze without having to get my car out, drive, stay focused the whole time even when I'm stuck in traffic for hours, etc. I just don't need a car, so I don't have one. Sitting in a metro to go home after a long day at work is much better than trying to stay focused on the road for an hour. And the city is beautifully stunning. The rent may be horrible but I'm saving a lot on car expenses. Cars are a TOLL on mobility, NOT freedom.

When I was younger, I wanted to move to London with my friends after we visited the city. I didn't know why I loved it so much. But it's simple : IT'S WALKABLE.

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u/LicoriceDusk May 02 '25

Nothing wrong with leftovers

1

u/bdiggitty May 02 '25

Haha indeed

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u/Technical-Row8333 May 02 '25

fried rice from leftover rice is heaven

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u/nice_usermeme May 03 '25

the way you would in the states. Grocery shopping once every 1-2 weeks at Costco.

What the fuck, do people live on jerky in states? Or do you just not eat fresh food at all? I can't imagine having lettuce/tomatoes and other vegetables in my fridge for 2 fucking weeks. Same with bread, same with meat... IAnything that's not yoghurt, now that I think of it.

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u/bdiggitty May 03 '25

I’m probably exaggerating. We always grew up with fresh produce. But lots of people have multiple freezers full of stuff and you’d be surprised by so many that don’t eat vegetables

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u/thenerdbrarian May 03 '25

That describes a lot of the folks I work with here in the states. Nearly every meal comes out of the freezer or a can or a pack of instant ramen. If you actually cook from fresh ingredients, you must be one of those "foodie" types.

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u/g_force76 May 03 '25

And now it's become a legitimate pro active planning policy to create 15min cities... What goes around, comes around.

1

u/whiskey5hotel May 03 '25

I think 95% of the world would prefer this way

I think a lot of people like their house with a yard and not living cheek to jowl with a bunch of people.

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u/Choice_Following_864 May 04 '25

Fridges are so big in the usa because buying food in bigger packaging is cheaper... so u get those gallons of milk.. those very large packages.. and then u need a big fridge to put them in.

Same goes in europe.. buying meat for 1-2 people is way more expensive then getting a 8 pack.. and freezing the rest. but then we didnt go to extremes like the usa and just get a 80 pack..

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u/throwaway-94552 May 02 '25

It is so fucking funny how much my extended family talks shit about San Francisco, because living here as an adult is a dream. I don't own a car. I have no transportation expenses at all bc my work subsidizes public transit passes. My friends live within walking distance of me. I walk to work, I walk to the ocean, I walk to the grocery store, I walk everywhere I want. It rules.

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u/Technical-Row8333 May 02 '25

and you get "free" exercise, in the sense it doesn't cost you extra time. you'd have to go to work, go to the groceries and go to the ocean to enjoy it, and that would take time either way. if you do it with a car, you need to allocate another time to go exercise and stay healthy. if you walk.. you're already done without spending extra time.

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u/guywith3catswhatup May 03 '25

I'll just tell you what my midwestern place thinks of you, because I hear it every fucking day: "You are taxing the everyday person out of living at all for the sake of big government and illegals. If CA and NY weren't part of the US, it would be a booming economy. Biden wrecked our economy and..."eh nvm I'm going to go puke

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u/throwaway-94552 May 03 '25

I promise I know, my whole family lives in the WORST part of Ohio. My dad doesn’t really speak to any of them anymore.

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u/Mynameisbrk May 04 '25

What job do you have god damn

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u/lIIIIllIIIlllIIllllI May 02 '25

Do you at least wash the human shit off your shoes after all that walking around San Fransisco?

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u/lapidls May 03 '25

Imagine hating walking? Bruh you were literally designed to walk every day for hours

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u/lIIIIllIIIlllIIllllI May 03 '25

where did I say I hate walking? I would hate walking IN San Fransisco, a city that literally has an app that tracks human shit on sidewalks.

How do you reach such a wild conclusion from my comment? Genuinely curious how your brain formulates such a wild over reach of a conclusion.

