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Comment by dlisboa | Hacker News Reader

That's probably more of an issue in the US. Not that commuting doesn't pollute, but in other countries a great part of the daily commute is done by public transportation or much more carbon efficient personal transportation (scooters, bicycles, etc).

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You’ve probably never heard of the poster child of livable cities, the Netherlands, where almost everyone still owns a car and drives to work every day. Traffic jams are now growing even worse then pre COVID[0]. Lack of proper (investment in) public transport is still a major issue for everyone living or working outside of the big cities. And due to the density of our country it has a major impact on nature here.

[0] https://www.anwb.nl/verkeer/nieuws/nederland/2023/juli/filez...

It’s a problem in Australia as well, our public transport is pretty poor and roads congested.

A lot of Anglosphere countries have followed the lead of the United States with spending trillions on automobile infrastructure and suburbs. Eisenhower modeled highways on the German autobahn.

Indeed, after 25 years of work (15 in Australia, 5 in Singapore, 5 in Malaysia) I've never driven to work except during work trips to the US where I had to rent a car.

At various times it's been train, bus, cycling, walking.

Not sure what countries you have been to. But a lot of non-US countries rely heavily on your own vehicle. India is the best example, where public transportation is even worse than the US.

Outside of cities, the car reigns supreme in practically every developed country. Including the ones people love to bring forward as 'counterexamples' to car culture.

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