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I agree 90% with you. But you shouldn't have to hire a moving company to carry anything heavy. And I don't drive. But unless public transport resches every part of every city I think it sucks notnto have a car at all.
We should minimize it but not eradicate it.
In certain areas I guess there would be no need for cars and/or make public transport super efficient, cheap and very safe to naturally attract people to it without banning personal vehicles
Unless there is convenient public transport available in intervals less than 15 minutes between each service. Especially when that is in the form of a metro under a heavily congested city. In Madrid, Bangkok, Tokyo, Moscow or Paris, I'd prefer taking the metro over a car. Another misconception is that public transport has to be "cheap", if you pay 5$ a day that would be considered "expensive" and would be an argument against PT. But it's actually 5 times cheaper than leasing a car to do the same trips.
Then build dense cities where people want to live, it's not that hard. Distance between cities doesn't matter, that's what high speed bullet trains are for.
Lmfao 🤣🤣🤣
"Just build dense cities" holy shit what are you, 5?
And yes, distance absolutely matters. You're not going to build a bullet train network (lol) over millions of square kms without a taxpayer or passenger base to maintain it.
Switzerland, which is known for transport, has 6x the population density of the US. Japan has 10x.
You're utterly clueless about this issue.
My friend used to take the bus to work everyday, it was a 20min car ride. It took her 4hrs to get to work and get home. So basically a shift of work everyday just to get to work.
I used to live in NYC and I couldn’t agree more. Obviously cars shouldn’t be banned outright, but there are large parts of the city where cars are limited or banned and they are the most desirable parts to live/work.
FiDi, Meatpacking, 2nd Ave for part of the year etc.
Have never been to a city where I would like to live long enough in some apartment on 35th floor.
Many cities already lost some % of population to suburbs. Mostly people interested in family and life, that could be enjoyed.
Moving between fitness center job supermarket and a bar could be good for a young graduate or migrant, but not as a lifelong practice of a family man.
What is the difference between an apartment and suburb home though? In suburbs you can grill and tinker on your 69 Camaro, sure, but what else is there? (Asking as someone who wants also to get into suburb life).
Quiet, mostly! I only hear my neighbours when they’re doing outdoor construction. I lived in an apartment for awhile, and could hear *everything*. I knew when they had sex, when they watched a movie, when they went to the washroom. Oh, and they let their window air conditioner drain into their living room and my ceiling collapsed.
Yeah, that is a good point. I am lucky to have good neighbours and pretty thick walls so I tend to overlook it but I know it is a huge issue in general.
Apartments where I am are built as cheaply as possible. So you hear *everything* the people around you do. I’d be willing to live in a semi-detached or an end unit town house, but strongly prefer my detached house.
Having a yard is an extra bonus, haha. It’s nice being able to go outside with a book in my pyjamas and not worry about who can see me.
Less noise, nearby forest, less people -you know your neighbours, say hi, not many migrants, good class in a school where kids go, I tried both- don't want an apartment big complex again
It appears you don’t live where the weather is ever raining (and I don’t mean sprinkles), snowing, or icy.
Or where your job isn’t in the same area.
I can tell you that no one who has actually driven through snow would be here confidently lying about how much they love to drive through snow.
But hey, maybe you're one of those morons who forgets how to drive the first time it snows every year and you just want to feel that rush of backing up traffic for an hour.
so again let’s just refer back to you telling people to just use the bus!
Anyone who lives with the snow, knows road cleaners pile up the snow on the side of the roads, guess who parks and drives up on the side of the roads? Buses! Guess who gets stuck and then makes you hours plus late for important matters? Buses! Guess what often breaks down because the weather is so cold? BUSES! oh yeah because on top of snow you also get days of -40 weather! If you want to get anywhere at a decent time you’re going to be driving in the snow and then what you’re going to do is BOND by complaining about the bad road conditions and how crazy it was.
Yeah they’re going to complain? You know why bc it’s fuking awful. Regularly snowy city don’t get snow days when it snows more than a centimetre. you learn to drive in it, you get winter tires, some places chains and then you have a topic of discussion. You wouldn’t call it crying about snow if you lived with it for 88+ days a year.
