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Comment by aasasd | Hacker News Reader

The ‘fuckcars’ subreddit is popular lately, often pops up on the r/all ‘front page’. It vaguely seems that US people have a suspicion that the need for cars and the revulsion to public transport are in large part due to the existing state of things, and aren't an absolute requirement.

Still, it's fun to see that USians' current ideal of public coexistence is to be separated from each other as much as possible.

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Public transportation is inferior in almost every way to private cars.

The only real advantages are cost, emissions, and the ability to read a book instead of focusing on the road.

The US, being overall a very wealthy country, is going to go straight to self-driving Teslas which address the second and third consideration, and not indulge in every other irritating and suboptimal aspect of public transportation while pretending it is better.

Ah yes, infamous US buses getting people injured and killed every day, and mowing down pedestrians, bikers and cyclists. Jamming up roads with thousands of buses, making driving actually slower than... proper public transportation. With endless unsafe driving and road rage from the droves of inexperienced bus drives. All the road maintenance from uncountable buses everywhere, oh wow. The infamous US subway taking just as long as a car, instead of a direct route at 80 kmh. I'm so glad I'm not living in the US.

If for some reason you're gonna engage in the same tired internet arguments in which everyone else have already been, should at least come prepared.

P.S. Forgot to mention that cities full of cars are unpleasant to see and hear, and to navigate for pedestrians. Replacing human-driven cars with self-driving cars does nothing for this, just like it doesn't address the emissions problem. Self-driving cars are worse even than taxis in a number of ways.

These absolutist arguments are not helpful. If one lives in a dense urban area, a car is just a nuisance most of the time. Avoiding car ownership and using a rental for an occasional trip likely makes more sense. If one can afford keeping it parked and insured most of the time, having a car available on short notice is convenient but not essential. On the other hand, I live in a sparsely populated region and I couldn't even go to the grocery without a car.

Any arguments relating to transportation are kind of pointless if not put within the right framework.

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