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I just want to respond to the people who write about freedom being synonymous with driving:
I'd say you are partially right. Freedom means having many, many options in your daily lives. Those options should include driving, walking, biking, busses, subways, and trains. I live in an area of the country where all of those options are very much real possibilities, and therefore, I feel freer than I ever did in the 'Burbs.
I'm well aware that there are areas of the country that mass transit either doesn't exist, or simply isn't feasible. Certainly it would be a waste of money and resources to put a subway in Fargo. However, that doesn't mean we can't build our small towns and cities around squares and surface transportation. That also doesn't mean we can't build walkable small towns.
I just came back from a trip to small suburb of Harrisburg, PA. If I wanted to walk from my hotel into town, it would be along a commercial highway. Even though the super market was less than a mile away, and my wife and I currently live in a very walkable area, she insisted that I drive because, "People here aren't used to seeing walkers." She was right and with no sidewalks I'd be taking my life into my own hands. That's not freedom. Because of our car centric (and oil subsidized) suburbs, I lost out on my FREEDOM to walk into town. You understand what I'm saying? I meet many people from the suburbs and small towns and they tell me they wished they had the same FREEDOM I had.
Just because we dedicate money to mass transit and walkable suburbs, doesn't mean you can't own a car. When I was in Japan, people had cars. In the smaller towns and villages, to get around town it's necessary to have a car, bike, or motorbike. Oil apparently wasn't subsidized as much as our because it was much more expensive, but then again, longer travel was done by train so it's very possible their travel expenses were less or equal to ours. But Wow!!! Was it nice to have the option to walk and the ability to get somewhere by doing so!
Did someone stopped you in commuting by car from brooklyn to Manhattan??? so its all about having options. you could have come by car or by train or bus-you chose train becoz that was economical. now you are living at a place where there is no transit train, so you are commuting by car. My question to you is that you hated the subway car F train, why didnt you go by car?
Quote:
Originally Posted by plwhit
I grew up in Brooklyn and once I had a job it was in Manhattan, took the F train twice a day to and from.
A total of 16 miles round trip, travel time? 90 minutes jam packed like sardines in the subway car, and it was fun fun fun when the train didn't have AC... Ever smell 100 New Yorkers packed together in 90 degree temperatures? Ever stand out on an elevated subway station in 4 degree weather waiting for the train which is held up because the doors are frozen open?
Better yet, taking a packed bus in Manhattan and being stuck in one of the infamous traffic jams?
Where I am now it's almost 30 miles round trip to work, travel time rush hour traffic? 30 - 40 minutes and I sit comfortably in an air conditioned car listening to tunes and enjoying my coffee or a soda.....
You can take public transportation and put it where the sun don't shine....
Unlike Europe America is a big country with a lot of land so the car culture makes sense. Road trips are very American and I wouldn't trade it for the congested, backwards traffic laws found in Europe.
This fetish for skinny women is funny (and sick).......
aw, plwhit. you shouldn't get upset over my preferences. look on the bright side: more fat women for you.
Quote:
I wonder if you ever saw pictures of the murals in ancient Rome, it is the relatively recent brainwashing that has people like you thinking skin and bones women are attractive......
these girls i saw around urban centres in continental europe were not skin and bones. they seemed to be in good shape from walking and bike riding everywhere.
maybe it's selection bias. maybe there were fat women there, i just didn't see any because they're just too fat to be outside riding bicycles or walking. i can see how having herds of fat girls on bicycles could be hazardous to pedestrians as well as public infrastructure. Perhaps they just have a coordinated policy of keeping them indoors.
I just want to respond to the people who write about freedom being synonymous with driving:
I'd say you are partially right. Freedom means having many, many options in your daily lives. Those options should include driving, walking, biking, busses, subways, and trains. I live in an area of the country where all of those options are very much real possibilities, and therefore, I feel freer than I ever did in the 'Burbs.
