[mmcru]

The sense of security that comes with keeping a gassed (or charged) vehicle in my driveway doesn't seem like it will go away any time soon. If a family member needs to go to the emergency room, or a natural disaster strikes, Uber isn't going to cut it.

[Agathos]

If a material disaster strikes, my local highways will be locked up harder than a diamond.

[dkersten]

Nevermind a natural disaster, rush hour traffic seems to be enough...

[XorNot]

That car doesn't need to be replaced every 3 years though, especially if new features aren't being added.

[dsfyu404ed]

A lot of people live a "payment" lifestyle. They'll just keep buying/leasing new cars every few years. If something's gonna break it's gonna be the CPO market.

[_bxg1]

Sure, but if you only use your own vehicle for those kinds of situations it could last your entire adult life (and your partner wouldn't need a separate one).

[inawarminister]

If natural disasters strike, is it possible for you to bug out without getting stuck with thousands or hundreds of thousands other car users as well? Just asking, because a backup secondary route either on foot or smaller off-road vehicles (motorbikes or just regular bikes) might be prudent for planning.

But yeah, many time-sensitive events are able to be easily solved with our own cars. There's a flexibility that is absent when relying on public transit and ride-sharing. Does it worth the trade-off of maintaining your own vehicle and it's attendant issues? In my opinion, it is. For some others, it isn't. It would be better if cars can become a non-essential for everyone in the world though, or at least the urbanites. Less traffic jams for the rest of us.

[shrimp_emoji]

https://imgur.com/fLNs3k0

Have you ever considered how

trains

are our best implementation

of the abstract idea

of efficient, terrestrial mass transit?

[ip26]

However, you can obtain that security without one and a half cars per adult in the family.

If you can figure out how to bike, walk, or bus most of the time and your significant other can too, you get nearly all of that security with one vehicle per family and a lot of money to put towards other things.

[Brakenshire]

You call an ambulance if there’s a medical emergency.

[rland]

You could purchase a used car outright for the cost of 1 ambulance ride in the United States.

[Brakenshire]

You could well be right, but the article is about a global trend, car sales in the US by contrast seem to be stable in the last few years, perhaps for these kind of reasons. There are a lot of places in the developed world that have a different context from the US in terms of car culture or healthcare costs.

I’m not sure what’s actually creating the 3% drop, though, the evidence in the article for a lifestyle shift seems to be relatively weak outside of the charts they give for the EU.

[Sharlin]

"There are problems in our society that we circumvent by things that cause even more problems because we can't coordinate to solve the original problems."

[nineteen999]

That is interesting, in Australia it is the same by default, but many people (especially those with families or sick relatives living with them) have Ambulance Cover which is a fairly nominal fee covering your whole family, in which case the cost of an ambulance is vastly reduced.

[_bxg1]

Don't know why you got downvoted; this is absolutely true.