Image transcript:

Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes) sitting at a lemonade stand, smiling, with a sign that reads, “Trains and micromobility are inevitably the future of urban transportation, whether society wants it or not. CHANGE MY MIND.”

    • Scrof@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah that’s a bold assumption. My bet is on “it’s going to get progressively worse and never better”. I have yet to be proven wrong. Since the day I was born everything’s been enshittening with only inconsequential cosmetic improvements (lol technology, what a joke).

    • Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      If nothing else, car dependency is fiscally unsustainable. We might go kicking and screaming towards the solution, but eventually people will have no choice but to abandon the financial suicide that is making your city car dependent.

  • Hikiru@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    The more people try to “innovate” transportation the closer it gets to going back to trains. Driverless cars, for efficiency have them communicate with eachother, to accelerate and brake at the same time, for example. That’s just less efficient and more expensive trains.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    We shouldn’t take anything for granted. The US has happily killed it’s cities for decades instead of investing in public transit. If we don’t push for it, car companies and rich people will keep public transportation from ever taking off.

    If remote work takes off, and ordering most everything online, I wonder if urban sprawl will get even worse.

  • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    01·
    1 year ago

    I wonder how a train is picking up my walking disabled mother from three Kilometres afar?

    Will a train stop at my house to pick up my some two tons of gardening scraps per year?

    At which time will it deliver my 100kg of groceries per week?

    • t_jpeg@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      1. Accessible trains that cover long distances (particularly high-speed rail) with trains that have floors at the level of the platform, like any European country with a competent public transport system. “Your mother” could also use something like a microcar to get to the station, which is allowed on bike lanes in the Netherlands as long as she can prove she has a disability.

      2. No, but your sons would have an easier and safer time getting around with protected bike lanes, which is precisely why parents in the Netherlands never have to do school runs.

      3. Your groceries will get to you faster the less unneccessary road users are there due to less induced demand. Do you honestly think countries that heavily rely on public transport don’t have businesses that use the road regularly? Do you honestly think they have no emergency services (ambulances, firetrucks, police cars)? Have you actually thought about examples of how countries that actually exist using good public transport amenities and dense housing operate? Or are you just against change?

      • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        01·
        1 year ago

        You meticulously avoided all hard questions. No problem, I just repeat them for you:

        I wonder how a train is picking up my walking disabled mother from three Kilometres afar?

        Will a train stop at my house to pick up my some two tons of gardening scraps per year?

        At which time will it deliver my 100kg of groceries per week?

        Also, How does a long distance train help my mother to get the 3km to her doctor?

        How does a train help me buying building materials? Last week I bought 400kg of tiles. One drive with a car. It would have taken ten travels with a train if the train did stop inside the hardware store and directly in front of my house. Delivery by truck would have cost €50.

        A “micro car” is not only insanely expensive, it also has no room for my mothers wheelchair.

        My country has one of the best public transport systems in the western world. Everything you mention is available here. We can drive EVERYWHERE for a €49 flat rate and we have three bus stops within 100 metres. Still that doesn’t help to solve a single problem I mentioned earlier.

        Oh, and spending €245 for a family trip in a train? Not gonna happen. With the car it is a €10 trip.

        But there is a actually a solution which could work: Robotaxis at very low prices per km. It wouldn’t lower the traffic but reduce the parked cars and the TCO of personal transport.

        Please give me moar bullshittery to mock you. It is fun.