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Comment by adflux | Hacker News Reader

I'm just curious if you grew up in a very large city and haven't been to other countries? Because public transport as a primary form of transportation simply isn't feasible in many places. And I was responding to the statement about cars being the worst invention of the 21st century...

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Public transport is feasible in smaller cities and towns too. Freiburg im Breisgau is a great example. 230,000 people, pedestrianised centre, 5 tram lines, very low car usage. When I lived there, everyone I knew either walked, cycled or used the tram.

A great many European countries have proven it is practical. In fact in some cities it’s more beneficial not to drive (London and Amsterdam to give two examples of wildly different cities yet both favour public transport)

Cycling is way quicker in Berlin for all sub 7km journeys

Yes, being suburban Londoners in early 2020 we were checking the car would start periodically and contemplating getting rid of it. But then Covid struck, and us being high risk, public transport suddenly looked really unattractive. We haven't used it since. It is such a shame. We still use the car sparingly and one day hopefully have that conversation about scrapping it again.

It isn't feasible because it wasn't designed as main way of transportation.

It isn't feasible because it was designed around the idea that everyone would have cars.

Again, the cars are the reason it was made to be infeasible. Cars damaged our cities.

That's a reasonable point, but doesn't particularly address the issue.

The point was "the car is the most harmful invention of the 20th century".

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