Exactly where I was going with my question. There would need to be steep penalties for being caught trying to undermine the process. Even if they had made an honest mistake, I feel the individuals holding the power of a prosecutor should be expected to held to a higher standard, and therefore higher consequence.

Not that I agree with you, but what's your idea of the prosecutor's consequence? A fine? Firing? Disbarment?

There is something to be said for the effort they made. The wheels can be switched from 24 to 26, and the frame has a few adjustments to lengthen it and correct the geometry for taller riders.

Unless things have changed since I last rode a mountain bike, 26 is pretty common on the trails. You could maybe start at age eight and lengthen the bike around 11-12 depending the height of the rider. It's not inconceivable they could ride it into their teens. I think the harder part with children on ebikes is handling the weight.

The young one would need to be rather proficient on two wheels already for me to consider an ebike at all though. Even if I could expect six years out it, it'd be damn annoying to pull the trigger and see it parked after a year.

Certainly strikes me how years ago a certain company was constantly touting the electric vehicle platform they made could have basically any shape of car you want on it, and how that went out the window not too long after.

If I were in the market, I would be trying to get my hands on a Microlino. Though I'd probably settle for a Fiat 500 or similar. I do wish there were more competition in that space though. If only the automakers weren't so driven by profit.

To be easier on your torment the poor-o-metre, one possibility could be to charge a yearly fee for a safety inspection on a personal car, with the fee being scaled by its weight. This way, cars would be safer generally, and people driving a Smart Fortwo would only be out the time it took to get the inspection.

These sorts of inspections are already in place in several countries like the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany. Some countries also require higher annual registration costs for heavier vehicles, with other places adding inflated street side parking fees. Think of this as sort of an amalgamation of all these things.

The higher the delta between fees for driving a compact car and a large pick up truck is, the more reason people might see in not choosing the F-150. I'm not saying everyone should be cruising around in a Chang Li, but even downsizing the truck lovers to a Chevrolet S-10 would be great. Though of course, the manufacturers would have to make smaller trucks again, which means less profit, and la de da you know how the shareholders feel about that.

Side note, I see people in the summer driving their Jeeps with the doors off. Not my cup of tea but damn if it doesn't look cool as hell.

Based on your other comments, I'm going to wish you well and hope tomorrow you have a better day. Cheers.

I don't see that norimee's initial comment was edited. I do see that your reply to them has been.

This is more of the kind of vehicle I want to see. Roof height low enough the average person car see right over, narrow enough to fit comfortably in a parking space, and the same length as an F-150 with the box chopped off.

I've read the root comment a few times and cannot see what you're huffing about. They didn't say anything about the creation of the weapons.

The entire comment revolved around the country's capability of keeping one in functional condition without an accident occurring, as seems to so often happen.

Oh the life insurance thing I had meant health insurance, thinking if you get injured during the burglary, your deductible would still be cheaper than purchasing an entire car. Complete flub on my part.

I've certainly changed an entire project based on some thing I didn't know existed in the hardware store before. Walking around and looking at various things can be useful. In this regard I am an outlier in that I have a cargo trailer for my bike that I do use for bringing home small lumber and odds and ends. Definitely not ideal when I've realized I forgot something, but that's fortunately a rarity.

You mentioned soil. I'm going to guess you're talking about those bags they have in the garden centre. I can't think of anything I've done where I only needed a few of those personally. The times I needed topsoil or mulch or stone, I've just gotten either a yard delivered in one of those square bags, or a larger amount from a tilt truck.

What we disagree on is the grocery store point. While I don't now, not too long ago I lived in an area where a couple bakeries, a deli, a butcher with weird hours, and a small produce / vegetable market were all within walking distance. This allowed me to pop by on my way home to grab something for the evening. I did this most days, and at most it added ten minutes to my journey. Not hyperbole here, I would take a street or two detour and be in and out in a few minutes with the few things I needed.

Given these places didn't have parking lots akin to a modern Walmart or Target, it was always easy to get in and out without navigating through a sea of parked sedans making the entrance to the store hundreds of feet from the sidewalk. We didn't need to do the weekly or biweekly hour or longer trips to the shops. I did that when I was a child and I greatly prefer frequent handfuls of purchases to loading up a trolley.

Kind of like performing oil changes every few months or whenever instead of changing the motor every other year. Maybe not a great analogy but you get my point I'm sure.

Having these huge superstores set up shop and drive the smaller competition out of business isn't a model I like. I see it as damaging to the local economy, the people that end up having to shop there, and the people that end up working there. Walmart is a prime example of this sort of practice. Even if it's cheaper in the beginning, it never stays like that.

Despite the disagreements, it is nice to have a chat with someone that's got a different perspective without the conversation turning ugly. Cheers for that.

Autonomy is enjoyable. I understand keeping a car for that purpose in today's cities. However, if there were multiple methods of crossing the city in a similar timeframe, keeping a car is a high expense. It is possible to have light rail and bus services in a city where no one waits at any stop more than a few minutes because of the high frequency. Imagine if you had access to a $5 trip across your city in the same time it takes currently to drive. Sure, I'm being idealistic here, but in that scenario, why drive when you can be driven?

I assume you took a look at the page I linked, but if not, the figures that 52% of trips are less than three miles are not of all trips ever taken. They are for daily, regularly occurring, expected trips. This removes from consideration that odd trip out of town, those summer trips to the lumber yard, and certainly the emergency hospital visits.

For all these out of the norm trips, keep your car. With good public transit, you don't even need to check a schedule. Just hop on something that's going towards your destination. Use it for your commute, for your trips to see friends, for going out with your spouse. Use the car when something comes up unexpectedly.

I'm not trying to rag on you specifically, but I'll go over your examples of non regular trips you either make or are prepared for:

Going to get groceries on a whim;

Wouldn't it be nice to live a few minutes walk from a grocery? Everyone should, given we must eat. Imagine if supermarket departments were instead their own shops, distributed through your neighbourhood.

Bulky purchases;

Not sure what you had in mind, but furniture, major appliances, lumber, yard mulch, garden stones, etc, can all be delivered. Yes, often at a fee, but if you're buying something like this once or twice a year, it's well cheaper than a car.

Driving across town to bring someone else to an emergency room;

If you're talking a scheduled doctors visit, then these aren't on a moments notice events. As far as actual, proper emergencies go, ignoring the existence of ambulance service, even if you no longer had a car, there's probably cars around you. I've waived a stranger down on the road for a trip to the hospital. I've knocked on the door of people I don't know that had a car in the driveway. By and large, people will help you in such a scenario. I'm also sure that coworkers would offer up their car if a family member wound up in the hospital when you'd ridden a bike to work.

A home burglary

Here I'm at a disadvantage, given I don't live somewhere the odds of this are even one in a million. I suppose I'll just say that car ownership for this situation seems more costly than a decent security system and maybe life insurance.

I'll leave off with the suggestion that if you can broaden your horizons, there are a large number of places in existence today that have multiple methods of local - and even high speed regional - transit where the autonomy and convenience people gain in their lives by not being chained to a personal vehicle is undeniable. Cost savings for the car free citizens; cost savings for the municipality or country; better physical health on average; less pollution; less noise.

Best part about getting people out of cars? Less traffic people who keep their cars.

So long as executives have a fiduciary responsibility to generate returns for the shareholders, they can dust their hands of making decisions that kill customers so long as a profit is made.