this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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What country do you live in?
Most North Americans are too obsessed with cars to consider a world where they don't drive everywhere.
Most Americans are not obsessed with cars; they see cars as necessary. Those are not the same. Introduce them to good public transit and you would see change.
It's a small minority of Americans who are really into cars.
I live in a city with solid public transportation and bike infrastructure, easily top 10 in North America. Almost everyone I know takes public transit only when it's convenient (ie they want to drink) but otherwise drives everywhere. I don't know a single person who advocates for more public transportation or bike infrastructure.
Top 10 in North America is still pretty bad.
People need to grow up with this infrastructure being in place, seeing it used by regular people for basic tasks like going to work or the grocery store. Seeing it in movies and other media (in a positive/neutral way). It needs to be normalized. Unfortunately, that takes a long time and a ton of money.
The truth is, right now, in the United States, most public transit is absolutely horrible. It doesn't serve many locations, it's usually crappy old buses with stains on their seats, there's often one or more individuals with overt mental health issues, and public transit in general is associated with poverty.
You're not going to get people using public transit regularly if it's not normalized, incentivized, clean, safe, etc. It's a tough problem, to be sure. Some places are making a lot of progress on it, such as where I live in Seattle, but it's an uphill battle due to the way the United States was built to be car-centric.
By the way, if you don't know anyone who advocates for public transit and uses it more regularly than you say, I doubt you are in the top 10.
I live in Vancouver, easily top 10 city, probably top 5. And yeah you're right, I do know two people who advocate, my aunt and uncle. No one else I know is even remotely passionate about urbanization efforts. Lots of people I know use public transit, but they don't view it as something that can be relied on as their main form of transportation. Yes, the fact that our public transit is not nearly as good as it could be is a huge part of it, but the point remains that most people do not feel strongly about improving it.
I'm sure my privilege has kept me in a bit of a bubble but there are seriously very few people who feel strongly about public transit and cycling infrastructure. Even my less privileged friends are hardly advocates for better infrastructure and the people I've met through sports leagues all drive, I'm literally the only person I know who rides a bike everywhere they go. I used to frequent a local news website and any article that mentioned road diets or public transportation became toxic battlefields between pro and anti car folks.
There is absolutely a significant group of advocates in the city, but I really feel like you're misjudging the percentage of people who support urbanization efforts.
Not quite. Most literally couldn't survive without a car, due to the infrastructure of the city/town they live in. They are a necessity for the vast majority of folks.
I get that, but a significant portion of people fight tool and nail against any and all attempts to reduce car dependency in cities.
Maybe that's it. I live in the Netherlands where people mostly cycle and use public transport. Sure we have cars too but you can live your life without needing to own one here.
Also lots of people are installing solar panels due to government incentives and a similar incentive has people switch to electric cars.
The company I rent my house from has installed solar panels, thicker windows and wall insulation to get my home to an A energy label. And I am using LED light around the house, put on a sweater instead of turning on the heat, am using a newer computer that uses a lot less power, and I try to conserve water by showering shorter and not doing a full flush of the toilet if it isn't needed. Oh and I've removed some tiles from my garden zo that there is more ground available to take up the rainwater. And I've installed a rainwater barrel so I can collect water to use in the garden. I'm trying to move to cooking on electric but my homes electrical wiring is not quite up to that yet.
[edit] Oh and drinking tea all day from a thermos so I don't have to keep boiling water all the time.