I’ve got to admit that when I first heard of the anti-cars community, I was a little skeptical. “Whats wrong with cars?” I thought. But the more I lurked, and the more I watched youtube channels like Not just bikes, the more I understood just how shitty the world is around us. Fuck Cars.

  • Godless_Nematode@lemmy.ml
    131·
    3 years ago

    I’ve watched Thailand dump the nation’s wealth into building kilometers and kilometers of roads, mostly around Bangkok, to move more and more cars at a slower and slower pace. Moving cars instead of people. That money could have been spent in hundreds of different and better ways.

  • sexy_peach@feddit.de
    9·
    3 years ago

    All my life I accepted that cars where everywhere. When I started cycling in a city and thus had to live through near crash after near crash because the cars didn’t want to accept me as a traffic participant, I started questioning the whole thing. I saw how they dominated the road, that is supposed to be for bikes and all other kinds of traffic as well. It opened my eyes to how they don’t just dominate the road, but the pedestrian spaces as well, how the vast road space doesn’t even move that many people and goods etc. It’s just a giant waste of space in cities. I have lived in very rural areas as well, and people have to realize that having to take the car everywhere is a big draw back. Having to concentrate in a car for 2 hours per day just isn’t great.

    Driving can be fun. But honestly, mostly it isn’t, I would most of the time prefer a train or bike ride.

    • sascuach@lemmy.ml
      1·
      3 years ago

      Any tips for cycling on roads with cars? It’d benefit me for getting around faster, but I’ve only done it once, and it was terrifying.

      • sexy_peach@feddit.de
        1·
        3 years ago

        Don’t die. No, honestly I don’t have any tips :/

        Maybe get proper light for your bike and turn it on if vision outside isn’t optimal. Don’t ride in the gutter, have space to feel comfortable, cars are going to overtake close anyways.

  • comfy@lemmy.ml
    8·
    3 years ago

    Initially:

    • Traveling for a minimum of 90 minutes daily for education/work in an area with adequate public transport, and not having many other places to drive to. I would rather sit down and relax or work, and not drain myself on stroads.
    • Not enjoying the risk of driving a car.
    • Not seeing value in the initial and ongoing costs of cars

    I was still skeptical of /r/FuckCars when I first saw the name, but the first few posts I saw were nothing but facts. Same thing again with the anti-lawn groups: it’s so normalized that until you are prompted to think about it, it’s just something most people never stop to think about.

    Adulthood:

    • wow now that I realize it this is just recklessly dangerous and overnormalized
    • society shouldn’t actively promote unhealthy expensive wasteful modes of living
    • sexy_peach@feddit.de
      5·
      3 years ago

      wow now that I realize it this is just recklessly dangerous and overnormalized

      That but it’s also fucking expensive. Like diamonds for a wedding ring it’s something that society tells you you need to do but it’s utterly stupid if you calculate risk, cost and gain.

  • yxzi@lemmy.ml
    7·
    3 years ago

    Cars become more of a problem if you’re riding a bike. You compete for space (while risking your life) & ride in a cloud of exhaust fumes (gets worse by needing to breathe more).

    You can’t do sports in a healthy way when cars are nearby. Also, people have suffocated by inhaling large amounts of fumes in confined spaces without enough ventilation.

  • uthredii@lemmy.mlM
    6·
    3 years ago
    • Climate change
    • Being inside a car in traffic.
    • Being outside a car in traffic and breathing the fumes.

    There are lots of economic reasons to be anti-car but I think those are the ones that started it for me.

  • kohlenstoff@feddit.de
    5·
    3 years ago

    Participating in the construction of cars made me realize the pointlessness of a car as a means of mass transit

  • pingveno@lemmy.ml
    4·
    3 years ago

    I’ve never owned a car and always relied on bike and transit. Even in Portland, which is relatively good for a North American city, this has been hard. The city is too spread out and transit is sparse for anything but a few sweet spots. I am just tired of 95% of the city being inaccessible except by car.

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
    4·
    3 years ago

    Moved to a place with very few cars

    Couldn’t figure out what felt SO different, but once I noticed there was no going back

    I don’t look forwards to moving back to the West

  • kat@lemmy.ml
    41·
    3 years ago

    living in the burbs and having to deal with all the financial and health costs/risks that come with having a car

    also having to use a car to be able to get to any meaningful destination

    • erpicht@lemmy.ml
      3·
      3 years ago

      Same here. I spent my middle and high school years riding my bike 20+ min. just to get to the library, school, recreation center, grocery store, etc., all of which were somehow in different directions from my home, meaning no grouping tasks together.