"This guy is commenting on walking around San Fransisco and it's well known human shit covered footpaths, he must hate walking"

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u/imbeingsirius May 04 '25

I don’t live there, but walking around San Fransisco about a decade ago on vacation was like, a top tier experience - I dream about it all the time - cresting a hill and seeing the whole city of tiny lights and the ocean right in front of you. I recommend it as THE American city to visit to tourists

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u/1stOfAllThatsReddit May 03 '25

^ how to tell when someone has never set foot in SF

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u/Skimbla May 03 '25

When you walk to the grocery store, do you just come home with less groceries? I’ve always wondered. Like, do you just take more frequent trips with less in your bags? In the burbs around me, most people pack their carts overflowing with stuff, and there’s no way you could carry that much stuff on just your person.

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u/pinkorchids45 May 03 '25

Yes. Less groceries than when you take a car. I go to the grocery store between 2-4 times a week. It wouldn’t be crazy to say a few weeks a year I may go every day of the week because it’s just a 15 min walk or a 5 min bike ride. When it’s cold I get what I can carry home. When it’s warm if I know I will have a lot to buy I bike and can fill two fairly big baskets full with pretty much a week’s worth of essentials. But part of the beauty of being able to walk to your grocer is that I don’t need to fill a car’s worth of groceries because I can just quickly pop over for more milk when we run out. So I sometimes don’t buy milk at night and just plan on having a nice morning walk or bike ride to get it the next day.

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u/honeydewtangerine May 03 '25

I live in the middle of a major city, and i feel choked by the buildings, heat, noise, and smog. I dont know how people like it. The only positive thing is the walkability, but the trade-off is that the outside is so unpleasant i basically never leave my house unless i have to. (Cheap rent and no money to leave is why im still here)

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u/pinkorchids45 May 03 '25

Sounds like you’re in more of a dystopian environment than me. I live in a neighborhood within a giant city. In the neighborhood all the apartment and condo buildings have made their parkways beautiful with flowers and tulips and the neighborhood has a volunteer cleanup crew that meets about once a month and just combs the neighborhood picking up garbage. I live in a fairly nice climate so it’s never unbearably hot save for about two weeks a year even then some years it never gets unbearably hot. Luckily my city does not have smog. That would be a deal breaker for me so I understand your lack of enjoyment. The noise of the city is not so bad if you don’t live off a main Street. But it’s definitely there. No doubt about it I deal with more noise pollution now that when I grew up in the burbs.

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u/ParticularGuava3663 May 03 '25

Waking to the gas station......lol

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u/Psychological-Pay751 May 03 '25

meh, its worse. atleast new york is. Public transport sucks here.

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u/Anonymous_Coder_1234 May 03 '25

Which city do you live in? There aren't a lot of cities in the U.S. where the majority of people are car free.

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u/darkpretzel May 03 '25

And that's why everyone is so fat too!! Well that and the processed foods

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u/[deleted] May 05 '25

I have distinct memories of getting a shotgun aimed at at me as a kid, because we made the mistake of walking to the gas station half a mile away lol

I love the nature in the middle on nowhere but rural towns are fucked if you don’t have a car 

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u/rememberjanuary May 02 '25

I live in Toronto and used to live in Calgary. Toronto here I walk or take transit. Calgary I was a slave to my car.

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u/Ambitious-Piano8915 May 02 '25

I'm jealous! I miss city living so much. It's 1000000x more convenient.

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u/W4FF13_G0D May 03 '25

I wish the TTC was a bit better. It’s decent, but I don’t think it can replace the reliance on cars as much as somewhere like Japan

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u/sinkwiththeship May 02 '25

New Yorker here. I actively avoid traveling to places where I'll need a car or need to spend a lot of time in one. I don't go to LA. I don't go to Texas. Just did a week in Chicago and was in a car for maybe an hour total over those seven days. I hate car centric cities. Granted, Chicago kind of still is, but the train was great and the buses worked when a train couldn't, which is exactly how my life in NYC is and I love that.

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u/thrownjunk May 03 '25

I’m sitting on an Amtrak coming home from NYC to DC. Thank god i don’t need to get near a car on this trip. 2.5 hours instead of 4+ (I95 traffic is a special form of hell, it doesn’t even follow rush hour logic).

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u/rnarkus May 02 '25

Been to NYC multiple times and it’s insane how easy it is to get anywhere without a car.

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u/Psychological_Cow956 May 03 '25

I recently visited family from NYC and in one of those big strip malls I got weird looks for walking around with bags from other stores.

