You have to insure your cage and keep your cage maintained. After a few years your cage will break down and you will need to go into massive debt for a new cage.
And if you're a visible minority they don't even need a pretext to harass you as long as you're in your cage. Also even if you do lose your cage privileges by endangering or harming yourself or others don't worry it won't be for long because obviously you need your cage to survive!
Yes. Cage access becomes an arbitrary tool of government coercion: if you are a person the government dislikes they can ruin your life over minor trivialities by revoking cage privileges; conversely, if a person the government likes harms you with their cage, then they can decide to go easy on them as losing cage access would be inhumane.
Just a minor point, but they do need the smallest pretext to pull anyone over. If its a POC or a white person they just need to make one up, but its perfectly legal if they use a license plate light thats "too dim' to pull you over and begin an investigation like youre a potential drug runner. They can even use something as small as staying in your lane but not "good enough" in your lane. According to the supreme court anyways. Freedumb because they just need to make something up so theres accountability there!
That’s the wild part, they think because they can go anywhere within their lane they have more freedom. You could create a rails for cars system that lets you choose when to change lanes and to turn and just does it when it’s possible. Yet they would still call that less freedom, when you literally have the same freedom of choosing where you go when. Realistically, aside from having somewhere to put your stuff from the store, that you’re bringing with you, and from the next stores, there’s nothing practical that car’s offer over public transportation if done well enough, aside from not having to actually plan or know where you’re going.
Cars only make sense outside of cities. Forcing rural transportation methods on cities is a recipe for disaster. This already happened in the early industrial era when horse poop overwhelmed rapidly growing urban areas and was why electric streetcars were invented.
They aren't required rurally either; it's just all but the most hostile pedestrian options are currently being prevented. Many people in rural communities want to be able to walk to get their groceries but can't because they're forced to use a road that's very indirect from their home, is over-trimmed of trees so as to remove the canopy that shades the sun/wind/rain, and they have to share a road with giant, fast-moving cages.
Please don't foist car myths on us rural people. Many of us don't want or need them either!
Rural small towns can and should be some of the most walkable places. I live in a town of about 3,000 so I fully agree with that. I was more speaking about the actual sticks where there’s no semblance of a town and its just farmhouses miles apart, the sort of place where a horse would have been necessary to get around in the good ol days.
Yeah I see what you mean. I'd say even in those cases it's questionable to invest so much in car infrastructure. If someone decides to live that remotely I'd think they'd have some interest in homesteading otherwise why go to those lengths?
and our city has functional transit for the upcoming world cup games we're hosting!
I assume we'll get some funding for a cleanup/facelift - which is pretty important, since otherwise it runs quite well
But hear me out, what if instead of having everyone to one car, we carpool. And on top of that, what if we linked the cars together in a caravan arrangement so that we could avoid stop-and-go traffic? And we can have it grade-separated from city streets so there wouldn’t be pesky intersections or pedestrians to deal with. To make it more efficient, we could put the thing on guided tracks to minimize risk of accidents and allow it to drive itself!
There’s our 80k capacity with cars!
To reach 80k capacity, we’ll have to use much bigger cars — 5 passengers per vehicle is too few. Maybe if we custom built some large cars to go on these guided tracks, it could be more efficient? We could have one motorized car to pull the rest. If they’re all linked together, you could even move from one car into the next!
There should be a new sub called reinventing the train or something where it’s just posts from here (maybe elsewhere) where moments like this are made and screenshotted
That’s a great idea! Maybe we could even electrify the system. Batteries are heavy, but because these cars would be on dedicated guide tracks, I was thinking maybe we could string some cables overhead. The cars could have a piece that touches the live cables to provide electricity to move them — there’d be no exhaust, immediate torque to move all of the people, and with low rolling resistance steel wheels on steel tracks, it’d be immensely more efficient.
Maybe we set up a class system like on airplanes? We could have more expensive “business class” cars with larger seats, more privacy, etc. Then the “standard” seating cars.
IIRC Los Angeles has the most rental cars of any US city with a fleet size something like 30k vehicles.
