Opinion | Owning a Car Will Soon Be as Quaint as Owning a Horse

submitted by Vigte from nytimes.com

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[–]cmdrrockawesome 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Here’s the thing — if you want something to go away that people use regularly, you need to give them a viable alternative. The only places where something like what the author described would would is large metropolitan cities. And even then, it wouldn’t work everywhere.

I live in Southern California. There is no conceivable way something like this would work here. We’re all too spread out and many of our commutes are just too long. Carpooling isn’t always an option and many of us need the freedom of our own vehicles to conduct business and run errands. Car sharing services would make all that difficult.

[–]Vigte[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

What a fantastic reply!

This is why much more thought needs to go into any kind of "large scale" solutions to our problems - we can't just say "no more planes, k guys?".

It's foolish and idealistic - despite being well-meaning.

What do you think - cars forever? I mean people drive like trash now - stuck to the road. Imagine flying cars - you'd have flaming fireballs falling from the sky every day... too dangerous.

Automation is probably key but still - we can't make a cellphone that functions reliably enough for me to be willing to trust my life to tech, let alone a car lol.

I think the answer, at least to the transport problem, is simply going to be better filters in the exhaust and free-standing air purifiers and planted forests... I can't see another way out.

[–]cmdrrockawesome 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've worked in the transportation industry for over 17 years. I know automation and self-driving cars will happen at some point (probably in the next 20-30 years), but the general public's understanding of self-driving and automation isn't what will actually happen. You'll likely see platooning) of commercial vehicles first. This will likely be the only type of self-driving vehicles you see on the road in large numbers.

What I think needs to happen is large-scale investment in light rail and public transit. That's the most realistic way to get us all out of our cars. No bullet train nonsense like my state has been attempting. Light rail systems within cities and larger metropolitan complexes and then bus systems to get riders from depots to their destination. As it stands right now, in most cities around me it takes anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour to go just a few miles via bus. That's unacceptable. The only reason people take the bus is because they have no other options. You need to provide people with viable alternatives and entire them to use them, lest you breed resentment.

[–]Vigte[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Another example of over-eager progressives missing the point entirely.

You can't just make things go away because they're bad, especially if they're doing all the work for you - let alone propping up the economy.

It would be nice to have a world without guns or trolls or hatred - but that's not reality anymore. Cars exist and unless - as the author suggests, people head towards no private property, they're not going away.

Foolish idealism is not the solution to our problems.