WASHINGTON—In a trend that is reducing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels by curtailing the total number of cars on the road, a study released Thursday by the Transportation Department found that more Americans than ever are commuting to work splattered on the grill of a Ford F-150. “Increasingly, U.S.…
Yes, punish us poor people who have no other option than to commute instead of the mega-corporstions. Good thinking.
Car dependency punishes poor people. The solution is viable alternatives, for which having fewer cars is often very beneficial.
Raising the gas prices 10x overnight won’t create those alternatives overnight, nor will it put petrol companies out of business because they pass the cost on to consumers who are mostly forced to buy gas at whatever the current price is with no other viable transportation method.
Infrastructure takes time. Sadly the US govt isn’t even at the starting line for any meaningful public transit system in most cities.
If gas prices went up 10x overnight, some higher earners could switch to working from home (a positive result), but other industries such as retail don’t really get that luxury… Contributing to more wealth inequality
No shit, I’m not saying that.
Yes, but that alternative infrastructure needs to be in place before you can start really discouraging cars with, for example, high gas prices. Raising gas prices to that extent right now in most places outside of a few major cities would just cause people not to be able to get to work.
So because you think alternatives that don’t exist should you would raise gas prices and obscene amount and put people on the streets?
I live in a small rural town where everybody commutes to their factory job and is already barely scraping by. What do you think all those people should do to stave off being homeless when they can’t afford to drive?
I think the alternatives should be good enough that raising gas prices isn’t a problem.
Please tell me your plan to collect all of the people spread across half of a state who commute to a central location.
Mobility enables poor people. Not all poor people live in an idealistic 15-minute city.
I don’t think rural living makes sense if you’re also commuting. Small towns can have good transport links to other nearby towns but I don’t think it makes sense to support those who decide they want to live beyond the practical reach of public services just for the sake of it.
I understand that you’re doing a thought experiment about futuristic utopias but I am talking about the current situation right now and a comment that started this chain.
People live in rural areas whether you think they should or not and raising gas prices to reduce car travel disproportionately affects those people.
Now, if there was some way for poor people to get fuel credits or something so that they’re empowered with mobility maybe that would work.
We also should probably not make farming any harder than it already is.
It’s not a utopia, it’s perfectly possible if we work towards it.
And I said
Specifically to exclude farmers
In 2020 according to statistics 82.66% of all americans lived in cities, not spread across half the state. Urban areas and country side should be developed differently of course.
And as everyone knows, all those 82% are commuting to the same place
TIL cities cant have central mass transport
We’re talking about rural areas.
True
Dude, i live in the fucking state of mexico, we don’t even have rail. And even when we touch the city it’s at least half an hour to get to the city center of Mexico city.
And yet, u know what makes it possible for me to come work every day to the city? Public transport.
So yeah, fuck that idea about how it wouldn’t work, put some buses to work out there and even the traffic problem will be lessened since there will be less cars on the road, not to mention how it should be even cheaper since the cost of transportation its gonna be equally split in a bigger ammount of passengers.
You have bikes and busses. Everyone does.
Of course the increase tax on carbon would directly fund giving poor people free bus tickets and bicycle maintenance
I live in a city that has ‘good’ transit by North American standards. It’s 25km from my house to the office, and takes about half an hour to drive. If I were to take the supposedly ‘good’ transit, it would take 2 hours each way. That would mean that both my spouse and I would leave home before our kids even wake up, so they would have to manage getting themselves out of bed, fed, and off to school with no parent in the house, we would get home far too late to take them to any extracurricular activities, never mind making sure they eat healthy home cooked meals. I could move closer to the office, but then my COL would increase by 2-3X, meaning that all the good stuff I can afford for them now would become too expensive.
So sure, I have transit, but it’s fucking useless.
Thats the problem. Ask the goverment for some public transport for gods sake.
Edit just to show u how weak u r ; https://mujico.org/pictrs/image/d0b86a68-d9f5-49f8-9578-b58e6c1e1c5c.jpeg
So let’s tax carbon so more people are forced to take busses and trains and it gets better for everyone
Bikes and buses are great if you go from one central location to another central location.
Do you know how long bus routes are in rural counties? Imagine the logistics of trying to collect all the adults that want to get to work.
we do pretty much this in my country
I would love to see this.
Im gonna say something completely resonable and yet sound like a crazy person cause u lot love cars so much.
TRAINS, u can make it like the ones in the rural areas of germany which works almost like a bus.
Shit, i live in a god damn 3rd world country and i can’t belive we have better public transport than u.