I did not understand at first what this comic was about. And when I finally got it I had to realize that I simply can’t relate because I never drove a car before and the last time I commuted by car was over thirty years ago when my dad had to drive me to school in grade 2 elementary. Been either walking, biking or taking transit for my commute my whole life.
North American culture is really weird. My wife doesn’t bat an eye for having to commute an hour to her work one way. She’s been doing this ever since she moved back to Canada from Europe ten years ago, and she’s fine with it. Meanwhile I went out of my way to always go for jobs that are no further than half an hour away by transit or bike, even if it meant settling for a lower salary.
There are lots of places, like where I live, that just straight up have no public transit; no buses, no trains, no taxis. We have a couple medical taxis to take folks to appointments if they have Medicaid/Medicare, and if I drive 2 hours I can catch a Greyhound bus or a plane, but that’s it. If I want to shop at Walmart it’s a 30 minute drive. My in-laws are about 300 miles away, so any time we visit it’s about a 5 hour drive, depending on whether we eat on the way or not.
That’s terrible. I can’t imagine living like that.
Costco is fairly far from me. It’s a 25 minute bike ride in non-snowy weather. I can bike there, load up a cart and uber it home to my wife, or try to haul it back in the bike trailer if not too bulky.
Walmart is half an hour away by transit, but prefer to just shop local instead. Most grocery stores, butcher, cheese store, bakery all within a 10 minute walking distance.
In laws are the same deal though, 5.5hr train (due to freight priority), 5hr drive or 6hr bus (due to all the stops). In Europe a train would take me to the next country’s capital within two hours for $35. Here you board the train to Toronto like you are at an airport, with everyone constantly checked for their fares, lined up boarding one by one, luggage check & weight limit, assigned seating. 3x price of European rail and all this hassle for a max 120kmph travel speed. Insanity.
Car dependency sounds like the opposite of freedom.
It depends. It means I live in an area where I have a lot of other freedoms. I can go build a shed and nobody is gonna ask me about a permit. I can plant a garden or put up a fence and my neighbors aren’t gonna complain to an HOA about how it looks. And I have the freedom to drive to places much further away and leave whenever I feel like it instead of working around somebody else’s schedule.
There are trade offs for every way of living, but it would be nice to have “something” around here as an option.
That’s… insane logic. It’s still a car running all day. It’s the exact same as ten other people driving their own cars for a half hour each, one after another. Worse, actually, because there’s extra trips to pick up people in between the actual transportation parts.
(Caveat: unless it’s an electric car. I’m going to assume at least 8/10 of the drivers in this scenario are driving standard ICE, rather than hybrid or full electric at this point.)
How is it “insane” logic? A car share has lower environmental impact over individual car ownership. Does it suck compared to alternatives? Sure. But it’s not the same as ten individuals riding their cars, since
it can be used by more than one passenger at the same time
an individual car will still need to drive to pick up a passenger (think parents picking up their kids or spouses and back again)
they take up city subsidized real estate to park their cars (if not, because they are in a suburban sprawl drive way, that’s its own problem already)
Either way, I was bringing it up as an example: Costco can also be accessed by public transit, but it’s not “accessible”. It takes an hour to get there, including ~15 minutes of walking along an area that has a sliver of a sidewalk. Compared to 17 minute by car (traffic not withstanding) or 23 minutes of biking. I do this ride/transit there and Uber back again maybe twice a year, but I wish I didn’t have to.
How privileged you are to live with things so close! Us poor car culture slaves will have to continue to drive these devil machines you’ve only experienced briefly as a child. Thank God you can load those mythical beasts and send them home for your wife to unload! Rather then ride in those metal behemoths like us car- brained heathens!
I did not understand at first what this comic was about. And when I finally got it I had to realize that I simply can’t relate because I never drove a car before and the last time I commuted by car was over thirty years ago when my dad had to drive me to school in grade 2 elementary. Been either walking, biking or taking transit for my commute my whole life.
North American culture is really weird. My wife doesn’t bat an eye for having to commute an hour to her work one way. She’s been doing this ever since she moved back to Canada from Europe ten years ago, and she’s fine with it. Meanwhile I went out of my way to always go for jobs that are no further than half an hour away by transit or bike, even if it meant settling for a lower salary.
There are lots of places, like where I live, that just straight up have no public transit; no buses, no trains, no taxis. We have a couple medical taxis to take folks to appointments if they have Medicaid/Medicare, and if I drive 2 hours I can catch a Greyhound bus or a plane, but that’s it. If I want to shop at Walmart it’s a 30 minute drive. My in-laws are about 300 miles away, so any time we visit it’s about a 5 hour drive, depending on whether we eat on the way or not.
That’s terrible. I can’t imagine living like that.
Costco is fairly far from me. It’s a 25 minute bike ride in non-snowy weather. I can bike there, load up a cart and uber it home to my wife, or try to haul it back in the bike trailer if not too bulky.
Walmart is half an hour away by transit, but prefer to just shop local instead. Most grocery stores, butcher, cheese store, bakery all within a 10 minute walking distance.
In laws are the same deal though, 5.5hr train (due to freight priority), 5hr drive or 6hr bus (due to all the stops). In Europe a train would take me to the next country’s capital within two hours for $35. Here you board the train to Toronto like you are at an airport, with everyone constantly checked for their fares, lined up boarding one by one, luggage check & weight limit, assigned seating. 3x price of European rail and all this hassle for a max 120kmph travel speed. Insanity.
Car dependency sounds like the opposite of freedom.
It depends. It means I live in an area where I have a lot of other freedoms. I can go build a shed and nobody is gonna ask me about a permit. I can plant a garden or put up a fence and my neighbors aren’t gonna complain to an HOA about how it looks. And I have the freedom to drive to places much further away and leave whenever I feel like it instead of working around somebody else’s schedule.
There are trade offs for every way of living, but it would be nice to have “something” around here as an option.
> uber it home
Aha! evil car user like the rest of us!
That’s… insane logic. It’s still a car running all day. It’s the exact same as ten other people driving their own cars for a half hour each, one after another. Worse, actually, because there’s extra trips to pick up people in between the actual transportation parts.
(Caveat: unless it’s an electric car. I’m going to assume at least 8/10 of the drivers in this scenario are driving standard ICE, rather than hybrid or full electric at this point.)
How is it “insane” logic? A car share has lower environmental impact over individual car ownership. Does it suck compared to alternatives? Sure. But it’s not the same as ten individuals riding their cars, since
Either way, I was bringing it up as an example: Costco can also be accessed by public transit, but it’s not “accessible”. It takes an hour to get there, including ~15 minutes of walking along an area that has a sliver of a sidewalk. Compared to 17 minute by car (traffic not withstanding) or 23 minutes of biking. I do this ride/transit there and Uber back again maybe twice a year, but I wish I didn’t have to.
How privileged you are to live with things so close! Us poor car culture slaves will have to continue to drive these devil machines you’ve only experienced briefly as a child. Thank God you can load those mythical beasts and send them home for your wife to unload! Rather then ride in those metal behemoths like us car- brained heathens!
How is this privilege? Any city outside of North America will offer this. Or any place without car centric urban sprawl.
You could be walking down the street singing along the music in your earphones. It could still be relatable.