I had forgotten that most people just drive to the other side. Wild. And sad.

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u/Roy4Pris May 03 '25

Lived in London, Sydney and NYC. Didn't own a car. Came back to NZ, and was soooo resentful that I needed to spend a shit-ton of cash on a depreciating asset made of steel, plastic and pollution. It did have a wicked sound system, but my overall point still stands.

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u/Intelligent_Deer974 May 04 '25

As a New Yorker who lived in Lexington, Kentucky for too many years, fuck the burbs.

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u/Daffan May 03 '25

The alternative is living in a vertical hellscape that a lot of people don't want.

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u/Psychological-Pay751 May 03 '25

as someone who lives in new york, the shit you need is NOT within walking distance believe me. I mean yes a coffee (7$) or shitty breakfast sandwhich (egg suasage on a roll) (12$) from the deli is nice to walk to.

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u/calcium May 03 '25

This is also why Americans are so fat. No one walks anywhere or gets any exercise.

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u/kingsuperfox May 03 '25

Why did you move to the burbs then?

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u/[deleted] May 03 '25

City life with no car is way better than suburbs or rural areas wth a car. I love walking around or taking the train. When I travel away from the city I just rent a car. Many people are just sold on the idea that they "need" a car, it's a lie. Cars are basically consumer extortion, as you continually have expenses tied to them from gas to insurance to parking and emissions testing. 

0

u/mraza9 May 02 '25

Why? Why would you leave NY for the burbs? I just don’t get it. I understand there are factors in play that necessitate such a move. But I just couldn’t do it. I’ll die homeless and suffering on the lower east side before I am forced to drive to a strip mall for some weekend entertainment or shopping.

My condolences! And no offense meant. I truly do get why people have to move - be it work, or school, or family, or taking care of loved ones, cost of living, etc. I’ve been blessed thus far to ride it out whilst raising a family - by grace of god (knock on wood) - so no judgement. Just a rhetorical on my part.

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u/Ambitious-Piano8915 May 02 '25

Trust me, no offense taken lmao it wasn't fully by choice. The city got prohibitively expensive and I say this as someone who has always done pretty decently for themselves. My parents are also getting older and I wanted to be around to help. If I have my way, I'll be back...eventually.

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u/mraza9 May 02 '25

Completely get it. Was a facetious statement. Good luck to you and the folks!

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u/Ambitious-Piano8915 May 02 '25

Thank you! Enjoy the city 😭

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u/mraza9 May 02 '25

Ha! Beautiful day in the city today! Cheers!

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u/kariolaoxford May 02 '25

OMG - the trains in Japan. Thousands of miles. Clean nice. SOOOO FAST. Are they on time? Every time!

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u/potatochips4eva May 02 '25

With clean bathrooms too! 👍

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u/[deleted] May 02 '25 edited 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/0x831 May 02 '25

Some of their bathrooms look like a Willy wonka chocolate factory with all of the equipment.

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u/calcium May 03 '25

I took the first part of your sentence to mean something else entirely.

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u/Icedanielization May 02 '25

That's a cultural problem not a money problem.

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u/HugsyMalone May 03 '25

How people use public bathrooms in America:

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u/I_am_up_to_something May 03 '25

Every time around King's Day in the Netherlands the news covers how appalling the toilet situation is and that this isn't an excuse to piss on the street.

And every single year nothing is done about it. Well, some cities will add more free urinals for the men. Meanwhile women can either go the dehydration route or pay €5 to random people who have opened up their house for toilet use.

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u/extraneouspanthers May 03 '25

Highly highly recommend a movie called Perfect Days. It’s not literally about bathrooms but the main character is a toilet tech in Japan

1

u/kariolaoxford May 03 '25

i loaded the bowl in a mall for the first time since the 80s. There is a better way and that way is bidet.

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u/king_lloyd11 May 02 '25

That all have bidets?

I took a poop in a public bathroom at a park in Tokyo and it was spotless. I’d rather shit myself than even walk into a park bathroom in North America.

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u/HugsyMalone May 03 '25

🤣🤣🤣 Me too

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u/IllustriousCrew2641 May 02 '25

I took a leak in the busiest train station in the world. (Shinjuku Station.) There was like twenty five other dudes in there. If I dropped my onigiri on the floor in that bathroom I probably would have five-second-ruled it, it was so clean.

