this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Fuck Cars

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

Can anybody tell me how much a drive through the congestion priced road would cost? Like a straight line?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 minutes ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 minutes ago (1 children)

inb4 the supreme court rules that congestion charging is unconstitutional and furthermore that public transport, too, is unconstitutional.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 minutes ago

Exhaust Now Vents Directly Into Cab: EPA says, "For your health!"

[–] [email protected] 103 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Congestion pricing is such a good idea everywhere there is rock solid public transit alternatives. Where there's not, it just becomes a tax on the poor.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

bicycles are good too, though maybe not for the longer distances that you would put congestion taxes on

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 minutes ago

How long are those distances?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 hour ago

Can be good. I ride my bike when I can, but my area IS NOT built for it, so it actually pretty risky. Heck some normal routes for me would probably get me stopped by the cops for recklessness.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 57 minutes ago

If I were rich, I would support congestion pricing. I could sell my helicopter. Who needs to fly over traffic when there is no traffic?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

If you can afford a car, you can afford an e-bike, even a cargo e-bike. Cars are luxuries compared to bicycles. Never forget that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 53 minutes ago

I don't know where you live, but that's just not true in large swaths of America. The other options add multiple hours round trip anywhere and in many parts of the US it's not an option.

My work is currently a 20 minute drive down a freeway going 60 mph. There is no bus to take that route. There isn't even a connection, or a transfer, the only other option would be a cab.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Maybe if you live somewhere it doesn’t snow

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

This is valid if your city doesn't have dedicated bike infrastructure that gets plowed. Snow can be hardly an inconvenience at all if bike infrastructure is treated with equal importance as car infrastructure.

Oh the Urbanity! on Youtube has a really realistic take on this in Montreal: https://youtu.be/sokHu9bhpn8

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 minutes ago
[–] [email protected] 110 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Outstanding move on NYC's part.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Prior to this going live there was a lot of talk about how congestion will simply move from one place to another. I don't know new york so can't name places but it was regarding commuters using a street or bridge that is now under congestion charge so they will flow an alternative route through roads that aren't designed for the additional traffic.

Is that now the case?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (4 children)

Some people may be inclined to go up and over Central Park to get to the other side without paying the $9. That likely only affects uptown residents. I can’t imagine anyone driving around the park from midtown to avoid the fee.

The only legitimate concerns I’ve read are from contractors with tools and small businesses who deliver. They should be offered exceptions if walking or mass transit are unrealistic options. You’re not riding the subway with acetylene tanks or delivering fresh meat on Metro North. Other than that, I love it.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The other concern I've heard, and has not been brought up in this thread yet, is the lobbying influence from rideshare companies to pass the congestion laws.

It's arguable that ride share vehicles are a better traffic density alternative to single rider personal vehicles, but there are pretty clear downsides to consider as well.

Source:

https://nypost.com/2025/01/04/us-news/uber-lyft-spent-millions-pushing-for-nyc-congestion-pricing-and-stand-to-make-killing/

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 hour ago

You can be self interested and still accidentally be on the right side of an issue. It doesn't spark joy, but I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater on this. It's still a win, imo.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 53 minutes ago (1 children)

I've paid more just to go through the park lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 51 minutes ago

On purpose? You’re a patient fellow. Lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

sure, but you can also deliver those with lighter vehicles that don't cause traffic. Congestion is congestion.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 hour ago

I'm confused. How will I deliver 15 pounds of Trump skirt Steaks if I can't drive my lifted Ram 3500 Heavy Duty with the high-output Cummins Turbo Diesel engine in downtown Manhattan?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Of all the things on Reddit, I miss remindmebot the most. They tried to kill it numerous times but it survived like a roach in radiation. On lemmy, I find an interesting question and have to set a timer for myself. This is the most first-world of problems, but I’m still moderately upset every time

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Good luck. The bot hasn't sent a message in almost a year.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Does anyone have a good before screenshot of the same map view / area? I want to stitch together a before shot before I share so that people not from the area can get an idea of the change and not just immediately think "oh well my small town has traffic and it looks like that so what's the big deal"

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

not exactly but with Google Maps you can setup a route with a start time set in the past and look at the congestion at that moment:

[–] [email protected] 3 points 51 minutes ago* (last edited 20 minutes ago) (1 children)

Gotcha, I found that on desktop you can do "average traffic" for a day of the week and time for the whole map without putting in a destination so I picked an average Monday at 5:30:

[–] [email protected] 2 points 48 minutes ago

oh nice then that's exactly what you needed :)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

Lmfao, that's the same distance as my commute to work, and I can bike that in 17-20 minutes

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 hours ago

We've been seeing a lot of anecdotal posting on Xitter of people who were skeptics or in opposition to this suddenly realizing that they just gained an hour or more per day because the traffic has been significantly reduced. So even some regular people (i.e. not the wealthy) who have to drive in NYC because of their job are realizing that there's a cost benefit even if they do pay for the congestion pricing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 hours ago

You need longitudinal data to make any clear conclusions. Market actors will compensate in other areas to adjust to an increased cost. This immediate change is evidence of a transitory shock to the space and nothing more.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 hours ago (15 children)

Nice. Now cars are only for the rich like they should be.

Real solution: Ban cars in parts of NYC.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Right because everyone needing a car means everyone who can't afford one just automatically gets one.

Step one of reducing car-dependency is to reduce their number on the road. Then you can start bulding shit that accommodates the poor through actually nice-to-use public transit, bicycle paths, and walking routes.

Charge the rich. Build for the poor. Better yet, charge the rich, build for everyone. Not just cars. Because not everyone has cars.

Like FFS "good job now the poor can't drive" is hardly a comeback when it's like the most expensive mode of transit, massively subsidized with taxpayer money, just to kind of make it work. It wasn't something that could be made affordable or even efficient enough for everyone to use on a daily basis to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Zippity zoppity let's redistribute some property

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Cut to me dramatically removing my "fuck cars" jacket to reveal a "fuck private property" t-shirt

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

What was that saying again, something along the lines of: A great city is not where the poor own and drive cars, but the rich take public transportation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 minutes ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation.

- Gustavo Petro, current president of Colombia, former mayor of Bogota

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Now cars are only for the rich

More that roads are for high occupancy or professional vehicles - buses, ambulances, construction vehicles, commercial trucks - that still need access to Manhattan but can't be placed on a train.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Buses --> tram

Ambulances --> single lane road/biking path

Construction vehicles, commercial trucks --> single lane road

Problem solved, no need for cars inside the city

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Ambulances --> single lane road/biking path

I should not need to explain why running an ambulance down a bike lane is a bad idea.

Construction vehicles, commercial trucks --> single lane road

Why would reducing the number of road lanes without implementing congestion pricing be a preferable solution? How would this improve access to construction vehicles and wide-body trucks?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 44 minutes ago

No, you should explain why ambulances using bike lanes is a problem as multiple european countries do that and it works perfectly.

Because reducing lanes means less people will use the road because if you literally cant get anywhere with a car you will use an alternative(of course that has to be provided). Also this is another european thing but you can just ban cars that are not there to do stuff(idk what they call it english but in hungarian its "célforgalom").

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 hours ago (6 children)

I REALLY wish they'd implement that in my home city of Montréal, Québec. We're facing huge traffic congestion because of construction. It's so bad it's actually costing lives due to driver impatience.

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