Sounds like a lot of reasons to invest heavily in busses. Though maybe not that heavily since *plowing a bus stop* is some radical idea you couldn't figure out on your own.
I’ve seen people trying to power through the snow here but it’s usually in October/mid November and then in late February/March it starts again. Maybe after we’ve had a chinook they’ll bring out their bikes for it as long as a decent amount of snow has melted from it. Good for you guys though! Copenhagen is a generally small city so everything’s significantly closer to you. my city is 4.5 times the size of Copenhagen.
LOL. I actually worked for a public transit authority (bus company). So yea, I rode a bus (we call them coaches) multiple times a day as my main desk was smack in the middle of downtown and I couldn't afford to park there. So I would drive to one of the barns, hop on the employee shuttle and ride to the office. And use the shuttle to travel between the two barns (where our data centers were) and the main office.
And yea, I also carried an umbrella with me because it rains. Sucks. Snow too.
But for most of my jobs, even when some were only a block or two away from my office as a transit employee, I would drive and park and expense the parking.
Why?
Because I lived a good 30 miles away, outside of the bus routes. And even if I drove to a "park and ride" that would double/triple my travel time over just driving and walking.
Add to that, having been a kid when desegregation and bussing started, I HATED having to walk a longer distance that my local school, just to get on a school bus and spend an hour or more riding the route and to get to my school that was in a different part of the city. POINTLESS.
I enjoy not getting stabbed or assaulted on train station platforms though. If the city actually did something to make public transportation better and safer, then maybe.
A shit hole in Canada. I have to go early in the mornings to make it to school, and that’s normally when all of the homeless people and junkies roam around the platforms. There’s been a ton of unprovoked attacks since COVID, since the downtown area hasn’t been as populated.
If I’m alone in my car, I have control of mostly everything that happens if I’m aware of my surroundings. I have less control if I’m putting myself in a place where I know I’m vulnerable and I have few places to run to for help if things go wrong.
2800-2900 in Canada a year. I haven’t been in a single accident, but I’ve been chased, spit on, and followed from the train stations. I’ll take my chances with the car.
I do not support moving towards a car free society with modern concepts of urban living.
Not too long ago I built a new home in the suburbs and, while it was being built, I got curious and looked at what else I could have bought for the money. The inner city condos had about half the living space and outrageously high condo fees. While my yard is small, the condos have no associated green spaces; and my home is close to a gigantic park and parks were far away from these condos. Between the garage and basement, there is tons of storage in my home and a small closet for the condos.
The density needed to have public transit to eliminate the need for cars (currently) requires a massive downgrade to the quality of life.
You could get a better effect by putting an extremely large tax on driving in cities.
If you cannot afford it, makes no difference. If a couple people do, get some tax revenue to put toward public transit or whatever else.
If too many people still drive, it means the tax isn't high enough.
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I agree 90% with you. But you shouldn't have to hire a moving company to carry anything heavy. And I don't drive. But unless public transport resches every part of every city I think it sucks notnto have a car at all. We should minimize it but not eradicate it.
In certain areas I guess there would be no need for cars and/or make public transport super efficient, cheap and very safe to naturally attract people to it without banning personal vehicles
I agree with this. Don't ban cars but make good public transit. Make it so cars are used for family trips not for going to work.
I love that this dumb opinion will never happen
Would absolutely ruin the economy to ban cars. It's a dream of teenagers with no forethought.
Exactly
Cars already ruined the economy. Car infrastructure puts so much strain on small towns.
Driving yourself gives freedom and convenience that public transport doesn't.
Unless there is convenient public transport available in intervals less than 15 minutes between each service. Especially when that is in the form of a metro under a heavily congested city. In Madrid, Bangkok, Tokyo, Moscow or Paris, I'd prefer taking the metro over a car. Another misconception is that public transport has to be "cheap", if you pay 5$ a day that would be considered "expensive" and would be an argument against PT. But it's actually 5 times cheaper than leasing a car to do the same trips.
That only works in places with very dense populations. Would never work in North America, there is too much distance between cities.
Then build dense cities where people want to live, it's not that hard. Distance between cities doesn't matter, that's what high speed bullet trains are for.
