My car just got totalled by a minor fender bender that apparently would cost more than the value of the car to repair. The tow truck is loading it up right now to haul it away to the junkyard (ridiculous, it's completely drivable, the lights all work and everything). Getting a cash payout, since the other driver was a dumbass who drove into me while I was stopped.
In a bit of serenidipidous timing, I'm moving into the core urban area of a big city next week, and so... I'm going car-free. Bike bus and walk, every day. Work is a relaxing bus ride or ambitious bike ride away. Daycare is a couple blocks away, so Little Beaver can walk with us to school every day. Cool shit everywhere nearby. My friends already live in the area, cuz it's a dope place to live. Already talked to more neighbors than I did in my old neighborhood, because this is an actual community of people instead of a bunch of islands surrounded by car moats.
Fuck that car. My life is already cooler without it.
It's always shocking how much of the body of a car is "disposable" in a light crash. Better it than you in the worst case scenario (even if that means the insurance company junking it in a little crash).
I recently picked up a bike and I'm pretty excited about it. I'll still need my car for shopping and other errands (granted, I like my stupid car), but I'll probably be a bike person for most of my local stuff. Got a little tandem bike style trailer to drag my kid to school on decent weather days, too!
cars are made to be garbage. the safety messaging for how a bump renders the car totaled is pure propaganda. US safety standards are a patchwork of major regulatory capture that protect manufacturers and sellers of vehicles for the US market, at the expense of the rest of us.
the most notable capture is the "non-passenger work truck" carveout for AMC jeeps that helped them stay in business by letting their dangerous shitboxes avoid being safety regulated like cars. of course, that exception was purchased, grandfathered and exploded to include SUVs and crossovers which is why those are the only vehicles one can find anymore.
their lack of compliance with typical passenger safety standards has made them outrageously profitable compared to cars, which is why american vehicles have diverged so much from the rest of earth.
cars being so fragile is about increasing vehicle purchase churn. "safety" in the US vehicle market today is all about being the biggest vehicle on the road, which is making everything more dangerous for the communities subject to all these land tanks that protect the driver, but endanger everyone else, and need to be replaced anyway when they bump something.
This and the fact gas is so heavily subsidized really make me hate the US auto industry and regulators so much. A lot more people would be concerned with fuel efficiency if they saw the full price per gallon price we're paying at the pump. But no, they buy SUVs they can hardly drive and slap a "student driver" sticker on it instead of learning to drive.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I'm wondering whether this is due to the emotional bond. Like removed from what people think about cyclists you can rock up on a janky old thing anywhere and nobody but the dentists would care. While if you have a dent in your car, people think it's trashy.
i think it's more about how we have trouble conceiving the sheer kinetic energy involved in a car crash, and therefore the amount of crumple zone needed to safely absorb that energy
I think it's more of a liability thing. All of that stuff that aborbs the impact in a collision won't be there if it isn't replaced, so while this crash wasn't too bad the next one could be.
For the emotional part, I think most people (other than your spandex dentists on $3000 road bikes) just see bicycles as a "lesser" mode of transportation. It doesn't matter what condition they're in.
$3000? What are they, a dental assistant?
Lol right? I've seen some ridiculously higher prices than that on bikes for bourgeois lycra wearers