A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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"I can beat them all to the next red light."
Oh man.
I remember when I think it was Houston started using timed lights, the idiots said that a light timed for 30 MPH was also timed for 60 and 90 MPH. It's hard to comprehend such stupidity and bad math.
Houston is the only place where I've ever been passed on the right ... while I was in the right lane.
Were they just driving on peoples lawns or something?
This was on the interstate, they were driving on the shoulder. I was going with traffic at about 95 mph and they (like ten cars in a row) passed me on the shoulder going easily 15-20 mph faster than me. Extra crazy because the shoulders in Houston are loaded with all kinds of shit and debris.
I want to believe that Houston allows shoulder driving during certain hours. I believe you. But I don't actually want to believe that many people did that.
On a part of 405 in Seattle we have a "shoulder" that opens for traffic during rush hour simply for the fact that people would use it anyway to get to the exit ahead. So they just made it allowed.
I want believe that's what happened. But probably not.
I think in my case it was people jumping onto the shoulder to get to the exit up ahead. But "up ahead" was like two miles here.
That happened to me in SF/Mountain View. I was down there for an interview. I'd never visited the region before. It's like Mad Max on the freeways.
At a red light a woman decided she wasn't going to wait four cars back. Instead she just pulled over the curb, drove over lawns and headed down the road. No honking, just plowing across property to skip a light. We caught up to her at the next red light.
whilst I agree with the message, no busses are that narrow
There's some artistic liberties taken but neither are the bike lanes or passenger cars that narrow.
The bike lane doesn't have a car parked in it, also...
You're morally obligated to smash mirrors on cars parked on bike lanes
Well, if we use the car to scale - the bike should be 1 seat wide, the bus stop should be 2 seats wide, and the bus itself should be 5 seats wide
Someone with photoshop skills needs to fix this
It's fine, even in it's current form it still manages to drive in the point
The artistic liberties contradict the point it's supposed to make.
Cars aren't that small, and buses aren't that uncomfortable.
No bus has that little people in it either
There are many cases when a bus can have a really small amount of people, sometimes 1 or 2
This is some sci-fi bus where the guy takes off his backpack and no one is blasting Skrillex on a Bluetooth speaker abomination.
I was on my usual bike ride a couple of years ago. On a particularly wide road, a car passed me and went way over into the other lane to do so, even though he could have kept the required 4' distance from me without crossing the double yellow line. Because he went so far into the opposite lane, a van coming the opposite way had to slow down a little bit - not even stop, just slow down. As this van passed me, the driver literally stuck his upper body out the window and yelled "you're gonna get somebody killed!" ... at me, not at the driver of the car that passed me.
I just couldn't believe the insanity of this dude. Like, I didn't make the fucking car pass me like that, and at most it made him get to the red light two seconds later than he otherwise would have.
This reminds me "nice" cars that do stupid shit because they see a biker. I just want cars to be predictable. I don't want them to be nice.
I can't stand the "oh I'll stop for you when I'm not supposed to at this 2 way stop" cars.
Like, dude. This doesn't help me. I have to wait and make sure the the car coming up behind you also stops and doesn't just pass you because you're being stupid.
And then now there is a car coming the other way and they aren't stopping (because they don't actually have a stop sign).
Can you just drive safe and predictable? I literally WANT to wait here until there are NO cars. Not 3-4 cars I now have to hope stop and don't kill me.
When people do this I literally just get off my bike now to make it obvious I don't want their "help". I've had too many times where people doing this have put me in danger. I have eyes. I want to wait until it's clear.
I understand and empathize with your frustration, as a commuter long boarder i have similar sentiments about how politeness can inconvenience me because of the precautions i have to take to stay safe. I would, however, like to point out that you are complaining about people putting in an earnest effort to exercise empathy for you; those who don't bike or otherwise do not have the experience to know that predictability is key, but they are otherwise attempting to care for your well being
Absolutely. Which is why it's so hard to get upset at them. I appreciate the gesture. But unfortunately we live in a world of cars. A nice gesture can quickly end with someone getting hurt.
Like, there is no world in which these nice polite gestures between bikes or pedestrians would ever have such high stakes. But sadly cars make it impossible.