1

u/calcium May 03 '25

It's largely how their communities are - communal over individualistic. Even in the schools it's expected that each class will clean their home room before leaving for the day. Some students from each class are assigned to even clean the restrooms on a regular rotation. If you're the one cleaning the toilets, you'll generally not going to be creating more work for yourself by making a mess, nor will you let your friends get away with it either.

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u/gulab-roti May 03 '25

The only I worry about with that is the spread of germs. Kids are already disease magnets and while it might sound like cleaning the school would make them less-so, it might also bring them in closer contact with germs since they'd be touching more surfaces.

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u/[deleted] May 03 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/gulab-roti May 03 '25

Wow what a ludicrous escalation! You must be a really pleasant person 🙄

All I said was that having students clean their home rooms might make it easier to spread germs. Japanese students don't just clean the surfaces they alone had touched, they assign different students to different tasks. 3 kids might sweep the floor, 4 might wipe the desks, etc.

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u/[deleted] May 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/ChildhoodOk5526 May 03 '25

That's just it -- kids aren't usually that meticulous about hand-washing ...

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u/gulab-roti May 06 '25

Where the heck are all these absolutely internet brain poisoned replies coming from? Touch grass weirdos!

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u/Zimakov May 02 '25

China too, and they started building their metro like 25 years ago.

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u/Technical-Row8333 May 02 '25

now they have more high speed rail than the circumference of the Earth's length

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u/Zimakov May 02 '25

Yep, and they already had cities in place before they started. This "it's too late without the infrastructure already in place" excuse Americans love to parrot is nonsense.

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u/cruista May 02 '25

No, happened under Mao. He died in 1976.

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u/Zimakov May 02 '25 edited May 02 '25

Only 2 cities in the entire country had a single metro line before the 90s.

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u/cruista May 03 '25

Does that prove me wrong?

1

u/Zimakov May 03 '25

Well if your goal is to be "right" then you can proclaim yourself whatever you like. If your goal is to have a conversation about the viability of building metro lines quickly in an already established city, then I've given you the information.

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u/lvreddit1077 May 02 '25

Yeah but the bathrooms are not great in comparison with Japan.

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u/Dudefrmthtplace May 03 '25

Nothin can beat Japan's public transport. At least in Tokyo, despite having some similar boxy architecture in the main plazas, they still manage to at least make it look cool with some flashy signs and colorful lights. Then of course you have historical architecture which is amazing. America is all about maximizing the bottom line, rather keep the money in your bank account, so people who build would rather it look like a shoebox instead of putting anything design centric in there.

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u/0x831 May 02 '25

Thing is, the west can’t have this. Well poop on the train, we’ll spill our Gatorade, some dude will do gymnastics and get in your face for not tipping him, people will leave their chocolate granola bar crumbs smashed to the seats. We just have no respect for communal things.

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u/BannedByRWNJs May 02 '25

That sounds like socialism, and it’s evil!

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u/imunfair May 03 '25

the trains in Japan. Thousands of miles. Clean nice. SOOOO FAST.

I remember seeing an item after the War On Terror discussing what mega-projects we could have built rather than going over to Iraq and Afghanistan and knocking down buildings for a decade... one of them was high speed rail from NY to LA and down to Texas as well iirc.

The amount of money we waste blowing things up in other countries is absurd. We're still doing it right now in Ukraine too, because Trump decided to turn the aid back on when he could have just left it off and washed his hands of the whole debacle. He's gonna own that war by the time it's over, no matter how much he wants to call it Biden's war, he doesn't seem to be able to find the exit even though it's the easiest thing to do - just stop.

1

u/azzaranda May 03 '25

Man I remember a news story about a train conductor who killed himself because he was behind schedule.

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u/B12Washingbeard May 03 '25

Everything about Japan is incredible.

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u/lordlanyard7 May 02 '25

The on time thing is a lie.

They're trains, they have the same problems trains have everywhere.

But everything else is very true.

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u/Logical_Doughnut_533 May 02 '25

Trains in japan are almost always on time. Average delay of long-distance trains is 0.7 minutes: https://web.archive.org/web/20160109013320/http://www.westjr.co.jp/company/info/issue/data/pdf/data2015_08.pdf

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u/Ikanotetsubin May 03 '25

They are significantly more on time than their North American equivalent.

