[themagician]

Issue for me with cars isn't space vs no space, it's the amount of stress, time and money that is wasted in car-centered societies. 20 minutes to work. 20 minutes home. Add another 20 minutes if you do anything else but home to work. That's an hour a day. You've also wasted an hour doing nothing that might have otherwise been spent walking. Now you need to borrow another hour for the gym or some kind of physical activity… and that assumes you don't drive to a gym (one of the the most bizarre things people do). But that's two hours a day that just feels "wasted," and that's a best case scenario. Then there is the cost of the car, insurance, gas, maintenance. The hours that all translates into. Add it all up over the year and you spend like 15-20% of your waking hours dealing with the reality of the car. For some, it's more.

I also feel like a peculiar externality of car-centric society is anger. I get why. You are wasting all your time in the car. You aren't walking. No exercise. Fast food. Parking. I can see why people who are pro-car want space—they are angry all the time. They need space to cool off. There is even a face that I call "car face" which is that kinda pissed off for no reason always in a rush face. People who "love cars" and don't find it "stressful at all" seem to have this face to the max.

[stetrain]

It’s also a real, significant, direct hazard to human life.

Over 100 people a day in the US die in traffic incidents. And that’s not counting survivable but traumatic injuries.

[themagician]

Yeah, I didn't even account for that. Drive enough and you get into an accident. Add all the hours and cost to dealing with that. You'll probably get somewhat injured, even if minor. Physical therapy and healing time. Lifelong back pain. Now you DO need to drive to a gym for physical therapy. More car time.

I also think about how my nutrition has declined DRAMATICALLY with a car. Gone are the days of fresh lettuce and berries unless you drive to the grocery store every day. Gas stations should sell ozempic at the pump.

[bryanlarsen]

car face vs pedestrian face: https://theoatmeal.com/pl/minor_differences/cutting_off

[themagician]

Love it.

[xnx]

> it's the amount of stress, time and money that is wasted in car-centered societies

Commuting by train also involves a lot of stress: unexplained and indeterminate delays, filth, crime, dependence on multiple stages (walking, bus, train, walking, etc.)

[bkettle]

It'd be fairly easy to argue that all of these are due to transit being treated as second-class transportation for poor people.

[dzhiurgis]

Some of these and I think you’ve got cause and effect mixed up

[bkettle]

That’s the tough part; it’s self-reinforcing :) both are causes and both are effects, and we’ve got to break the cycle somewhere.

But no, all of them. Low usage causes service cuts, which cause low usage because you can’t rely on transit, causes delays because there isn’t enough service to make up for failures and there isn’t enough investment for grade separation and maintenance, etc

[queenkjuul]

I've never experienced crime on the train and i live in Chicago. The train isn't always clean but I've never found it filthy, either.

I put my headphones on and read on my phone. It's never stressful.