#FUCK CARS

[angstandhappiness]

True

Nothing exposes the inability of people to navigate power imbalances quite like the relationship between drivers and pedestrians.

For example, I just had a driver get screaming-at-me mad because I stopped walking at a slip lane to make sure he was going to stop. And like, buddy, I know I have the right of way, but if I assume you are going to stop and I guess wrong, I will literally die. Whereas if I wait to see if you're actually going to slow down, I am just delaying both of us by a couple of seconds. And that might have more to do with why I made the choice that I did than my being a stupid bitch who needs to learn the rules. Like, if you can't understand why the fact that you could effortlessly accidentally kill me (and likely face no consequences) means I am reticent to assume the best from you, maybe you just shouldn't have any power over anyone ever.

[sreegs]

never forget that we could have had robust trolley/tram system in many american cities still if it weren't for General Motors (this is not a conspiracy theory it's quite literally an actualized conspiracy that went to court)

[whereserpentswalk]

I have decided to become a walkablity extremist.

Cars should not be allowed in towns and cities at all. The only places where they should be at all present is in rural areas where any other means of transportation should be impossible.

High speed rail networks should allow for a trip from Mexico city to Montreal in under 24 hours.

All public transportation should be 100% free.

Lawns should not exist.

It doesn't make sense for single family homes to be built in most American cities.

Architecture must be beautiful again.

Every commercial street should have at least one bench.

Public restrooms must be free, common and accessible.

The pigeons are not enemies. The pigeons are freinds.

[sourcreammachine]

call me regulation-loving Eurotrash but this shit should be fucking illegal

you are driving a thousand kilogram death machine. you need your eyes on the fucking road at all times because lives are at stake. literally, overcomplicated radio displays are known to distract drivers and reduce awareness, and then there’s this bullshit?

you need the absolute minimum information possible. speed, fuel, rpm, engine warnings. not fucking, calendar, weather and world clock.

sttg the longer i look at this image the worse it gets. that’s the NEWS app on the touchscreen there? you want people to look down and read the paper while driving? and literally not one of the widgets on the top screen needs to be there, read your calendar and the weather and the air quality index before you leave the house godsabove. even that map is overcomplicated, no you do not need 3D renders of every building in front of you that you can SEE with your EYES. fuck it you don’t even need a mega-complicated media display, prepare your bloody playlists and podcasts before you hit the road and you can switch between them like an iPod shuffle. and get rid of Chainsmokers - Riptide ffs.

[drawitblargit]

I cannot say this loud enough. Get a sticker here

[marzipanandminutiae]

honestly, the sheer rage most other Americans experience when I tell them we used to have VASTLY more public transit in this country than we do now gives me hope for the future

like. hey. Nashvillians (where I grew up):

did you know you had STREETCARS from 1889 to 1941? this photo is from 1930

please channel the anger you are now feeling into letters to your representatives

thank you

[stroadkill]

If Amtrak was as great as it used to be today I could be happy but not like this

Side note. Instead of "cog in the wheel" we should start saying "car on the highway". For funsies

[radicalgraff]

Anti-car pasteup spotted in Zagreb

[the-teddy-roosevelt]

Let me tell you a little thing about cars.

I have had a gripe against modern car design, at least here in the States, for the longest time. Recently I have seen the utter abominations of the 21st century be more and more common and finally decided to share my stance to the wonderful world of the internet! So, be prepared for a lot of reading because this is a full scale rant with the occasional photo.

And now: Why Modern Car Design is Going to Kill Us All.

I have been doing much research these past months as I continued to observe more of these "newer designs" I have spoken so much about, and there are a few things I need to delve into.

The Flat Front

Supersize Me 2: Not so Electric Boogaloo

Elon's Bastard of a Car

1

The Flat Front

So, these cars I have been talking about, just to be more specific, are SUVs and Light Trucks/Pickup Trucks.