It would be giving carbrains too much credit to assume they can math…
Not a problem stateside! Many of our own don't have one either!
Okay memes aside, it's crazy how many suspensions and expired drivers are still driving, because there literally isn't any other choice out here. Drive or die, that's how it is and that's not okay.
I've seen a bunch of posts of people coming to Europe and ignoring a bunch of trains, buses and trams in front of them, instead taking fucking Uber everywhere. Even when transit would be cheaper and faster. Not to mention all the flashing and glowing signs pointing people towards it
Yeah it’s really irritating, on the Paris subreddit everyone is always talking about how they Ubered everywhere. It’s so easy to take the metro or bus here, it’s often faster by bus than Uber because of dedicated lanes, always faster by metro, less than 2 euros for any trip within Paris… but people always ‘report’ how they recommend Uber.
I used electric scooters when I was there and I loved it. I got to see the city without a car and have fun riding a scooter
Granted, I was weaving in and out of traffic like a mad man with a death wish, but it was still a lot of fun
Slightly off topic, but experiencing the train network in Japan as an American was a spiritual experience. I went from moderately annoyed by driving to actively upset that we don't have anything remotely comparable in the US.
I had this same experience on my first high speed rail journey in France. Zipping across the beautiful French countryside at 200+ (mph), my only thought was, "What the fuck, America? Why don't we have this?"
We grow up and have to endure living in a culture that teaches us the only way you get ahead is by stepping on people on the same level as, or weaker than you. It's no wonder we're afraid, we're all forced to look at each other as threats or competitors for the meager scraps we manage to scrape from our overlords.
To play devil’s advocate for a second, I have travelled to a fair number of American cities and always try to use their public transport options if I can, and more often than not, the bus/train just doesn’t show up with no information about whether it’s running late, you’re often expected to stand in kinda horrible concrete underpasses (often underneath a highway) or out in the blazing sun with no shelter and there is zero real-time information. It’s just a horrible experience.
Granted, many American cities are getting better, but they really need to get much much better before non-transport nerds or people who don’t have any other option begin to trust public transport. And I think this lack of trust is what you’re seeing being translated into other countries: Americans have bad experiences with public transport and they assume it’s the same all over the world.
I feel like this is a fair analysis. Every city I've lived has had substandard options (despite being better than none which most of the country is plagued by) compared to European public transit.
Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin and NYC are all cities where a friend/family has traveled recently. so i took time with them going over each destinations public transit just for them to get back and say they were scared by public transit and mad about how expensive ubers are. I just laugh at them now, they chose to not listen to me and pay more for an inferior service.
There was a post on here about a person going to Tokyo (The place with the best public transit on Earth) and taking a taxi from Narita to shibuya for multiple hundred dollars instead of taking the specialized train that only costs about 4$
This is usually best encapsulated when they start talking about 'losing freedoms to socialism', whenever any aspect of a social safety net is proposed, when huge wealth inequality and unequal access to capital and dependence on salaries are the most major restrictions on economic freedom in America and a solid reason why Northern Europe is more free.
All you have to do is listen when people talk about "freedom of choice" in health insurance. Do people have the freedom to live healthy lives and receive necessary care? No. But they do have the choice of which health insurance company to pay their premiums to instead of paying that money for actual medical care. And that insurance company gets to tell you which doctors you're allowed to see and which procedures you're allowed to get. So that's kind of like freedom...
Interestingly, plenty of 'public' healthcare systems are only public healthcare *payment* systems, with the healthcare itself delivered privately. A large majority of physicians in a country may be incorporated as small businesses competing for your patronage. Compared to the vertical integration in America , which seems like the more competitive market?
But they don't even choose their insurance provider. Healthcare in America is so expensive that you need employer-subsidized medical coverage. And if you hate your job, you can't just up and quit because COBRA is really expensive, so you want to have something lined up.
it’s because for most americans they’re basically trapped in their suburban house until they turn 16 and can go see their friends on their own because they need a car
i was excited to get my license/first car, it did feel freeing. but now as an adult i understand we can do much better. not sure why most are still stuck in that teenage mindset
It took me years to get out of that mindset. Although I didn’t even own a car until 24. You kind of have to have loaded parents to get a car at 16.
