You must live in a city if you feel that way
Most people live in cities, and the video mentions that it is about cities in the first 10 seconds.
You’re right, when I left that comment I hadn’t watched the video. Now that I have, I feel like I’m covered in awkward teenage angst.
The video gives examples of “look at these cities with thousands of years of culture compared to cities in North America.”
And doesn’t highlight any of the benefits cars bring. Heres some arbitrary arguments (to keep in the style of the video):
Person needs to do a midnight move from an abusive situation, but can’t because they have to wait for the bus/train and can only carry on a few belongings.
Person needs medical care, not ambulance worthy, but can’t stand on a train for an hour.
Hit rock bottom and lost your shelter? You can sleep in your car. It’s way better than a train station.
Want to go camping/hike/climb anywhere? Public transit can’t accommodate everyone’s schedule/place to be.
Agree though, we need a better solution for parking.
The person under an abusive situation easily loses the car key to the abuser.
Ambulances get stuck all the time in congestioned cities and that’s a problem.
A car should never be someone’s night shelter, that person is homeless in that case. Houses, not cars, can solve the problem.
Want to do a special trip where car is the most convenient option? You can rent one out. If you only use a car a few times a year, buying one is a terrible waste of money and street space.
None of the places outside North America mentioned in the video have completely banned cars. The video is mostly talking about reducing car dependence and increasing options for transport rather than banning them completely.
Also every situation you mentioned can be solved with a taxi or rental car. We can still do those things without having to drive everywhere for everything.
Kafkaesque!
“What?! No! My identity is “Truck”. And the bigger the truck the more my identity it is!”
Car culture is more of a symptom than the cause of most of the problems.
Cars aren’t the cause of houses being identical, roads being identical, etc. A culture of trying to battle for the cheapest implementation of everything is the cause. We want the most bang for our buck for everything. You get that by lowering costs using pre fabricated parts and reusing safe ideas.
And comparing the “identity” of cultures that existed for thousands of years to that of the Americas is arguing in bad faith on the topic. The push to drive things to be cheaper has been priority for a much greater portion of our history.
Homogenization of culture isn’t a lot of “bang for my buck.” In fact I’d say it’s actually extracting a lot of value out of culture for the sake of someone else’s profit. In a word commodification.
Yep! We can see in some archaeological sites where pottery and plates went from a luxury to a mass produced commodity. Its fucking awesome, if you ask me. I wouldnt mind more, not less similarities. Once it looks like commie blocks we can stop and add some paint or a facade.
I like this video but the illusion of choice is not really the basis for an identity.