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Comment by SyzygistSix | Hacker News Reader

>the connection to "my car" is much more emotional than it should be.

Who is anyone to say how anyone "should" feel? Or "should" do anything? If you had said "more emotional than it could be" you'd have a point.

Cars provide people the ability to travel almost anywhere whenever they want. They also provide shelter and become personalized spaces. I think it is natural to have an attachment to something with those kinds of roles. They speak to very primal instincts and needs.

I have a pretty strong attachment to one of my bicycles. Irrational? Sure. Human? You bet. The same goes for my best (for me) trumpet.

When the economics of not owning a personal car make sense, they will become less important and there will be less attachment to them in this way, like folks in NYC have towards cabs.

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> I have a pretty strong attachment to one of my bicycles

Hey there fellow bike lover! Mine is a 1979 Peugeot racer and I bought it with literally my last money for the month as a student just because it was so freakin' pretty! :)

Yes you have a point, it's difficult to judge what emotional attachment is "good" or "bad". But in a pretty objective way, cars have a lot of negative effects that e.g. bikes just don't.

I also think it's kind of sad that we haven't found a way for people to feel physically safe without encasing themselves in literally a metric ton of metal. Sadder still that for many, cars provide shelter. Those roles could and should be better filled by other means, and would require less subsidy from society than car infrastructure demands. Plus, it would just be the decent thing to do.

Besides, for many people (I'm seeing this in my own family at the moment) the idea that cars are cool and interesting is injected constantly, over and over again, everyday, it's really hard to do anything against. For starters if anyone knows good "matchbox" style bicycle toys, let me know, because I think I've exhausted the market after just two or three birthday gifts.

Wow. Me too. I had a 1980 or 81 Peugeot Super Vitus racer. So gorgeous. Regardless of functionality (and it was great), it was worth it just as industrial/mechanical art.

I'm totally with you regarding your opinion on cars and how arbitrary our attachment to using them is in many situations. But after bicycle commuting for almost 25 years and seeing how uninterested people are, even "progressive" childless 20-somethings in a very walkable, rideable, progressive town with a good climate, I'm more apt to meet people where they are at and fix the problem we have (emissions from burning gasoline) rather than try to force people to redefine the problem and choose the solutions I prefer.

Super Vitus all day, any day! <3

And they are usually the second most expensive « thing » one owns (first for non homeowners)

The most expensive thing I own as a college student is a laptop, and I definitely have an emotional attachment to it.

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