The thing is that predictability is always key when you're driving no mater the situation. These are the same people who dont take their fucking right of way and wind up slowing down everyone. These are the same people who will stop inside a roundabout to let someone in and wind up causing a traffic jam.
Being "nice" behind the wheel is just being an asshole because you want to pat yourself on the back. Don't be "nice" while driving, be predictable.
Comic misses a parked car
Nᴏ Wᴀʀ Bᴜᴛ Cʟᴀss Wᴀʀ
Yeah, that matches my experience on public transport alright.
Crammed in so tight you can't even bend a knee, and god help you if you're travelling with luggage or groceries...
That's not really a car issue, that's a "no-one invests in public transport" issue.
That’s not really a car issue, that’s a “no-one invests in public transport” issue.
...which is absolutely a car issue. It's not happening for no reason!
People don't invest in public transit because they have cars. Imagine if cars were banned. People would be falling over themselves to improve the systems they need to use every day.
Also too many public transport is being treated like a business, where you optimally want to cut expense therefore always reduce frequency until the vehicle is crammed to full capacity.
The only thing cars are better at than public transit and/or riding a bike (or similar), is traveling long distances. I'm not talking about your commute to the office; I'm taking about driving a percentage of the way across the country.
In that context and that context only, vehicles move more quickly, more consistently, and without needing as many breaks. With the obvious caveat of: traffic.
Other than that, for any notable Metro area, public transit should be the default, not your backup plan when your vehicle won't start.
Airplanes, long distance busses, or trains?
Cars a good for long distance travel to the middle of nowhere. Which I personally rarely do, if I need to, I carpool or rent a car.
I live in the middle of nowhere, I am basically obligated to own a car.
Circumstances have always demanded that I have one. Whether work demands, or simply being able to travel away from my house at all.
If I lived and worked in a city, at a job that didn't demand a vehicle, I wouldn't have one.
On trains in the US-
I have to be across the country soon, and looked into the best ways to get there. I axed airplanes due to a fear of flying at this time.
A car would've gotten me there in 50 hours, the train takes 75. I went with the train bc I would be exhausted driving for 50 hours. In the US, trains are much less time efficient for cross country travel 9 times out of 10.
(Amtrak is a private company and not owned by the government. i wonder why this is.... /s)
Cars are actually sub-par for long distance travel. They have to stop to refuel every few hundred miles, require horrifyingly expensive highway infrastructure to travel at speed, have to manually negotiate all intersections / exchanges, and their individualized form factor multiplies the maintenance upkeep required for that sort of mileage. Trains and planes both kick their ass at distance travel in different ways.
What cars are actually superior at is medium to short distance adhoc hauling trips at medium speeds on the edges of a transportation system. Rural work and visits, last mile drop-offs, back country mobility.
What cars are actually superior at is medium to short distance adhoc hauling trips at medium speeds on the edges of a transportation system
Motorcycles/scooters. You can get way more out of limited road infrastructure and are much more flexible when it comes to obstacles such as traffic.
The public transit vehicles that go short distance are optimized for short distances. The ones that go long distance are designed differently. This is feasible, because there is no need for a single vehicle to work both short range and long range routes.
Take busses for example:
Yeah that sounds about right.
Countries with super good train infrastructure can get around that pretty well but countries without that would rely on cars.
Even then I would much rather be in a TGV going 300 kph than driving a car myself for hours on end..
The standard for passenger rail over long distances is 200kmh, which is about 124mph. Can your Toyota pickup do that?
No. I also don't own a Toyota, or a pickup. But I need to go to my city in "middle of nowhere". Your high speed train, local transit buses, and even taxis, don't go where I live.
There's lots of cases where vehicle ownership is not a requirement. There's also plenty of examples where if you don't have a vehicle, you're just not going anywhere.
public transit is only that crowded one trip in a hundred in my city. This comic feels anti-bus as much as it feels anti-car.
I believe the author is making a statement about the hypocrisy of the carbrained. The choice to depict busses as crowded is to emphasize that point - but I agree, it's not painting buses in a flattering way