this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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Bicycles
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Clearly there are obstacles but the bus you’re envisioning is an underfunded, outdated system. With the right amount of effort and funding it will be at least as convenient as driving. And I think e-bikes are a game-changer for the urban periphery. Higher speeds mean covering a few miles is not a challenge anymore and you can carry more with cargo bikes too if needed. Though personally I have done grocery shopping on my bike my entire life and it is really not that difficult.
Your second statement is a bit tautological—of course past cities are not identical to today’s cities, and today’s cities are mostly built around the automobile. But looking at the various communities current and past it’s pretty clear that it’s totally possible to do better than the current system without the personal automobile. Horses were already on their way out thanks to advances in transport and urban planning by the time the car came around, replaced by streetcars and bicycles. So personally I don’t think we need to bring back the horse.
Again, I know this is not going to happen tomorrow or even in 5 years but I do think the personal automobile as the dominant transportation in urban areas is on its way out. And that is good because people have a fundamental right to go out and use public space without being forcibly exposed to the danger of large polluting machines.
None of this makes any sense and isn't going to happen, ever. A single person or a couple could get away with shopping via ebike but a family of 3+ needs more than can be transported that way. Not to mention that you still need larger vehicles to bring in goods for those people to buy. And until something changes, you'll need larger vehicles to take away the trash.
Plus, I'm not moving closer to the masses just so I can bike everywhere. As I eluded to, there is a giant swath of the USA where at times it's too cold or too hot to be biking/walking to/from stores unless you happen to live a block away.
Seriously. You can't have cities as large as we do now (with our level of tech) that doesn't use cars and trucks to move people/things around. This is a statement of fact and your idea of a walkable city with 100k+ people in it is the fantasy of children or college kids who think they can save the world all by themselves.
On the whole. I'd bet that my carbon footprint is lower than yours simply because I live in the country and I compost or burn everything I can and recycle the rest. As a family of 3 we have way less trash going to the dump than those who live in the city. And that doesn't even include things like composting leaves instead of having the city pick them up, we don't get that service out here but I would still compost even if I lived in the suburbs.
If you want a better and cleaner future, push for people to live further away from civilization and be more self sufficient, growing their own food (when they can) getting produce and meat from local farms, etc.