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Comment by lazyjones | Hacker News Reader

> The alternative is the status quo of the past half century

There are many alternatives. You can even go live in car-free areas right now and have been able to do so for decades, e.g. the island Hydra in Greece.

> Defeating the status quo always takes a motivated group, and hatred of cars is a good motivator as any.

I happen to like the status quo and don't want a loud minority to "defeat" it based on their hatred.

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Ah, "you could move to Greece." Practical suggestion for improving the life of the average Atlanta resident!

More practical than changing Atlanta to some imaginary car-free utopia. But perhaps the advantages of living in a car-free city aren't that great after all?

Or the pros/cons don't stack up to a net difference that is big enough to be worth relocating over.

The point is: for some reason these cities don't suddenly become so liveable that they're a huge success, neither economically nor as a destination for tourism or retirement. Perhaps those who have discovered their love for this fantasy haven't really thought about all the consequences.

Atlanta is already changing to a "car-free utopia" that you're dismissing. Many neighborhoods around Midtown, Inman Park, and several MARTA stations are both more walkable and in enormously higher demand than 20 years ago.

>I happen to like the status quo and don't want a loud minority to "defeat" it based on their hatred.

This is certainly a valid opinion. I'm simply saying, some of us really like having viable transit options, which is opposing the status quo. To oppose the status quo we must be motivated. One motivation is to hate all the externalities of a car-dependent society.

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