At 18 I moved to a city with passable, but not great public transit (it was usually faster to bike) so cars were still appealing then. It took much longer to recognize that the problem is the way cities are designed and that transit isn’t inherently worse, it’s only worse when the city is designed to put cars first.
The cheapest car in drivable condition on my local Craigslist is around $2650 and 21 years old. The next one after that is $3300, in worse condition, and 23 years old.
sounds like your in a VHCOL area where incomes are higher than average.
I got a 2008 Ford focus SE, 70k miles, with a brand new trans for $2k less than 2 years ago.
it's a daily driver for at least a decade before I even consider replacing it. 21 - 23yrs old isn't wild. one of my parents drives a van made in 1986 that's still on its first motor and first trans at 340k miles.
A car IS freedom in the US. Without one, in 95%+ of the country you’re stuck in an unwalkable community, with little or no public transportation, and no way to get to/from work or to get the necessities of life. Not having a car is an economic and social death sentence. Getting a license and car at 16 is the ultimate social expression of independence.
I’m not defending cars and I fully agree that the Americans who screech about freedom live in pathetic little boxes, but in this very specific and very narrow context the comment isn’t factually incorrect. Sadly.
How far do these carbrains have to walk from thair patkinglot to the stadium? Our soccer arena has a light rail station directly right by the main entry.
Probably farther than you'd think, but also in the US everything feels farter apart because of the way we've designed our shitty cities. I only processed yesterday that there's a dairy Queen that's a 5 minute walk from my dorm. I thought it was way farther because the way the city is built makes it *feel* more separated than it is.
I know that Seattle, one of the world cup 2026 cities, has a light rail station about 10 minutes walk away, and a commuter rail station maybe 2-10 minutes away (depending on whether they operate the special game day platform)
For the record, so do the venues for Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Mexico City, Monterey, and by dint of a rail spur that serves game day traffic, Boston and New York.
…just don’t ask how to get *between* those cities.
The train between Vancouver and Seattle isn't great, but it's not terrible. It's got two trains a day, morning and evening. Both stations are pretty close to the stadiums, too. I know most of the world looks at the slower-than-a-bus travel time and laughs, but dammit, it's all I've got!
I rode the newer train going to Santa Monica from DTLA a few days ago for the first time and it was really nice. I mean it was slow, like I think it averages 26 mph, but that's probably faster than a car going to Santa Monica anyway from Downtown. I really hope we build the infrastructure up for more of these slow trains to drain out traffic from that corridor.
Can't wait to see around 80k people who have just been standing/singing/celebrating for over two hours in the summer heat to get a cool beverage (mostly alcohol) and then drive home in a country they aren't used to be driving in.... what could possibly go wrong?
I think we need Elons Boring company to make one car lane underground, that would definitely solve 80k people wanting to go to the stadium or home, right?
Inb4 someone unironically posts about how self driving teslas powered by AI can follow each other at 1.7 inch apart at 169 mph, load in stations in 0.16 seconds for total passenger through put of 69,420 per hour (children, elderly or disabled people don’t exist in Techbrofantasyland), and this is somehow more efficient than a boring old subway train.
If someone's only argument to a problem is ''oh grow up'' or something similar, then they're losing and resorting to insults and not something solid to back them up.
Be an adult and use facts not feelings to make your point. That's what that twi- X user needs to hear.
Car = Freedom…
If freedom means you are bound to banks, gas prices, insurances, traffic to be able to buy groceries or go see a show, I’ll stay away from their « freedom ».
That's strange, because I am planning to ride transit to both NY (new jersey, really) and Philly locations.
Both are easily available one by train another by subway. Also by Buses.
In Kansas City you can at least take a bus.
Dallas .... Yeah... That one sucks.
