It’s still a BIG problem that because of car manufacturing influence, most media & political energy goes to EVs, with not NEARLY enough going to fewer cars/less driving. But the priority HAS to be the latter, the part of the solution that will actually do much more public good. #EV #ElectricVehicles #cars #cities
I mean, don't overlook the simple fact that we drive and own cars because they actually do make our lives better.
We don't take on that expense just to do it.
It doesn't have to be a conspiracy of big evil manufacturers. Sometimes people do things because they are legitimately the best for those people, and the manufacturers serve to support the things that make our lives better.
I'm well aware of that argument, but it always strikes me as overlooking realities ranging from social engagement through practicalities of modern living.
For example, it's not because of making cars more convenient that I don't have an iron foundary in the middle of my walkable neighborhood. There are good reasons that it's located well away, a nice car-accessible distance away.
Then you get to economies of scale where public transportation works best when everyone is conforming, going to the same place at around the same time. But this ignores the tremendous value to society of diversity, that personal transportation supports.
So yeah, the argument that surroundings were designed to make cars more convenient is common, but always comes across as myopic to me, failing to look a layer deeper and noticing that there were good reasons to do that.
It was an effect, not a cause.
@volkris @BrentToderian Yeah, no.
Funny you used iron foundries as an example, because that's exactly where a lot of my relatives worked a century ago -- and they usually got to work by bicycle or walking. By today's standards it was in the neighbourhood (though not by the standards back then).
As for the rest, the transformation of the lived environment is well-documented. It's a fact, not an opinion. It's not an "argument", it's history.
Exactly.
So cars allowed us to improve standards, not because of some conspiracy wanting to make cars more convenient, but because it brought more value to society to implement the solutions that cars enabled so much more efficiently.
Cars were a solution, not the end game. We should not overlook that.
No matter how many books people might want to sell with silly arguments.
@BrentToderian
@volkris @BrentToderian Okay, you obviously have no idea how little you know, and you're too busy throwing words like "conspiracy"around to learn anything. Learn more about the history of urban, and especially suburban, planning. You've got your causes and results backwards, and keep calling facts "arguments". I'm out.
@volkris @BrentToderian You might want to learn more about the development in the 20th century. Unless you are very rural, your surroundings were designed to make those cars more convenient.