You see that massive, flat front in the image above? Well, believe it or not, that is causing more deaths in car-related accidents yearly! Due to being so boxy, when a pedestrian is hit, they are more likely to break bones around the torso/head, then pull the person UNDER the car rather than how a car normally would hit the person's legs, then they would hit the hood of the car.

These can also create massive blind spots/zones where you can't see what is right in front of you.

I shall dive more into this in the next section.

2

Supersize Me 2: Not so Electric Boogaloo

So, onto the next section. As you can see above you, this is a comparison of two cars, only 24 years apart(end of Escort to start of F-350). Only 24 years, and it had a 246% increase in weight, was 91.7 in. or about 7.64 ft. longer, and 26.8 in. or about 2.2 ft. taller.

This is a dramatic increase for little to no reason other than to "protect the drivers". As we have discussed in section 1, this is not the case. In fact, if one of these larger SUVs were to hit another, usually smaller car, it is more likely for the smaller driver to be killed, or at least seriously harmed by the bigger vehicle.

Speaking of smaller, children:

Children are one of the biggest victims of these larger cars with them being run over either in frontovers or backovers, most often by their own parents in a driveway.

If you don't fully believe me that these cars are truly big enough to run over the younger side of children, an entire experiment was done, putting kids in front of parked cars, and just look:

Terrifying.

I addition to this, the larger frame of these cars means that they create more pollution. Let me explain: The bigger cars needed more fuel, that means more fossil fuels being burned, and due to the US's car based infrastructure, there are more cars being produced, that is even more fossil fuels for both production and upkeep, and more pollution.

But oh dear reader, these SUVs and Light Trucks are not even the worst of it...

3

Elon's Bastard of a Car

Gentlemen, women, and all of you folk in between, I give you: The Tesla Cybertruck.

This... Thing, is the bane of everything I hate about modern car design, from the boxy shape going throughout the car, to being an "indestructible" vehicle, and its ability to kill anyone.

Okay, that is a lot I am claiming, so lets break it down.

We have already talked about how dangerous the box design is, but the Cybertruck appears to be a geometry problem found in high-school. This is unbelievably dangerous, making any crashes with other cars much more likely fatal.

The fatalities can also be helped by the fact the damn car is made of STAINLESS STEEL and "indestructible" according to advertising. Most cars are made to be able to crunch in order to let the force of impact be more spread out throughout the vehicle. Yes, it will cost quite a bit to fix, but hey, you're alive. Meanwhile when it is made out of such a hard material, such as steel, that crunch isn't going to happen and only kill the people inside the vehicle, and the people crashing into the giant steel block.

The company claims it can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 2.6 seconds, which, if true, would mean it has a faster acceleration than most NASCAR and Formula 1 vehicles, with none of the accompanying engine roar to warn anyone that it's coming. The headlight, meanwhile, is one single bar of light, which some experts are already worried will blind oncoming drivers.

There are so many other things about this utter abomination that I would love to talk about, but I think this is where I'll leave off.

One last thing, I just want to say how this is mostly my experience and research from the United States of America, and not the rest of the world. Also, I do not see these things getting much better unless somehow the US removes all of its car based infrastructure.

Thank you for reading my friends, and remember, fuck monopolies.

[prole-log]

[charliejaneanders]

America’s collective decision in the 20th century to make cars and the roads serving them the bedrock of all urban and regional planning will go down in history as just another of our nation’s awful, ruinous ideas that we nevertheless clung to for generations, like slavery or lead paint.

Cars Have Fucked Up This Country Bad

[whereserpentswalk]

Car "based" infostructure? Actually, it seems pretty cringe to me.

[livelaughratgirl]

Guys please don't fucking let car companies replace the radio with a subscription service

[bynux]

Men will be like "I need my seven-foot-tall six-wheeled pickup truck with a twenty-foot cabin, eight trillion-lumen headlamps and a cow catcher. For work reasons" then you look at the bed and it has the square footage of a saltine cracker

[lezzian]