countries like the UK, France, Italy and Germany there are now around 5 vehicles for every 10 people

That's a weird way to say 1 car for every 2 people.

Provide better public options. It takes me 25 minutes to get to work by car and 75 minutes by public. Fuck that.

It's both

So many cities could be made completely car-free.

Just force people to park near the edge and use alternative transport from there. This would give city centers the space to be greener and safer to live in.

Especially in Europe this should be fairly easy. Some cities are pushing towards this too. Not sure if American cities are suited sadly enough, as many of them are built with cars in mind.

I say not less cars, but no cars. We need to move towards societies where we arent dependent on the asphalt industry.

We need to learn how to live slow again.

zero carz🦔

Im curious what people here would take to work. A 20 minute drive or an hour bike ride. Buses don't exist near me nor will they. What are my options. It's too hot, the weather is unpredictable, and im not spending an hour one way to work.

Something i'm always annoyed by no one talking about: What about smaller cars?
Just making the cars smaller is a really easy way to make them less shit in basically every single way, no matter what.

Normalize moped cars.

Reposting in same community deserves downvotes, at least mine.

Yes. I've been saying for years that electric cars and self driving cars are solving the wrong problem. The problem is if I need a car to get groceries. The problem is I'm not safe on the street because of all the cars.

People who have never lived someplace that doesn't need a car are very eager to tell you how it won't work, though.

Public Transport for the win!

As an electric car owner, I completely agree. We were lucky enough to go from 2 cars to 1, but still not enough transit to go to zero

I got tired of waiting for EVs to become affordable and got an e-bike instead. I still drive at times when the bike doesn't cut it for various reasons. And now my car is getting super old and in need of replacement, but I'm not sure what to do?

EVs sound ideal, but the usual logic that the higher upfront cost will come back to you in fuel savings feels less compelling in my situation. Otoh another gas guzzler? One thing I can say is I don't see myself ever buying new again. It's just not worth it for how little I drive. I guess I'll leave EV/hybrid/conventional debate up to what's available on the used market.

Of course, because EVs do not address the problem and just do a misdirection.

The problem is publicly subsidised private vehicles.

more trains and busses

When I was growing up, I was a sci-fi nerd. I loved the idea of cool little electric cars. But the ones I'm seeing around here are huge. We're also learning that even electric cars are fucking up the environment.

What I didn't imagine is electric bikes and scooters. So that's been a cool thing (I have both), but it has downsides too.

I volunteer at a local hospital, and we've seen a huge uptick of injuries from people riding electric scooters and bikes. The reason is that more people are on them, but our infrastructure in my city doesn't support them very well. So people are having to ride on busted sidewalks, roads with no bike lane, etc. So a lot of people crashing them (and not wearing a helmet).

So I think the only we can really reduce car usage is to make the city unfriendly to cars. But that ain't gonna happen here anytime soon. A strip of road near me actually was finally updated with a pretty wide bike lane last month because it's close to a school, but holy shit, people in my neighborhood are still bitching about how we didn't need it and it was a waste of resources. smh

The big problem with this transition is not whether we need fewer cars but that modern cities are not designed for alternatives. Any near term solution has to include EVs. It’s going to take a large redesign and investment at a time we can’t wait while we need to electrify everything.

At this point i don't even demand fewer cars, i just want smaller cars.

90% of people do not need a 4-seat gas-guzzler with a massive trunk which literally outsizes a WW1 tank and a top speed of "yes", they can get by perfectly fucking fine with a little electric moped-car where the rear seats are foldable and the trunk fits maybe 3 grocery bags.

EVs weren't made to save the planet; they were made to save the car industry.

Theyre an improvement surely but mass transit, cycle lanes, and better urban planning are fundamentally more important to emphasize.

This article doesn't even touch on the fact that tires and brake dust still contribute to unhealthy air quality and adverse health outcomes.

Not much use in saying we need fewer cars without questioning why we need so many.

I would happily stop driving TO A FUCKING USELESS OFFICE and give up my car to do it.

Want fewer cars, gotta work on the cause not the symptom. Shaming people for driving because they don't have a choice isn't useful.

Both is good. And smaller.

Porque no los dos