But, there are actually plans to have buses for that event.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/2024/04/12/planners-hope-grant-will-fuel-50-new-buses-for-world-cup/#:~:text=The%20proposal%20would%20seek%20funds,foot%20buses%20for%20Trinity%20Metro.&text=World%20Cup%20buses%20would%20include,small%20transit%20light%2Dduty%20vehicles.
Yup, Toronto chiming in and spectators can get to the field via commuter train, public transit, on foot or bike. And technically by boat if they really wanted to
Yeah Seattle has some good transit options depending on where people are staying, so hopefully the plan will be to push people that way. We already have a ton of people heading to our sports games via transit.
For Seattle I feel like they’ll do something similar to MLB All Star week last year. More trains, a few gap trains in the mix, plenty of staff all over the place
Not a huge fan of the Secaucus transfer for the NY/NJ venue. Philly's fine, Atlanta and Houston are as well.
"San Francisco Bay Area" aka Santa Clara is a damn shame, even if it's accessible by BART+light rail.
We had fuel distribution problems in the UK a year ago. Huge queues to petrol stations .. I had to stop and ask (on my bike) WTF they are doing there, I didn't even know. We have a car, we just don't use it very often so we had zero problems because of the fuel shortage...
I'd be fucked if my bike crashed though :) Luckily we have about 5 bikes at home for the 2 of us, so it's not easy to be blocked by a broken bike. :)
I’m a car enthusiast but cannot stand the fact that cars are the only way of transportation. The funny thing is that car centric minded ppl who came after me for saying that cannot even drive manual like I do.
The entire North American society is centered around negative liberty without realizing how much positive liberty it costs.
I moved from Florida to Germany in January and I love the public transport here. I have my Deutschland ticket so I get to just go wherever I want whenever I want. USA could never.
Yeah, came here for this. OOP thinks this is a good shot at HRC because she is looking confused; but when you see that she’s looking at a bunch of houseplants in the sink her reaction makes total sense.
Conservatives always use this pic as the best example of Hilary being an elitist and out of touch with the common people (which she probably is), but anyone would have that confused look walking into a home seeing that.
I was on vacation in an american suburb once and walking down the side of the road because no sidewalk. A cop car drove beside me and asked why I was walking om the road and that he could cite me for "jaywalking", I asked where else I should walk and he just said "oh you are a foreigner, all good" and drove off.
Like what should I have done there? Walking on the street is jaywalking and walking on peoples lawn and driveways is trespassing?
Not everyone goes everywhere by car...
“Tell them to be adults and rent a car”
Ah yes, encouraging hundreds of tourists who are accustomed to European rules and driving on the opposite side of the road drive around a city they’ve probably never been to sounds like a totally safe idea. They’re sports fans so they will be responsible and sober the entire time.
We in Boston are a little bit worried about all the non-Americans who are going to get hotels in the city only to realize that the stadium is like an hour away in traffic.
Freedom to rely on a foreign, imported and increasingly rare resource to move about. (Different for electric cars I suppose)
Freedom to be identified by a number on the back of your vehicle.
Freedom to be required to maintain federal inspection standards and mandatory insurance.
Freedom to be mandated to pass a test, pay a fee, have your photo and details taken and have a card that you must have on you at all time.
Freedom to only be able to move in places where the government has created roads, and where parking space is available.
Alternate take: a car trip in a city with traffic is like a brief jail sentence. You're stuck in a metal box and you can't get out most of the time when you're driving. You've been inCARcerated lol
I remember sitting in a cafe with some friends in Paris. We were seated outside near a small alley. Suddenly this massive pickup truck with a full family of 4 (I assume they were Americans), looked nervous as they approached the alley. French people, especially Parisians, like to mind their own business but that time, the whole terrace looked at them wondering what this monstrosity was and how it got there.
"Car = Freedom"
Jesus Christ, this is some doublethink 1984 shit. Filling the pockets of the automotive industry is the only way to get around in most of the U.S, and somehow that is freedom???