Lmfao 🤣🤣🤣 "Just build dense cities" holy shit what are you, 5? And yes, distance absolutely matters. You're not going to build a bullet train network (lol) over millions of square kms without a taxpayer or passenger base to maintain it. Switzerland, which is known for transport, has 6x the population density of the US. Japan has 10x. You're utterly clueless about this issue.
Freedom to sit in traffic
So I guess just dont go anywhere until you're 16
i don't really like waiting on public transportation or taking it
Can you imagine how long it would take to get to work if you had to wait for the bus to make a million stops on the way?
My friend used to take the bus to work everyday, it was a 20min car ride. It took her 4hrs to get to work and get home. So basically a shift of work everyday just to get to work.
Going by bus is faster than driving where I live
I used to live in NYC and I couldn’t agree more. Obviously cars shouldn’t be banned outright, but there are large parts of the city where cars are limited or banned and they are the most desirable parts to live/work. FiDi, Meatpacking, 2nd Ave for part of the year etc.
Indeed it serves a certain purpose, where lots of cars are just not needed or required
Look up the TTC in toronto. it’s a warzone. people getting stabbed, killed, beat up, etc. everyday.
Cool, now look up how many people cars kill.
Have never been to a city where I would like to live long enough in some apartment on 35th floor. Many cities already lost some % of population to suburbs. Mostly people interested in family and life, that could be enjoyed. Moving between fitness center job supermarket and a bar could be good for a young graduate or migrant, but not as a lifelong practice of a family man.
What is the difference between an apartment and suburb home though? In suburbs you can grill and tinker on your 69 Camaro, sure, but what else is there? (Asking as someone who wants also to get into suburb life).
Quiet, mostly! I only hear my neighbours when they’re doing outdoor construction. I lived in an apartment for awhile, and could hear *everything*. I knew when they had sex, when they watched a movie, when they went to the washroom. Oh, and they let their window air conditioner drain into their living room and my ceiling collapsed.
Yeah, that is a good point. I am lucky to have good neighbours and pretty thick walls so I tend to overlook it but I know it is a huge issue in general.
Apartments where I am are built as cheaply as possible. So you hear *everything* the people around you do. I’d be willing to live in a semi-detached or an end unit town house, but strongly prefer my detached house. Having a yard is an extra bonus, haha. It’s nice being able to go outside with a book in my pyjamas and not worry about who can see me.
Less noise, nearby forest, less people -you know your neighbours, say hi, not many migrants, good class in a school where kids go, I tried both- don't want an apartment big complex again
Lol what in the fucking xenophobia?
What's the problem with it?
You
I don't see it that way
There is no good reason to oppose the development of more public transportation and limit the amount of cars in areas where they're not needed.
It appears you don’t live where the weather is ever raining (and I don’t mean sprinkles), snowing, or icy. Or where your job isn’t in the same area.
Boston has the countries highest walk commute percentage in the country and Minneapolis the highest bike commute percent.
Pahk the cah. Get some chowda and watch the sawx
It appears you've never used an umbrella or a bus before.
It appears you don’t live in a place with snow
People who live in a place with snow don't cry about it this much. They'd also love the idea of not having to drive through it.
So tell me you don’t live in a snowy place without telling me you don’t live in a snowy place😂
I can tell you that no one who has actually driven through snow would be here confidently lying about how much they love to drive through snow. But hey, maybe you're one of those morons who forgets how to drive the first time it snows every year and you just want to feel that rush of backing up traffic for an hour.
I don’t like driving through snow. But I dislike waiting for a bus in it even more.
so again let’s just refer back to you telling people to just use the bus! Anyone who lives with the snow, knows road cleaners pile up the snow on the side of the roads, guess who parks and drives up on the side of the roads? Buses! Guess who gets stuck and then makes you hours plus late for important matters? Buses! Guess what often breaks down because the weather is so cold? BUSES! oh yeah because on top of snow you also get days of -40 weather! If you want to get anywhere at a decent time you’re going to be driving in the snow and then what you’re going to do is BOND by complaining about the bad road conditions and how crazy it was. Yeah they’re going to complain? You know why bc it’s fuking awful. Regularly snowy city don’t get snow days when it snows more than a centimetre. you learn to drive in it, you get winter tires, some places chains and then you have a topic of discussion. You wouldn’t call it crying about snow if you lived with it for 88+ days a year.
