• LeadersAtWork@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Be American

    Living paycheck to paycheck

    Need job

    Good worker

    Work overtime when needed

    Trying to pay off car

    Smug biker does a driveby near open car window

    Rethink my life

    Realize U.S. infrastructure often requires vehicles

    In middle of daily 40min commute, one way

    Realize the same distance on bike would be two hours

    Depresso

    • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      This is why we need good public transit on top of good biking infrastructure. The two working together let’s you get anywhere a car can go while not taking a lot longer.

      • Etterra@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        You’re not wrong, but that’s not going to work over the entire country. There’s just too much space to cover; the country would go bankrupt trying to provide mass transit everywhere that it’s needed. So while this could be, if you could convince people to actually do it, a solution in urban areas, it’s never going to work out in the thousands of miles of country and they have the exact same problems. They just have less traffic and more empty space to cross.

        • DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          We didn’t go bankrupt making a car-centric infrastructure, we won’t go bankrupt building adequate mass transit and micromobility infrastructure. In fact, we will probably profit greatly in myriad ways.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Have fun commuting 30 miles to work on that thing. Especially when there’s 8 or 10 inches of snow, -10 wind-chill, or there’s a thunderstorm rolling in. I’ve seen people do it; they look absolutely fucking miserable and it’s a miracle it doesn’t kill them.

    • Sconrad122@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Respect to those folks. A miserable ride is often rewarding because it’s one of those lows that is eminently temporary and gives you an appreciation for the highs, especially if you are dressed appropriately so as not to catch a cold or some such. Kind of like shoveling snow for that sweet sweet mug of hot chocolate on the sofa afterwards. But yeah, also a good city will provide alternative options for its citizens, trains, buses, rideshare even. If a 30 mile bike ride is the only alternative to driving from place A to place B, your government doesn’t want you to have any kind of freedom to choose how you get from place A to place B, if there are no affordable housing options or good job opportunities that change that equation, your government is working on behalf of the big car manufacturers and dealers to keep you enslaved in debt to them, which is pretty fucked up