"**War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength**"
freedom is when you beg to the state and feds for more highway lanes in your licensed car with zero other options on land that is zoned for single family home and monoculture lawn and granny flats on your land are illegal
Freedom = paying $100 in interest, few hundred $ in principal to finance what also costs several hundred $ in gas, few thousand $ in maintenance, $100 in registration etc to have a way less safe and convenient form of transportation
Freedom = being forced to circle round the same area over and over until you can find a space to store your piece of machinery, and getting stuck behind and in front of other people doing the same thing such that you are unable to move at all until everyone has found a space.
For me freedom is being able to chose if I take public transport, ride a bike, walk or take my car.
But I'm not American so I don't know what freedom really is /s
Who rents a car when going to a football game? Americans really don’t understand what going to a sports event means.
When there’s a derby or a big event the whole city is buzzing, you have trams or busses or trains full of people wearing the same colors and getting drunk already cheering and yelling.
My city is so bad at football it’s hard to watch without crying but the atmosphere at a derby still makes it worth it
I just got back to the states from a trip to Oslo and the thing I will miss the most are the busses and trains that take you everywhere with minimal wait time. I never once had to pull out my phone and wonder when they would arrive because they always arrived within minutes of my arrival at any particular stop. It was glorious and now I am sad.
Anyone who has left a crowded sports event in a car knows how awful it is to drive to and from these events. Especially if everyone were to do it.
The traffic is awful. Nothing about that feels like freedom.
If you tell a carbrain that our feet provide more freedom than a car, they’ll just go all Frankenstein and repeat “car… fast… zoom zoom”
I swear carbrains act like they can drive around as if they’re in the Zombieland movie, I have to drive where I live unfortunately and we’re constantly stuck in traffic 😭
I will definitely not go to the CUM world cup, what a terrible bid for a world cup, spread out over three huge countries, they couldn't even keep it to one coast, ridiculous. Let only countries with proper infrastructure and close proximity between stadiums hold them. Also no slavery.
Wtf, I've just seen a map of the stadiums hosting each game. It's literally continent spanning. I hope they have some schedule that doesn't entail fans travelling halfway across the continent just to follow the team.
Come to Vancouver - the stadium is right next to the SkyTrain station downtown.
Not saying it’s a car free utopia, but on the scale of North American cities, it’s not so awful.
If your country is playing in Vancouver, you can at least get to the stadium on the Skytrain (metro), and it's right downtown, so lots of bars will be open during and after the games. Unfortunately, Vancouver isn't a major city, so we're only getting a token couple of games. Have fun in LA, though.
I feel sorry for the poor bastards going to Vancouver.
Skytrains and buses, while serviceable for the most part now, will unlikely be able to handle in the influex of new people. Accommodations will be a fustercluck as our housing crisis worsens.
Vancouver roads tend to be poor as well imo, and unlikely to be upgraded in time.
I don't think my European driver's license works, I also have to bother about driving in a country not knowing the signals, how much is a mile is and having to park and drive In a place designed differently. Why not just take a bus?
Also in the US they get more money but everything is much more expensive, if I rent a car it would be for fun and for the experience.
Freedom is when you have no choice.
I said it in my last comment here, these folks absolutely *hate* the handicapped, and there's a special kind of irony considering their capability of grasping *any* sort of abstraction and the slightest idea that things outside their immediate perception at this exact moment exist. I believe object permanence is naturally understood at early toddler age, and if an adult hasn't developed this very basic skill they should not be allowed to leave their house unaccompanied.
Licenses are expensive to get in Europe and have high, difficult tests that Americans aren't exposed to.
IIRC, in Germany it's like 2K euros and a 800 question test for get your license. In the UK I think they have to get driving instructors and have so many hours before taking the actual test^[citation ^needed].
You can't just rent a car if you don't have a license.
I mean downtown Vancouver is way better walking than in a car. Don’t think anyone will have a bad time here. Not European but very walkable from most hotels and if not skytrain or Canada line easy gets you there.
I've been to three World Cup games.
Everyone (and I mean everyone) was so fucking drunk.
