Fuck Cars

What city?

I sometimes make the mistake of driving to college because it's faster. I'm always way less happy and focused (and sad cause of having to pay for parking). Ebikes are the shit. It's about 15 minutes driving and a 25-30 minute bike ride.

Been there at times. It's great not having to pay and worry about a car (done that at times as well). Yet, if you need to move house or get somewhere difficult, you can lease or borrow a car or van. And you can be an extra driver on trips.

Europeans and their weed with tobacco, smh my head

Public transport IS fun! Much easier to masturbate on the train than while driving a car

Every two lane road has enough space for four lanes of bicycles (one passing lane for ebikes and one lane for normal bikes going in each direction)

Boomers. I was blown away when I went to a city hall meeting about expanding the roads and hearing their hot takes.

After the wave of old boomers (most of the audience) complained about how dangerous the whole world has become that they can't even take their trash out on the street, they say a walkable city just opens up "more danger".

To them, walkable streets means seeing more diversity, which is apparently super scary.

Also "car free" doesn't have to mean literally zero cars allowed, but just build and layout the city so you never have to use one for daily errands.

I live next to a grocery store and it's literally the best thing ever, grocery trips take 10 minutes max, I only end up using the car on weekends for hobbies or to visit family and friends.

how do you travel to another city?

Usually by bus or train.

What do you do if the city has high slopes making walking and biking too hard?

Walking is good for you, biking is not too popular in cities with slopes, but electic bikes are changing that.

Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?

There is definitely less mobility, but that is part of getting older isn't it? Usually they just walk a bit slower and use busses and taxies.

For example, how do you travel to another city?

Train or car. Car free mostly refers to inner city trips, for special occasions it's totally fine to use a car (e.g. moving, buying something big, a weekend trip, etc)

What do you do if the city has high slopes making walking and biking too hard?

Bus, ebikes, other types of electric assist stuff, walking. Crazy steep slopes do put a limit on exclusively human powered mobility (i.e. walking and cycling), but those places are incredibly rare.

Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?

A walkable city features amenities close by, plenty of benches to rest, and a solid bus system. There are absolutely no issues for people with restricted mobility. This applies to people with disabilities as well btw.

In fact I would turn that question around: how do elders deal with the requirement to drive a car to get groceries, etc? Isn't that like super duper dangerous?

Trains.

Cool stuff

PEVs

I understand you may not have lived carefree but here's two places with extreme weather that do fine without cars (provided people invest the minimum amount to establish public transport):

Winter (Norway, way below freezing): https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU

Summer (Taiwan, 36C+): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dBk7lq8o1Y

Good quality public transit can solve those issues as well. We should have a variety of options available for a variety of people who need them.

Ah yes, winter! I live in a wintery place (Quebec) and cars in winter need very much care to work properly. They need plowed and salted streets or they get stuck or can't go uphill. If that level of care was the same for pedestrians and cyclists, it would be much easier to move around without a car.

Also, you may need a car because of chronic pain but surely not everyone driving a car needs one for chronic pain? And wouldn't it be nicer for people that really need a car if there were fewer cars around?

I'm in my early 40ies and lived all those winters without a car and I still think it's silly to say they are "adapted" or "working well" in winter. Every winter there are multi car collisions/pile-ups on highways. They slip and slide easily. Multiple times in a year cars can't climb the little hill in front of my place. It takes even more space to park them as there are snowbanks everywhere. Sometimes they get covered in ice.

I really can't see the appeal of a car in winter.

I think the term "car free" is a misnomer, more like "car as a non primary form of transport for most people most of the time" is more accurate but doesn't roll off the tongue as well.

There are a lot of people with mobility issues in such cities that are serviced in different ways, a lot of times with specially licensed cars etc.

Yeah, I hate the term "car-free". That said, even for someone who primarily uses a car, advocating for bike lanes and public transit makes sense, as the fewer people there are taking up road space and parking, the easier it is for you to drive / park.