Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,156 posts, read 80,258,802 times
Reputation: 57011
Advertisements
I take the bus to work every day, but still have 2 cars with only my wife and I as drivers. I'm also in the process of looking for a 4th. Some of us still do love our cars (and hate cats, neutral on guns). Because of social media people are not running out to get a license the day they turn 16 as they have in the past, but they are getting them eventually, some as late as 26-28, and many are using Zip and Car2Go vehicles rather than buy, but they are driving. This has it's greatest negative impact on the auto manufacturers in lower sales, but even the people without a license are going to take a cab or uses a "ridesharing" service at times.
I love reliable transportation that fits my needs. In my younger days it was Corvettes and motocycles; now, it is a Hummer (for off-roading) and a Silverado for local driving and pulling my travel trailer. And the gun...well it is always with me as well as my dogs.
2 years ago, I made a promise to ride the bus to work 2 out of the 4 nites I work. I had to forced myself to go the first time, but being an avid reader, I adjusted all too well, and now I look forward to my bus rides, and the accompanying camaraderie, chances to meet people, become friends.
And what a different perspective you get, looking at cars form a bus window! Particularly when I see someone stopped by the police along the way!
And many of these people I ride the bus with are low-income, but not all. You meet up with those who have car repair bills they can ill afford to pay, and some have had exorbitant traffic fines which blew holes in their meager budgets, and that love affair with the car can evaporate quite quickly.
Nowadays, with online grocery buying, and Amazon, all can help to reduce that love affair with the car!
2 years ago, I made a promise to ride the bus to work 2 out of the 4 nites I work. I had to forced myself to go the first time, but being an avid reader, I adjusted all too well, and now I look forward to my bus rides, and the accompanying camaraderie, chances to meet people, become friends.
And what a different perspective you get, looking at cars form a bus window! Particularly when I see someone stopped by the police along the way!
And many of these people I ride the bus with are low-income, but not all. You meet up with those who have car repair bills they can ill afford to pay, and some have had exorbitant traffic fines which blew holes in their meager budgets, and that love affair with the car can evaporate quite quickly.
Nowadays, with online grocery buying, and Amazon, all can help to reduce that love affair with the car!
What I like about this is that no one forced you to ride the bus. You took it upon yourself to do that. Whatever your reasons may be, it was your choice. Planners and city officials need to let people discover other forms of transportation on their own without their interference. People started riding bikes due to the cost of owning a vehicle, not because they wanted to be unique. In turn, they discovered a more efficient way of getting around. City officials sees this and want to capitalize on it for their own gain. They misread the market and expect everyone to do what several people decided to do as an alternative to their personal situation.
Once people figure out what suits them, they'll decide the best method of getting around. People change their habits when they are ready to do so.
As others have noted here, it is NOT a myth that Americans love their cars. Outside of the minority who are urbanites as we find on this forum, most average Americans prefer to drive, they like the convenience of driving. It doesn't mean they don't use mass transit, such as for going to work if they work in a place like a dense downtown urban core where parking and traffic are too much to deal with, but they still have cars and use them for almost any other "getting around" they need to do. The majority of Americans live in suburbs or small or medium cities in single family homes with cars and garages, and actually prefer that.
Another fallacy (I hate "myth" because that means an ancient, enduring theme) is that all potential rail users want to go downtown. Highway agencies know there is demand for beltways and crosstown travel, but only a few transit agencies have caught on.
Another fallacy (I hate "myth" because that means an ancient, enduring theme) is that all potential rail users want to go downtown. Highway agencies know there is demand for beltways and crosstown travel, but only a few transit agencies have caught on.
The beltway model only works because cars aren't trains. With cars, you can do feeders and distributors and arteries. With trains, not so much, because the cost of switching is so high. Buses do it (also bus to subway), but a 3-seat ride (plus a walk on either end!) is still pretty bad, and more is nigh-intolerable.
There's also the issue of stopping, but that's true on any journey. If you built a train line along the capital beltway and the trains had to stop at every exit, it'd be pretty darned slow.
As others have noted here, it is NOT a myth that Americans love their cars. Outside of the minority who are urbanites as we find on this forum, most average Americans prefer to drive, they like the convenience of driving. It doesn't mean they don't use mass transit, such as for going to work if they work in a place like a dense downtown urban core where parking and traffic are too much to deal with, but they still have cars and use them for almost any other "getting around" they need to do. The majority of Americans live in suburbs or small or medium cities in single family homes with cars and garages, and actually prefer that.
I wonder, though, how true that love will be if we drivers have to pay against that unfunded pile of infrastructure maintenance and repair costs. Sidestepping the inflammatory public vs. private debate and all the subsidy wars therein, would we still "love" our cars if they were a luxury item instead of a necessity for the average car owner? In the next couple decades, we'll certainly see how America's economically impacted youth (Millennial and thereafter) chooses to get around and how many miles they'll cover.
I love my car is a boomer bumper sticker
Not an xyz sticker although he is definitely driving daddy's car
But I suppose could always use his own vehicle
A skateboard?? I mean he is 35 yes?
omg
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.