I'm well aware that there are areas of the country that mass transit either doesn't exist, or simply isn't feasible. Certainly it would be a waste of money and resources to put a subway in Fargo. However, that doesn't mean we can't build our small towns and cities around squares and surface transportation. That also doesn't mean we can't build walkable small towns.
I just came back from a trip to small suburb of Harrisburg, PA. If I wanted to walk from my hotel into town, it would be along a commercial highway. Even though the super market was less than a mile away, and my wife and I currently live in a very walkable area, she insisted that I drive because, "People here aren't used to seeing walkers." She was right and with no sidewalks I'd be taking my life into my own hands. That's not freedom.
Yes, it is.
Sidewalks aren't built in rural areas because THEY COST MONEY. Plenty of people walk in those areas. Your childish need to have a sidewalk in order to feel safe is meaningless - you had the option to walk; you chose not to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bolehboleh
...in Japan ... Oil apparently wasn't subsidized as much as our because it was much more expensive
You've bought the liberal lies about "big oil subsidies." The price difference is in the taxes, not the the cost of the fuel itself.
Freedom means having many, many options in your daily lives.
That is not the definition of freedom.
Freedom means you are free from physical restraint, external control, interference, or regulation. The freedom to determine your action without restraint.
The number of options you have are irrelevant unless available options are as the above describes.
Point is, if only walking is the current option, the lack of a car, public transit, bike, or sidewalk is not an infringement on your liberty or a restriction of your freedom.
Where did you get the idea that freedom means having more options?
Sometimes it is hard to know if you are really this unenlightened or if it is just your City-Data persona. I don't care if this person wants to have 6 cars- it is an idiotic financial decision any way you look at it(I am an economist, by the way). I get tired of seeing so many financially ignorant people in this country who live in homes they can't afford, drive cars they can't afford, live in debt their entire lives- some work 2 jobs just to stay afloat- this lifestyle is for the birds!
Oh please ... you're a member of the MOST deluded and crooked among the gaggle of various academic expert disciplines who haven't a clue about the subject of their profession ... and boy ole boy, have you got a lot of company. The government is neck deep in "economists", and exactly what has that bought us? Bankruptcy? A crashing economy, an inflated dollar that's now worth 4 pennies and dropping as fast as any illusions of hope for improvement. Good job! Stocks and bonds and bail outs, OH MY !
I tell ya this ... buying cars may not be an investment, but it's no more idiotic than working your balls off, and stashing every spare penny into the black hole of 401k frauds that will disappear into the pockets of those pillars of honesty peddling this School of Bernie Madoff Investment strategy, while warning off the purchase of gold and sliver as a "bad bet". Yep ... that's the ticket ... save all your life, so that a bunch of crooks can just transfer the funds into an off shore account ... file bankruptcy, and tell the judge .. "honestly Judge, I really don't know where the money went".
Freaking ambulance chasing lawyers have more integrity.
Sidewalks aren't built in rural areas because THEY COST MONEY. Plenty of people walk in those areas. Your childish need to have a sidewalk in order to feel safe is meaningless - you had the option to walk; you chose not to.
I think you missed the part that said "commercial highway". There are places you can walk and there there are places you JUST DON'T WALK. Along a traintrack, highway, etc. are not ment for walking. It's not a matter of no sidewalks, it's a matter of walking not being intended at all. If you CHOOSE to you are being a fool.
I've been in places like that before where things are close but there is no good way to go about your business by foot. It's just a fact we can't dispute.
I live close enough to work that I could bike. Problem is, the route is aggressively negative and hostile to people on bikes and there have been numerous accidents. The biggest issue is that there's people merging on and off the interstate without adequate spacing to handle the traffic flow. It's spotted with continuous accidents throughout the day. Add in a biker to a group of people getting aggravated enough and they purposely hit bikers.
And that route is the only route that doesn't swing me 5-10 miles out of the way.
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No they are not but when one group tells the other their mode of transportation is idiotic and sticks their nose up in the sky..... 
