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Comment by EasyMark | Hacker News Reader

Suburbs are fine. We are in 2025, not 1925, there is no reason why work from home isn't an option for information workers and others who don't need to be physically on premises. You are completely ignoring how much that cuts down on traffic and would lower the cost of real estate, so more people who aren't millionaires could live downtown. We also have electric cars that have basically zero emissions, there is a technical solution for this; not everyone wants to ride a bus or train.

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Work from home is great, but there’s more to life than work. Being walking distance or public transport distance to the rest of life’s activities is also great. And EVs aren’t saving the planet they are saving the car industry. They still cause tire particulate pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, and need tons of rare earth minerals

Don't forget the most important scarce resource they require: space. We waste so much space for parking and other car friendly infrastructure there often is not enough left for a a bike line or even a sidewalk let alone some actually pleasant peaceful passage people could use.

Private cars are an economic sinkhole. They make no financial sense. My town in the exurbs used to have rail service and stagecoaches. The necessity of private cars is a marketing triumph. Not a choice.

I like the freedom a private car gives me. I can go anywhere at anytime. I have nothing against public transportation and want it to be good. But you can't go everywhere at anytime. Here I'm including the country side and smaller towns.

> But you can't go everywhere at anytime

This is a solved problem in countries with modern public transportation. In Japan for example you can go across the entire country without needing a single car, and indeed it's both cheaper and more available than doing so while driving. If you need to go somewhere really far out of the way that is not reachable by foot or bicycle, then you can rent a car.

All of this results in a system that is far cheaper for you and far more open for the average individual.

Nothing says freedom like being required to spend thousands of dollars just to get around and participate in society. Imagine how "free" the roughly one-third of folks who are too young, too old, too disabled, etc. to drive a car feel when trying to go about their lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0MVCyOjvtk

Anywhere where a road is. Or anywhere you could park a car. This means the car does not give you the freedom but the entire car transportation network. If instead there was no car infrastructure but only public transport you would say you can't go everywhere at anytime with a car.

So the state of public transportation in your area is bad enough you have to own a car. Being forced to own one is freedom, and so is needing a government-issued driver's license and a license plate.

That’s fine, take your private car and drive it away from the city.

I drive an EV. I am not under the mistaken impression that it’s zero emission (or even close).

It emits particulates locally and power-generation-related emissions at the fossil fuel plant that provides the majority of my grid power.

Is it better than an ICE? Probably. Is it “basically zero emission”? Nope.

I understand a large amount of car pollution these days is due to the tires.

Not everyone has to ride a bus or a train. They can stay home if they want.

Yet RTO is in full enforcement all over the place, sadly.

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