this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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Fuck Cars

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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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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This country only works if gas is cheap...and it's already too late for that. Oopsie daisy I guess.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Or electricity, if we weren’t afraid of change. But even with some of the highest electricity prices in the country, I pay about half what i would for gas

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I pay about half what i would for gas

For now... But ultimately EVs are unsustainable too.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of progress

Replacing ICE cars with EVs are a solid amount of progress, it’s progress within control of individuals, and it’s progress that can change society in a decade or two.

Transit and walkability would be better but I can’t do anything about that and significant progress would be a century or more.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Nah. With the right reforms, we could make cities walkable in a decade.

  • Land value tax
  • Carbon tax
  • End single use zoning and upzone everything
  • End parking minimums and free public parking
  • Streamline building permits
  • More in-the-weeds zoning reform, like removing minimum lot sizes, removing setbacks, removing aesthetic constraints, etc
  • Defacto policy of not removing privately installed speed bumps that people make in front of their houses

Of course, good infrastructure and transit would be nice, too. But these reforms would cost very little money and could be implemented immediately, and would likely result in a city overrun with chaotic, uncontrollable ebike traffic - which I'm okay with.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That only affects new construction. Most places aren’t growing anywhere near fast enough for such a quick change, nor are there anywhere near enough contractors or supplies

My town has most of it (but nowhere should accept individuals impacting road safety and maintainability) and is somewhat walkable but most of that was from being built out before cars.

We did have a recent zoning change to encourage more higher density housing near the center (up to six stories “as of right” == streamlined process) and have several new apartment blocks going up, but there’s no way that’s sustainable and doesn’t help the walkability of the rest of town

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The land value and carbon taxes are key here. The carrot is people seeking better, happier lives and developers seeking to turn a profit - the lower bullet points serve to allow these carrots to be attained. But the taxes are the stick. And people tend to move a lot faster when you beat their asses.

A land value tax removes the incentive to specilatively ho

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Looks like we live in very different areas. You’re describing issues that just don’t exist here. I bet we’re much farther along the path toward walkability (by virtue of being completely built out before cars) and may be looking at different priorities to drive the next phase

but there’s no way that’s sustainable Why not?

When you make any change, such as zoning, you get new development where that particular change makes a difference. It can even be significant new development, but there’s not going to be a continuous pipeline of new stuff. There’s a bunch of development for things where that change makes a difference then such projects get completed and new work tails off back to steady state. Then you need to look at the next bottleneck in zoning/paperwork/process to free up the next batch of projects