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Comment by dyauspitr | Hacker News Reader

Automobiles also run on electricity, there’s no need to bundle them up with fossil fuels. Car centric development is awesome. Big backyards, lots of space, convenient setups with parking attached to each shopping center. What’s not to like? It’s definitely better than living in apartments which are essentially cages where you’re forced to be mild mannered. Places like shenzen are 90% EVs and we’ll get there too.

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All those things are awesome (if you're into that sort of thing, many people aren't) but they don't really rely on the car. Many of the low density detached home suburbs that people drive to these days were once upon a time street car suburbs.

But answering the question, "what's not to like?" The main thing is the fact that none of this scales. All the good benefits you're describing rely on the fact that other people aren't doing them. Other people need to live in "cages" so that you can have all this extra space.

Similarly an enjoyable experience in a car free of traffic relies on other people not driving. If all the people that are using transit were driving a single car, the traffic congestion would spike and you'd be in misery.

None of it scales due to the unchangable dynamics of physical geometry.

> If all the people that are using transit were driving a single car

I was anticipating a punch line?

"It would reach halfway to the Moon"

or "it would be a very crowded train car".

lol oops

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