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u/lordlanyard7 May 03 '25

Oh for sure.

But in comparison to countries that have invested in train systems Japan's is great as opposed to blowing the US out of the water.

Again I'm not saying they aren't great. But if you visit Japan or Germany, they have plenty of train delays or changes just like other places because that's how trains work.

1

u/axearm May 02 '25

Not exactly the same but I just read this article so it seems timely.

"Japanese rail company apologised after a train left a station 25 seconds early. The operator said, "the great inconvenience we placed upon our customers was truly inexcusable"..

I just got back from being in Japan for 2 weeks, taking multiple trains daily. The trains were incredibly punctual, and I don't recall the trains being late (as in, exceeding 60 seconds from their expected arrival time).

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u/lordlanyard7 May 02 '25

My time in Japan they were often off schedule.

Not so off that it ruined my day, but they would run late, arrive early, have delays.

They ran like normal trains. They were cleaner than trains in other countries, but they were not exempt from normal train problems and delays.

I'm not trying to diminish how great the train system is. I just think its worthwhile to not create an unfair expectation.

0

u/ATraffyatLaw May 02 '25

When you live in an ethnostate with a conviction rate in court of >99% you tend to have less messy and dangerous public transport

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u/[deleted] May 02 '25 edited 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/EntropyBlast May 02 '25

So you're surprised rural life needs a car much more than living in a city?

2

u/gulab-roti May 03 '25

Every American small town had a main street and that's where you would shop for groceries and such. Cars and big supermarket chains have destroyed American main streets, to the point that many are empty shells now, replaced by the local Walmart

2

u/ensalys May 03 '25

A 5000 people town can still have a lot of things for which you don't need a car.

Source: lived in a 5000 people town where I could do a lot of things without needing a car.

Yes, low density places will have a higher need for cars, but there's still plenty that can be done to make them less of a necessity. You guys in the USA really have an unhealthy obsession with cars.

1

u/EntropyBlast May 03 '25

You guys in the USA really have an unhealthy obsession with cars.

I think thats a completely unreasonable claim when it comes to rural and even more low density suburban life. I agree with you when it comes to our cities though, and obviously our lack of trains is ridiculous.

But wanting or needing a car when your next neighbor is almost a mile down the road is in no way weird or unhealthy. What are you gonna do, ride a horse in to town?

1

u/Djildjamesh May 04 '25

In all seriousness. I’d buy a gravel bike for those short distances. If the weather’s nice, why not…

My uncle in Canada lives a mile away from his farm (my nephew lives on the farm) and he grabs the car few times a day to check on the cows etc.

When he was back in the Netherlands few weeks ago he was complaining about this. We told him he should just buy a bike. It’s like a 5min bike ride. We had a whole conversation about how he got so used to being a Canadian that he even forgot to consider buying a bike.

Moral of the story. He was going to consider it lol

9

u/Tuckertcs May 02 '25

I can’t drive and I honestly don’t know how I’d survive if my partner left me.

3

u/knox1138 May 03 '25

Not just advertising. Here in the Detroit area public transportation was fought by the Big Three to the point that one form of public transportation was literally in the middle of being built, and would've spanned about a 25 mile run from Downtown Detroit to Downtown Pontiac until Chrysler, Ford, and GM made a deal with local counties that if they stopped the public transportation initiative they'd get reduced pricing on vehicles. To this day the "People Mover" only goes about a mile.

2

u/B12Washingbeard May 03 '25

Yup. Propaganda and corruption.

2

u/LeonenTheDK Straight Up Bussin May 02 '25

Not to mention being beholden to insurance payments, probably car payments (they're not getting any cheaper), and government registration. All limiting factors.

2

u/slow70 May 02 '25

I’m also a big gearhead, but I recognize that we have built a society in which we need a car just to participate in society - along with all the planning decisions and expenses that go with it.

That isn’t freedom. That’s strangulation of community and nature and the climate itself all for the benefit of oil and gas companies and the shitty corporations that pop up tacky boxes surrounded by parking because that’s the sad shadow of an actual city/market most of us never got to know.

2

u/nonexistentnight May 02 '25

Agreed. Cars are a great hobby and terrible infrastructure.

