• beaubbe@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What is crazy is that with 1 passenger per car, that is not that many people. Like not even 50. You could all fit in a single bus

          • Overzeetop@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            And yet they always are. Not to mention dangerous (statistically, per user-mile).

            Also, please don’t argue with me on that last point. Instead, argue how safe they are with a doctor or nurse at your local emergency room. They will, I’m certain, agree with you.

    • MrMonkey
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      1 year ago

      If those 50 people are all going to same places than the bus goes. At the same time.

      A coworker was taking the bus to get home. 2 hours due to two line changes where they can wait up to 30 minutes for the next bus. I started giving him a ride home when I could.

      5 minutes out of my way and cut his commute down to 20 minutes. From 2 hours. That’s 120 minutes down to 20 minutes. With just that extra hour of sleep he’s much happier.

      An extra hour and a half of each day wasted on public transportation.

      • baseless_discourse@mander.xyz
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        1 year ago

        30 mins is pretty jarring even for U.S. standard. Especially during commute time.

        In other countries I have been to most buses take at most 15 mins to come. Trains typically take around 5 mins, and much more frequent during rush hour (around 2 to 1 mins per train).

        Another problem with U.S. transportation system is the poor investment on train (somehow people are into those “Hyperloop” when a normal subway system has been demonstrated time and time again to already be way more efficient than car). For buses, its speed is limited by traffic, so it is unlikely for bus to be faster than cars.

        Another thing I would like to point out is that time is not “wasted” on transport, you can read, browse social media, news, watch videos, things you cannot do in a car. And you can enjoy music with a much better sound system (aka head phones), which is not safe in a car.

      • gundog48@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Public transport is great in cities, but as soon as things get more sparsely populated, you get diminishing returns. Everything takes longer, runs infrequently, and still barely gets you close.

        But then if they run more frequently, they’d be empty.

        Yet, where I live, they keep introducing hostile rules, new houses can only have one parking space, at a time where kids are having to live with their parents for longer, so their mobility, job opportunities, etc are really hampered. It would be one thing if there was decent public transport infrastructure, but there’s literally nothing, just people becoming ‘stuck’ because those who make the rules often don’t think about areas as a whole.

          • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Not as true as it used to be. Many companies are still allowing working from home. The rural areas around me have seen a huge influx of new construction since you can live anywhere and work for many jobs. Both myself and wife work from home and have considered moving out of the city but won’t until the kids are done with school.

    • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Traffic jams would be a whole lot less damaging if they were all electric. Just sitting there with the AC and radio on is a whole lot less emissions compared to fossil fuels.

      • izzent@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I prefer a rock solid public transport system, and plenty of safe walking areas and no-car zones. EVs help minimally in the grand scheme, since they are costly to produce, especially the batteries.

        • hydro033@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yea, that only works for cities. America will still need tons of cars for everywhere that isn’t a city. It’s a very low density country, all things considered.

          • Captain Minnette@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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            1 year ago

            There’s large swathes of territory nearly as dense as parts of Europe with incredible public transit. Look at the density of Spain and overlay it on top of the northeast US, then compare the public transit.

            • hydro033@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Yea, but the northeast, especially major cities like NYC, Boston, and Philly, does have better public transit than a lot of the US. I know it still sucks overall (and don’t get me going about the costs), but a lot of the infrastructure was built during the car boom. People do like cars, and they make sense for most of America given how much sprawl we have.

              • Captain Minnette@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Local transit of those cities is pretty good, I’d agree. But the lack of intercity transit, like high speed rail, is such a shame.

        • mack7400@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          But then you lose your fReEdOm, and are beholden to another driver’s whims! Creep to the left or right side of the lane in your traffic jam? Forget it! All you can do is read, or play a game, or gaze forlornly at the liberated masterminds as you zip past in your socialist train!

        • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Which won’t happen especially in car first cities. I am in Michigan, it’s the home of the automobile and everything is built around it. To accommodate a good mass transit they would need to demolish large portions of the cities to install rail lines because busses are a lack luster bandage. Even with cities with great bus lines like Lansing or Ann Arbor it still can take hours for a trip across the city when a car gets you there and back in minutes. Business will also need to accommodate and give longer time off for doctors appointments. My wife rides the bus often in Lansing and if she has a appointment that is only a 10min car ride she is gone for 3 hours on the bus.

        • Thurkeau@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Good luck with that, though. If this is America, and I think it is, we find ways of making a good public transit system suck. I also think we need to take a hard look at how our towns and cities are desined as well, and make them to where they’re optimized to be able to drive into a central location then bicycle or hoof it to whrever you wanted to go within a couple miles.

      • seedbrage@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s true, but electric cars won’t fix the core issue of car dependency and massive traffic jams

      • possiblylinux127@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The two issues I have with current EVs is you can’t work on them and they don’t last as long as gas vehicles.

        I have a old suburu and it still runs fine

        • Corhen@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Its also worth remembering there is a lot less maintenance to do on an EV. No oil to change, lubes to replace, belts that break…

          Besides the batteries, an EV car should last longer than a gas car.

            • Corhen@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              DRM… which makes you need to replace belts, and oil?

              I didn’t say they were easier to work on, just lower maintenance. On my gas car i need to change the oil ever 6 months. You dont need to do that with an EV.

          • Negromungusschlong@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They have the same components except the engine, but they weigh more and the batteries dont last as long as a well maintained engine. EV cars should not last as long.

            • glibg10b@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              They have the same components except the engine

              • Transmission (usually larger and more expensive than the engine)
              • Exhaust, muffler and catalytic converter
              • Gas tank, fuel pump and vapor hose
              • Ignition coil(s), spark plugs, oil pump, intake and exhaust manifolds and fuel injectors
              • Fucking belts
              • CV joints, differentials and transfer case (I think)
  • Jenga
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    1 year ago

    Was it really necessary to stop and hold up traffic just for this picture though?

  • Lor@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    [Image description: A photo of a road with two lanes. There is bumper-to-bumper traffic reaching an approxime 53 car length.]

  • Saigonauticon@voltage.vn
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    1 year ago

    You may as well declare that your permanent address. It’s where you live now. May as well try and find happiness where you are.

    You’ll meet friends there, settle in, maybe get married and have some kids, grow old and retire to the back seat, having lived a rich and full life.

    In a few generations, the fact that the cars can move will only be a children’s story, and eventually forgotten altogether.

  • ThaijsClan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Been there before. We recently had a semi truck tip and spill thousands of frozen French fries across all lanes of the highway. They closed it completely down for hours. People were literally reversing on the highway to back up to the nearest exit. It was terrible

    • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      See, as much as I hate Texas and especially TXDOT, I will give it props for it’s access roads that run alongside the interstates. Stuff gets too backed up, folks can just drive over the grass to the access road. It’ll back the access road up, too, but it’ll be moving, at least. Hell, out in west Texas you can see where the locals have made their own exit because the nearest one is a 10+ mile drive out of the way.