electric_muse

Walkable cities sounds great until you have luggage to carry or groceries to lug. It’s all about the collective good over that of the individual.

Interesting point. We don’t even need to talk about basketballs. I find buses in New York to be a lot noisier than personal vehicles.

Even if you take into account the multiplied factor of personal vehicles that would otherwise (possibly) be on the road, the sounds would be much more spread out.

When I’m having an al fresco meal in the city, I never notice the cars. The snarling and snorting buses interrupt conversations.

If this is a reasonable calculation, then I don’t think the costs are so insanely high.

My compelling reason is that I live in Manhattan and frequently make trips to visit family that are not well served by public transportation. And when I'm there, I prefer using a vehicle to get around.

I often return to New York with a carful of groceries, luggage, etc. I've tried this via public transit -- it's a miserable affair. The utility of a personal vehicle for me is very high -- perhaps substantially higher than it would be for you.

There's no need to justify vehicles based on economic classes and livelihood. Why does the car debate need to be made into some kind of class conflict? It's just more convenient and pleasant, and that's how some choose to spend their money.

I'm sorry it inconveniences you, but our society exists because we're willing to be slightly inconvenienced by our neighbors (especially those with different preferences than us) in exchange for certain benefits.

This article is a cousin to the other HN favorite, that building roads just creates more demand (which is suggested to make building roads seem futile). Both seem to miss the point that personal vehicular travel maximizes many individuals’ utility functions. It requires less time waiting for public options, it’s point-to-point, and generally more comfortable and private. Why is it assumed that less personal vehicle travel is objectively superior?

In contrast to the other comments, I actually found this to be a good read, especially going into 2019.

I’ve always wondered why I don’t care as much for vacations as others seem to. This was especially apparent in business school. I spent spring break working on my business while most of my classmates traveled.

Based on this read and a little reflection, it might be that I care more about satisfaction than happiness. And that’s good to understand.

This is happening in New York right now. Massive investment in bike infrastructure. But congestion hasn’t improved at all. Combined with increased ride sharing, NYC roads are now 15% slower. We need solutions for average people, not high brow idealism for people who have fancy bikes and showers at work.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/ride-ha...

Christmas dinner this year was revealing in this regard. As my mom went to whip up a box of Hungry Jack mashed potatoes, I checked the box and found BHT. I didn’t recognize it, so I looked it up and found the “reasonably can be expected to be carcinogenic” line.

When I brought it up to my mom who was mixing it in a pot, my grandma, who survived cancer but is now immobilized from a spine fracture likely caused by her chemo, protested: “But I’ve been eating this for years and I’m still here.”

I think the irony was lost, but that’s the mindset that prevents her from taking interest. If it’s not going to kill me immediately, I don’t have to worry about the consequences down the line.

My mom replied: “He likes to know what he’s eating, Ma. He only eats real food now.” And she kept on stirring...

Another reason Walmart killed it was because they offered more convenience at a lower cost. That’s what people choose.

It’s also why people choose vehicles over public transit: point-to-point convenience for comparable prices to stringing together public transit and car services to get around.

I had a university professor in the transportation department (technically “Operations Research”) who used to joke that transportation policy was mainly receptive to emotional arguments about children. “We should increase investment in autonomous vehicles. But, oh! The children!” He would cry out in class, making all the students chuckle. I thought he was joking! Reading through the article and the comments, I think he may not have been joking, but merely wryly cynical after many years of trying to research and advocate.

I would second this: each family is different. There are many ways to raise disciplined, motivated kids, and chores and allowances are certainly not necessary.

I grew up with strong internal motivation because my parents helped me to see at an early age how hard work of others made them successful. That big mansion in a nearby neighborhood? The result of someone getting an education and working hard. (The adult perspective is that it’s not quite as simple, but it’s close enough.) So I developed a love of learning at an early age, not because of extrinsic rewards, but because it felt good to invest in myself. And it still does.

To my mom, chores took away from study time or (rare) play time, so I was never expected to help. But I did small things when asked to help. My grandmother was aghast that my mom did my laundry until I moved out, and it was pretty easy to learn when I had to. My parents just didn’t think time doing laundry was more important than time learning calculus or playing on the computer. All that unstructured computer time developed my love for technology, and now I own a software company.

They also took my young hopes and dreams seriously, rather than dismissing them since I was a kid. When at 3 years old I said I wanted a specific type of sports car, my mom opened up a savings account in my name, and we asked family never to gift me toys: only deposits into the account. By the time I was old enough to drive, I had a down payment ready to go. I learned the value of delaying instant gratification for a longer term goal.

The most important way to raise healthy, motivated kids, in my mind, is to treat them as young adults and help them become intrinsically motivated.