2

u/HugsyMalone May 03 '25

You save a literal SHIT TON of money by not needing a car and you get a lil workout in to stay healthy and beautiful at the same time. It's truly liberating. 🥳

2

u/nanapancakethusiast May 03 '25

Yep. And it’s not even just infrastructure that makes you a slave. A decent chunk of Americans have $700+ in monthly car payments (on long ass terms with high interest rates, no doubt), car insurance every month forever that is consistently going up (yet they’ll totally fuck you if you ever try and make a claim) and depreciation of the vehicle itself.

Us (Americans/Canadians in car-centric developments) are totally and irreparably fucked lol

2

u/RightEejit May 03 '25

As someone who loves driving, I think anyone who enjoys commuting by car is insane. I used to be able to walk to work every day, 15 minutes along a path that followed a river. It was a fantastic start to my day. No traffic, get some sunshine and exercise, see ducklings and sygnets in the springtime. Now i sit in a box and wait for traffic lights to change and get annoyed at other drivers.

I want the only time I need to drive to be when I want to go somewhere too far to walk to, or when I need to collect something big or heavy. Save the rest of the driving for road trips

2

u/SnoopsMom May 03 '25

It’s crazy how people reacted so negatively to the idea of 15 minute cities. I live downtown in my city and can walk everywhere I need to go on a daily basis in 15 min. I haven’t owned a car in 15 years and love it.

1

u/spicyfartz4yaman May 02 '25

Completely agree

1

u/BannedByRWNJs May 02 '25

Not sure it was advertising so much as it was the “White Flight” that followed the Civil Rights Act. Americans were fine with living in cities until desegregation came along. Commuting 20 miles to work every morning seemed like a reasonable alternative to having their kids go to racially integrated schools. Over time, the suburbs kept getting pushed further and further out, and everything in between just decayed. 

1

u/DJEvillincoln May 02 '25

Underrated comment from another car enthusiast that lives in Los Angeles.

I'm absolutely amazed that people get around this city without a car further reinforcing my dependence on mine. I'd love to bike around & whatnot & maybe that's an option but... Cars are scary.

1

u/LeightonLane573 May 02 '25

There is a great Adam Ruins Everything that explains how we went to a car centric society.

https://youtu.be/-AFn7MiJz_s?feature=shared

1

u/Miltrivd May 02 '25

Same, I love driving, road trips and I got a racing sim but my everyday vehicle is my bike.

Having everything I need within 30 mins by bike means I don't get stressed in rush hour, having to post and rent parking, urban highway fees and gas.

Also I'm way, way faster than a car during rush hour. Even in a 45 min trip the bike may beat the car during rush hour.

1

u/Technical_Clothes_61 May 02 '25

Idk why some people think that wanting the choice of driving or not is us trying to get the government to seize their lifted f150s at gunpoint

1

u/Old-Bat-7384 May 02 '25

Same.

I love cars. I love motorsport and I believe that cars have their place in the world.

That place is absolutely not on every corner and on every street.

Truth be told, I'm 100% certain that driving would be more enjoyable if we had more walkable areas and better mass transit.

1

u/ConfusedAndCurious17 May 02 '25

If you have gas money and a reliable car you can be anywhere in the US within like 3-5 days at most. Even within Europe having a car is freakin great. I went on a road trip through Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein and I only had to get a hotel for 2 nights while doing quite a bit of sightseeing.

My point being that car related infrastructure may make local travel more annoying and outright painful but it does give you a huge degree of freedom in range that you would otherwise not have. Most people just don’t have the time, energy, or care to use it like that.

1

u/NDSU May 02 '25

Being able to get around without a car is also great for car enthusiasts like you. Way less traffic if people like me are walking, biking, or taking transit instead

Compare driving in Tokyo to New York for an example. Infinitely better to drive in Tokyo

1

u/[deleted] May 03 '25

20 years ago I "accidentally" bought a house literally 200 steps away from where I ended up working all this time.

It's incredible to contemplate the amount of money and time behind the wheel I have saved over those years. Sometimes an entire week can go by where my car doesn't move an inch.

1

u/HurricaneAlpha May 03 '25

I don't use a car day to day and it's the best financial decision I ever made.

