@hongminhee

Some people live where transit barely exists, or where it doesn't get them to work, school, or care. In those places, driving is not optional.

Yes, fully agree but does it have to be a huge SUV or gigantic BMW, that is so common in Germany.

I drive an 8 year old Citroen Berlingo,
Euro 6 Diesel, no Bling and enough go to get things done, without the rear seats it has a very large usable space.

But the ladies look down on me and say, no way i would ride in that.

@hongminhee Allowing smaller cars instead of the giants commonly sold in North America pretty much exclusively for years now would definitely help there, particularly in dense urban environments where a kei car would not only get *really* good mileage, but it would be more maneuverable than the large pick-ups and SUVs that currently dominate the US and Canadian domestic markets, or at least they'd be more maneuverable in dense urban areas in theory anyways.

Ideally public transit would be emphasized over car dependency to begin with, but allowing smaller vehicles to be sold and de-emphasizing the manufacture and sale of giant pick-ups and SUVs would be a good start. Now, obviously things like semis and other heavy-duty commercial trucks have an obvious reason and need to exist, and they need specialized licensing to drive on top of that, so they're fine; in the US, for example, anything with a GVWR ranging from 26,001 to 33,001+ lbs, or anything falling under class-7 and class-8 in truck classification speak, needs a CDL to drive, however if we're not going to be emphasizing public transit over car dependency in the US, can we at least de-emphasize large pick-ups and SUVs in favor of smaller cars?

@hongminhee

I would say cut back on unnecessary business travel to hotels and conference rooms but let people visit other countries and experience other cultures.

@hongminhee Many people actually do have a choice about where and how they live. My ability to live comfortably without a car is not merely happenstance, a happy effect of where I live, but because I made personal sacrifices to live where I live. These absolutely were ethical choices. Stop excusing failure to take personal action and accept personal disadvantage.

@hongminhee not sure tarnishing carbon footprint reporting as the "oil company choice" is particularly helpful. People do have agency - to varying degree (e.g., nobody obliges people to buy supersized US SUV's, fly private jets etc.). And producer based accounting is anyway what drives NDC's.

The moral angle of sustainability is imho a quagmire that we barely started unravel. E.g. people feel "normal" to inherit financial assets, how about inheriting also family environmental liabities? 🤔

@hongminhee So many people are forced into owning a car to get anywhere. Americans especially, in cities that only work for car owners. I'm lucky to live with plenty of transit options, in a relatively small European city I can cycle and walk around pretty easily (however much they tried to ruin it back in the 60s.) And it's well connected to the UK's national rail network. I can access many shops and services in my neighborhood. So I've got the option of being car free. So many don't.

@hongminhee I also don't own a car, I took a conscious choice to pick an area with good public transport before moving in... On the other hand I live in Ireland and yeah, it's either plane or ferry to get anywhere. I wish I could use trains.

@hongminhee
Seoul was great to live in, from a no-car perspective, even twenty years ago! It wasn't just the public transit either. I lived at the top of a hill, and people would come up our road selling heavy things like watermelons from their truck, so that customers didn't have to carry it all the way home by foot. The population density is what made that possible, I suppose.

@hongminhee As a resident of Hawaii Island in an area with little public transportation, thank you. When I lived in San Francisco, I mostly got around on public transit. Not an option yet. But I drive an electric vehicle and do what I can.

@hongminhee The level of implied impending doom is absolutely delightful. LoL

@hongminhee I have lived in many different situations and this can't be truer.

Sometimes I was in such a small town I had to take the car to buy bread.

Sometimes I only take the car to do long trips to badly connected cities.

Do I use the car as less as possible? Yes.

Do I still own a car because it is a need on my situation? Also yes.

"But you could rent a car and not own it" environmentally it would be the same. And more expensive to me.

@hongminhee Man... I hate everything written here. I just wished there was public transit where I lived to where I work existed. My work requires me to drive to get from point A to B. With that being said, the public transit I do have access to isn't half bad. Finding work close to me seems less than ideal, but if something does come about, I'd happily use it here in order to use my car less. I like this way of thinking. Thank you very much random internet person.

@hongminhee

First rate post. Thank you for taking the time to build this so well, for making the insight, for formulating it into a message, and for making the message respectful.

Ta.

@hongminhee The first ten words just made me hear Sham 69.

«I don't need a flash car to take me around
I can get the bus to the other side of town»

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JEsN3YFz-Kg

#Sham69

@hongminhee Driving might not be optional for some people, but the normalised way of driving actually prevents others from, for example, taking a bike.

Taking a bike medium distances used to be a normal activity in many parts of the world where it's now dangerous because of people driving their cars too fast, too close, and too much.

If a car driver consider bikes and pedestrians annoyances that are "in the way" on a country road, the driver is forcing car culture on them.

@hongminhee So much this. Even while there's a moral dimension, it's not black and white, and the system of washing harms as 'personal responsibility' when people who reinforce the systems have names and addresses is not good at all.

@hongminhee I don't own a car or a driver's license. I live downtown, so I walk, run, and take public transit everywhere. And I agree 100%. It's like you said, our choices depend on what's available where we live. Blaming people for these choices lets the real problems go unfixed. Who am I to judge others?

@hongminhee same thing w plastic recycling. its available in my current municipality, but who knows if what i put into the recycling bin actually gets recycled. in my hometown, their recycling program only ran for 5 years because the city cldnt sell their trash anymore.

@hongminhee

For ne, the question is how many externalities am I willing to impose on future generations. What share of the worlds CO2 emissions am I willing to be personally responsible for due to my decisions?

What proportion of the planets non-renewable resources am I willing to consume? How many earths would it take to maintain my lifestyle, and who pays the consequences - my grandkids in 50 years, or the global south?

@hongminhee If it is true what I read days ago, that the tiny percentage of billionaires flights accounts for 50% of planes emissions, it is so clear who should fly less. And why they won't.