Probably not too unpopular here.

Standing waiting for the bus in my city with decent transit and I have 2 trucks rev their engines loudly past me, another one letting just clouds of pollution, watching people driving who aren’t paying attention and several people blowing cutting last second through a light. All in just 3 minutes by a small corner with light traffic.

Made me think how cars are inherently selfish. People don’t want to be around others (the fear aspect), so they drive their own bubble around. In addition to that, some go out of their way to make their cars even worse to people outside of them.

No wonder we can’t move away from them. They are a definition of our own culture

  • usrtrv@lemmy.ml
    0·
    9 months ago

    I live in Denver. Transit is decent. The light rail can be a faster commute during rush hour. Plenty of regional buses to go hiking and skiing. Under 10 min walk to multiple grocery stores. Regional bike path network span multiple cities.

    It’s not perfect, but I’ve been car free for over two years with very little issue.

    Edit, to add to this: It’s more convenient for me to take the train to the airport or the bus to the slopes. Some ski resorts will charge more for daily parking then a round-trip bus ticket. And driving to the ski resorts is a traffic nightmare, much rather just sit on the bus and not worry about it.

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
      1·
      9 months ago

      Agreed that it’s doable in a number of areas. I’m in the suburbs where that’s harder, though I happen to be near a grocery store at least.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
      0·
      9 months ago

      What if you work in Denver and live in Firestone?

      Obviously there are already public transit offerings in urban areas

      • usrtrv@lemmy.ml
        0·
        9 months ago

        I would move to somewhere closer? Even when I regularly drove I would move, take a different job, etc instead of dealing with a long commute. To me it’s just not worth it.

        You say obviously but the original thread was started by someone who made a blanket statement about the US. There are millions of people in the US who commute without a car. I was curious and looked up some data: https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST1Y2018.S0801?q=S0801:+COMMUTING+CHARACTERISTICS+BY+SEX&hidePreview=true

        • 85.3% commute by car
        • 9.3% commute by other means
        • the rest WFH

        I would even argue that some of that 85% could switch to transit with very little effort. But as the OP stated, I think there is a cultural aversion to transit in the US. So there’s some of that 85% who could use transit but choose not to.