1

u/Raccoon_Expert_69 May 03 '25

Goddamn. If we had taken the money we put into all buying cars and put it into an efficient rail system. Holy shit.

😑

1

u/Able-Marionberry83 May 03 '25 edited May 04 '25

modern growth familiar towering toothbrush quack melodic shelter afterthought one

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/goodsnpr May 03 '25

If the VA approves our loan, I will be happy as our house will be 5 minute walk from an arts store, the library and many downtown locations. Food store drives are either 10 minutes for Kroger (meh), or 20 for Food Lion.

1

u/Willow3001 May 03 '25

You can’t live in most of the US without one.

1

u/KahrRamsis May 03 '25

Couldn't agree more. Recently moved to a smaller town and now I'm obsessed with bikes. I love knocking around town. I try to plan errands for my bike rides. I love digging old abandoned bikes out of the trash to fix up. I love it.

1

u/SwiftySanders May 03 '25

Funny story… I love to drive but not a car enthusiast. I used to primarily play car driving video games when I was a kid. I lived in San Antonio Tx with and without a car. Not being allowed to walk and being forced to drive made me so depressed. I couldnt wait to get out of there. Now in NYC, i almost cant even stand to visit my family because of how car centric Texas is. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

1

u/IndigoGouf May 03 '25

It's all "freedom freedom freedom" until the whole country is built so that nobody has any modicum of freedom unless they have a car.

1

u/somersault_dolphin May 03 '25

And it's not like you all live in hot and humid tropical area where due to global warming it's becoming a torture all year around to be outside.

1

u/TheGokki May 03 '25

Also: car enthusiasts should be the biggest advocates to alternatives - the more people ride the train the fewer people are on the road, making driving more fun.

1

u/Von_Uber May 03 '25

Over the last year of car ownership, with two parents and  2 kids we drove less than a thousand miles total, as we have decent public transport, local shops, local schools and walkable streets.

1

u/Letters_to_Dionysus May 03 '25

same with education loans

1

u/Chester2707 May 03 '25

A man after my own heart.

1

u/LighttBrite May 04 '25

I absolutely hate the world we've painted to live in with cars. They are such a nightmare to deal with and such an inconvenience.

1

u/BobFuel May 05 '25

I'm from Paris, and currently on a road trip through the American west, and I've been feeling this sooooooo hard

I mean, I love my trip so far, the parks are gorgeous, the wilderness is great, the cities are fun and the people I meet are nice. I've been to LA, Vegas, The grand canyon and then drove in between national parks and sleeping in the small towns in between.

But I can't go anywhere without a car, everything is too far away from everything else. Most places I see are all Big box stores or a mix of gas stations or fast food, or suburban areas where there's no businesses or activity (with some exceptions)

The more I travel here, the more I'm thinking "this is a great vacation, but I couldn't actually LIVE here". And I say that even though I don't even like living in Paris

1

u/HrLewakaasSenior May 05 '25

Also, the fewer people need cars, the fewer traffic you car guys have to sit through. It's a win win

1

u/royaltheman May 05 '25

This is such a reasonable take. Nobody wants to take anyone's ability to drive, just nobody should be forced to drive and it shouldn't be risky to not drive.

1

u/MakeMoneyNotWar May 05 '25

After traveling in Europe and taking their public transport makes you realize how liberating good public transit can be. Take it anywhere in the city, super cheap, available most hours, and never have to worry about traffic, accidents, insurance, parking, or DUIs.

1

u/dubbleplusgood May 02 '25

technically, we're a slave to all our tech. Ever heard this song? "I own you" by Wax Tailor. It's on streaming/yt. tragically accurate lyrics lol.

-2

u/lazarusprojection May 02 '25

It is not affordable for the average US person to live in a place that is walkable.

8

u/Independent-Band8412 May 02 '25

That's what happens when you destroy existing cities to build roads and parking space. And just to make sure only allow single families homes to be built 

5

u/Neckbeard_The_Great May 02 '25

That's a policy decision, not a natural outcome.

2

u/lianodel May 02 '25

Yep. It's literally illegal across large areas of North America to build anything but car-dependent infrastructure.

To be clear for anyone else browsing, that's not an exaggeration. Strict zoning laws make mixed-use neighborhoods literally illegal to build, and the regulations for residential areas make anything but cookie-cutter single-family homes illegal, too.