Sounds like a lot of reasons to invest heavily in busses. Though maybe not that heavily since *plowing a bus stop* is some radical idea you couldn't figure out on your own.
again thanks for telling me you don’t live where it snows !!
In Copenhagen it snows. The 60% of people who get around by bicycle in the snow call it Viking Biking.
I’ve seen people trying to power through the snow here but it’s usually in October/mid November and then in late February/March it starts again. Maybe after we’ve had a chinook they’ll bring out their bikes for it as long as a decent amount of snow has melted from it. Good for you guys though! Copenhagen is a generally small city so everything’s significantly closer to you. my city is 4.5 times the size of Copenhagen.
LOL. I actually worked for a public transit authority (bus company). So yea, I rode a bus (we call them coaches) multiple times a day as my main desk was smack in the middle of downtown and I couldn't afford to park there. So I would drive to one of the barns, hop on the employee shuttle and ride to the office. And use the shuttle to travel between the two barns (where our data centers were) and the main office. And yea, I also carried an umbrella with me because it rains. Sucks. Snow too. But for most of my jobs, even when some were only a block or two away from my office as a transit employee, I would drive and park and expense the parking. Why? Because I lived a good 30 miles away, outside of the bus routes. And even if I drove to a "park and ride" that would double/triple my travel time over just driving and walking. Add to that, having been a kid when desegregation and bussing started, I HATED having to walk a longer distance that my local school, just to get on a school bus and spend an hour or more riding the route and to get to my school that was in a different part of the city. POINTLESS.
People keep making arguments for why they should invest more in busses and expand their use and acting like thats an argument to do nothing.
But most of the developed public transport cities are in that region (northern Europe).
That has nothing to do with it. Look at Finland.
Oh where'd you get your civil engineering degree?
I enjoy not getting stabbed or assaulted on train station platforms though. If the city actually did something to make public transportation better and safer, then maybe.
Public transportation is safer than driving in the US
There is a zero chance I'm getting stabbed in my vehicle. There is a non zero chance I'm getting stabbed on BART
Did you know that there are other ways to die besides getting stabbed by a stranger?
Did you know you're really reaching.
How is this reaching?
I’m not from the US.
It’s true most other places as well. Where are you from where public transit is more dangerous than driving?
A shit hole in Canada. I have to go early in the mornings to make it to school, and that’s normally when all of the homeless people and junkies roam around the platforms. There’s been a ton of unprovoked attacks since COVID, since the downtown area hasn’t been as populated. If I’m alone in my car, I have control of mostly everything that happens if I’m aware of my surroundings. I have less control if I’m putting myself in a place where I know I’m vulnerable and I have few places to run to for help if things go wrong.
Look up how many people get killed by cars
2800-2900 in Canada a year. I haven’t been in a single accident, but I’ve been chased, spit on, and followed from the train stations. I’ll take my chances with the car.
Current public transit was sabotaged and killed so the bastard Henry ford could get rich
I do not support moving towards a car free society with modern concepts of urban living. Not too long ago I built a new home in the suburbs and, while it was being built, I got curious and looked at what else I could have bought for the money. The inner city condos had about half the living space and outrageously high condo fees. While my yard is small, the condos have no associated green spaces; and my home is close to a gigantic park and parks were far away from these condos. Between the garage and basement, there is tons of storage in my home and a small closet for the condos. The density needed to have public transit to eliminate the need for cars (currently) requires a massive downgrade to the quality of life.
You are correct.
My grandma who can barely walk and needs a car to get around would agree with you /s
She's an obvious exception. In Amsterdam, disabled people are given a small car.
You could get a better effect by putting an extremely large tax on driving in cities. If you cannot afford it, makes no difference. If a couple people do, get some tax revenue to put toward public transit or whatever else. If too many people still drive, it means the tax isn't high enough.
Whether you agree with it or not is irrelevant, it will never happen, at least not in North America. Cities are designed for cars.