I know a lot of people around here aren’t a fan of cars, but minimum wage workers need to be able to afford one. And even used cars have gotten crazy expensive. Even if you can find a cheap used shit box it’ll need expensive repairs quickly.
I know there are places where this isn’t true, but where I live, if you don’t have a car, you can’t get to work, the grocery store, or anywhere really. If you try to ride a bike, you will die. If you try to ride an escooter you’ll get ticketed for riding it in the driving lane, and even if it were legal it wouldn’t be an option in the winter when they don’t even clear the whole road of snow and ice. People go homeless before they give up having a car.
Needing cars is caused by the same capitalist system that produces jobs below livable wage, so I totally get it. But if we were able to push for better salaries and working conditions, surely we’d also be able to push for better urban planning and public transport.
It’s already been built wrong, and redoing those places will take decades and will cost trillions. They have been adding little token projects here or there, but our zoning still doesn’t even require sidewalks or bike lanes for new construction. So honestly we’re generations from it at the pace we’re moving. We could pay living wages now though.
I think that if a new style of government is created, free transport and fuel should be an universal right. The government just lends a basic small car for free to people. Once that person buys a fancier car, the rental is returned to the government to be loaned out to someone else in need. Bus passes and passenger rail is free.
This greases the wheel of economy, along with easing pressure on people.