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If they’re going to make people ride bikes and scooters in traffic, then it should at LEAST be legal to do the Snow Crash thing where you use a hook-shot-style harpoon to catch free rides from cars.
I’m so happy this is becoming more mainstream. Huge props to people like NotJustBikes for such effective propagandizing.
It was something I never could put words to until NJB showed up. I had already moved to NYC to get away from the burbs and driving.
And then I took the orange pill.
Yep. The combination of moving to New York City and reading “death and life of great American cities” really pushed me into being anti car culture. That and looking back at growing up in the suburbs where I couldn’t do anything without a car. Age like 10-17 sucked. I was so jealous of the kids that lived in the city and could go out and do things.
I was in very bike-friendly Copenhagen last summer and yes, it was nice. I do think in order for cars to move out of cities, we need to focus more on public transportation in the suburbs of big cities, so people could easily access the city without paying an arm and a leg for parking.
I lived in a suburb about 20 min outside of Philadelphia in high school, and It was nice hopping the train in and out, then getting into my car and driving home.
Yeah, parking really kills it.
In Houston, by the time you’ve paid for the parking and the light rail ticket you’ve spent more than you would paying for extra gas and for a space in the parking garage at your destination.
So public transit ends up costing more AND adds 30-60 minutes to the commute, plus a 5-block walk in 115°. Why wouldn’t I take my air-conditioned recliner?
Fuck bikes.
Counterpoint: Read panels 6 and 10 again. (The ones beginning “We’ve ceded” and “People approach” if I’ve messed up my counting somehow).
It really doesn’t matter to me, I hate big cities, and am currently in the process of selling my home to leave one.
And that’s totally fine. You do you. But
- Why do those who like cities have to live in a car-centric hellscape
- More people on bikes makes cities more bareble even for people who for some reason like driving because more bikes = less traffic jams and less noise
- Why does biking automatically mean big city. Small cities are in theory even better for that since they tend to be more compact. Stuff is less spread out even if the relative density is lower.
Sometimes I feel like I’m in a cult. Other times I feel like everyone else is in a cult. Is that bad?
I think that might be what it means to have an opinion tbh…
The Netherlands is flat. Lots of US cities are not bike friendly due to hills.
I’ve never been to Amsterdam, but I am always skeptical whenever someone claims to me that any city isn’t a shithole.
Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, New York City, New Haven, Paris, Toronto… hard pass. Being that close to that many other people is fucking gross.
