this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Fuck Cars

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

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (21 children)

While I can afford it, I intentionally have the smallest, most efficient vehicle I can possibly get away with owning while still meeting my mandatory social requirement of having a vehicle.

Due to a lack of public transportation, it is required. There’s no other practical means I can use to do the 45 minute commute to work, short of perhaps buying a motorcycle which puts me at risk due to the predominance of huge SUVs. I’ve considered an E bike, but we don’t even have sidewalks on this route.

I just can’t swallow investing in something that either sits outside or sits in traffic. I don’t use half of what that little four banger is capable of.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I always wondered that. Like why have 400 hpwr if there is no opportunity to use it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Fast cars are fun to drive (if you are blissfully ignorant of how dangerous speeding is), but knowing what I know now, it is scary how easy it is to drive a fast car recklessly. I don't have a source at hand, but I'd bet money that high HP cars kill children and pedestrians at higher rates than small eco cars do.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

And trucks are just fast cars with worse handling and braking, and worse outcomes for bystanders in accidents.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As someone who has a big guilty pleasure for sports/performance cars and racing in general, this comic actually explains really well how I'm able to reconcile that with my dislike of car-centric infrastructure and wishing for better public transportation: without other means for getting around cities for people who don't care much about cars (i.e. most people), everyone will be forced to use cars for basic transport, meaning really clogged highways and traffic jams that directly affect you and your fancy sports car's enjoyment.

Conversely, if infrastructure was more accommodating for bikes, trains and buses to make them more viable, most people would use them, leaving the streets and highways freer for you to have fun driving your sports car the way it was meant to, instead of being stuck in traffic jams most of the time.

I just wish most people who are into cars realized this, instead of raving about how "they want to take away our cars!" and fellating Andrew Tate and other shitheads.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Why aren't sport cars rented instead of sold? Only place you can really use them is the race track.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Lots of racetracks sell packages like this, pay $$ to take out a certain car or groups of cars. But for lots of people it's just as much about the tuning/improving of their own car as it is about the driving.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Au contraire, my Fuck Cars fellow. A sports car's agile handling and peppy acceleration are enjoyable even at street legal speeds. They are of course most enjoyable when driven nearer to the limits at a track, but most stock "sports cars" require some modifications to be reliably driven under such intense conditions.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I feel like a more accurate (though much less catchy) name for this community would be !fuckcarcentricsociety. Cars are awesome! They're fun to drive, feats of engineering, and in the right conditions like a rollercoaster without tracks. They just fucking suck when they're practically required to live. I'm as big a proponent for public transit, you shouldn't need a car to get to your job or grocery store, but you can't look at something like F1 and say that's not exhilarating.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

Something that NotJustBikes brings up in one of their videos is that the Netherlands' incredibly bike- and public transit-oriented infrastructure makes driving a car (for those who want or need it) much more pleasant as well.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (16 children)

but you can’t look at something like F1 and say that’s not exhilarating.

strong disagree. perhaps in the 60s and 70s - before we understood that ICE was spewing carbon dioxide and ruining the ecosystem sure.

Today? F1 is a fucking travesty - rich assholes burning crazy amounts of fuel to speed around in circles taking more from future generations every fucking lap.

If it were all electric powered by renewable resources harvested nearby I'd have less of an issue, but anything combusting is a giant middle finger to your own children. "Sorry skippy, even we knew, we still didn't give a fuck to stop the silly games."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (17 children)

Today? F1 is a fucking travesty - rich assholes burning crazy amounts of fuel to speed around in circles taking more from future generations every fucking lap.

While I don't disagree that spectating races is boring, the amount of CO2 those put out pale in comparison to commutator traffic or the container ships running bunker fuel. We could have EV races and if each manufacturer entered their base models, could help with adoption. We could also make the ICE races run biogas(methane from antibiotic digesters) or biodiesel(tractor pulls could easily adopt that with only a small lowering of performance that all the tractors would share).

but anything combusting is a giant middle finger to your own children.

All consumption is.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's not even car centric in the US or you would have way more roundabouts instead of traffic lights.

I don't know what the US is, but it's shitty for everyone, including cars. The difference is, that cars are comfortable to sit in, but the actual driving is a nightmare compared to Europe. (And walking half a mile in the summer sun from the car to the stadium on a concrete parking lot should be attributed to car centric infrastructure too).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

That's simply the paradox of car-centric design: It also sucks for cars. The only way to actually make driving better is to provide viable alternatives.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Alternative opinion:
Car companies should stop making normal cars and instead only make hardcore vehicles. I'm talking race cars that are challenging and uncomfortable to drive.
manual only, aggressive clutches, loud gears, stiff suspension, non-adjustable seat, no heat, no ac, no radio, etc.

Then while they're making this change we expand the shit out of mass transport and infrastructure!

I can assure you that nobody wants to daily drive my race car. lol

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (12 children)

I want all of those things. I can assure you, I want to drive a V8 loud as fuck, manual thick clutched, wide tired, non AC, non radio, rear wheel drive, fucking street menace of a vehicle.

But I also want an absolute rehaul of our infrastructure to include high speed rail for the entire country, and comprehensive pricing that is subsidized by the government with my tax money and provided for free if I need it.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (11 children)

As someone whose only car is a Honda S2000... yeah kinda.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The groceries in the passenger seat are a nice touch, because of course there's gonna be no trunk space.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Instead of a macho man forging their destiny, it is a woman, given that it is the 70s, likely a housewife, coming home from grocery shopping.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How I felt last week in my busted up 350k miles shitbox when there was a Lamborghini and Ferrari beside me crawling through traffic. Even once we were out of gridlock their average speed was probably the exact same as mine. My car costs probably 500 dollars and there's cost literally a 1000 times more than that. Made me feel good. Also made me feel like ramming them just because

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

As it turns out, road speed is limited by laws, safety and traffic, not the HP of your car engine.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I love the groceries in the front seat because there's no room anywhere else.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Even though some sort of trunk or storage could totally fit without increasing the vehicle volume.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's what I tell people. The reality of driving sucks. You might be in love with your fantasy of a 500 HP beast, but

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

meanwhile on an open mountain road on a Sunday afternoon

"Woooooo!!!!!"

Where you're driving is as important as what. You'd love to drive a Civic Type R.

In a hospital? Maybe not.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

1969 and it is still relevant.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

The slowest common denominator decides how much man you are heh

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

lol front car is Trauma B

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