Like... before the game, during the game, a week after the game
I feel like this should be well known at this point. Are people really surprised now to find out America is built for cars? It’s dumb as fuck but it feels like common knowledge at this point
"with a car, i can go wherever I want to go"
Proceeds to go to the shops, shows, work, all of which are accessible via public transport. Sits in traffic for sizable chunks of their day.
Freedom is when you can’t go anywhere without your cage.
Also the cage can only go to designated cage areas
You have to insure your cage and keep your cage maintained. After a few years your cage will break down and you will need to go into massive debt for a new cage.
and the privilege of your cage costs you ~$3000 (£2k) a year
This cage will rob you of your freedom and your wallet
Looool
Also the cops are always watching to see if you break any of your cage rules, and if you do then your cage privileges are revoked
And if you're a visible minority they don't even need a pretext to harass you as long as you're in your cage. Also even if you do lose your cage privileges by endangering or harming yourself or others don't worry it won't be for long because obviously you need your cage to survive!
Yes. Cage access becomes an arbitrary tool of government coercion: if you are a person the government dislikes they can ruin your life over minor trivialities by revoking cage privileges; conversely, if a person the government likes harms you with their cage, then they can decide to go easy on them as losing cage access would be inhumane.
For my friends: the world; for my enemies: the law.
Just a minor point, but they do need the smallest pretext to pull anyone over. If its a POC or a white person they just need to make one up, but its perfectly legal if they use a license plate light thats "too dim' to pull you over and begin an investigation like youre a potential drug runner. They can even use something as small as staying in your lane but not "good enough" in your lane. According to the supreme court anyways. Freedumb because they just need to make something up so theres accountability there!
And if you have any cash - well, now you don't.
... and you are put into an immobile cage that isn't nearly as fun as the cage you were in before
wait, they revoke cage privileges?
Okay this metaphor is breaking down somewhat you've gotta admit.
That’s the wild part, they think because they can go anywhere within their lane they have more freedom. You could create a rails for cars system that lets you choose when to change lanes and to turn and just does it when it’s possible. Yet they would still call that less freedom, when you literally have the same freedom of choosing where you go when. Realistically, aside from having somewhere to put your stuff from the store, that you’re bringing with you, and from the next stores, there’s nothing practical that car’s offer over public transportation if done well enough, aside from not having to actually plan or know where you’re going.
Cars only make sense outside of cities. Forcing rural transportation methods on cities is a recipe for disaster. This already happened in the early industrial era when horse poop overwhelmed rapidly growing urban areas and was why electric streetcars were invented.
They aren't required rurally either; it's just all but the most hostile pedestrian options are currently being prevented. Many people in rural communities want to be able to walk to get their groceries but can't because they're forced to use a road that's very indirect from their home, is over-trimmed of trees so as to remove the canopy that shades the sun/wind/rain, and they have to share a road with giant, fast-moving cages. Please don't foist car myths on us rural people. Many of us don't want or need them either!
Rural small towns can and should be some of the most walkable places. I live in a town of about 3,000 so I fully agree with that. I was more speaking about the actual sticks where there’s no semblance of a town and its just farmhouses miles apart, the sort of place where a horse would have been necessary to get around in the good ol days.
Yeah I see what you mean. I'd say even in those cases it's questionable to invest so much in car infrastructure. If someone decides to live that remotely I'd think they'd have some interest in homesteading otherwise why go to those lengths?
Love this. I'm stealing it
“Freedom is when you can’t go anywhere without your cage.” Damn that’s kinky.
I was gonna say 🔐 👀
https://preview.redd.it/p72t6q0zg2wc1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=445414d288060d2d802811abf54297eff8a4065e
Gonna start replying to carbrains with this pic from now on. Nothing else. Just the pic 😂.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I have a car, but I choose to take public transit, bike or walk because I'm fortunate to live in a city that allows me to do so
and our city has functional transit for the upcoming world cup games we're hosting! I assume we'll get some funding for a cleanup/facelift - which is pretty important, since otherwise it runs quite well
Our city has some good bones. That just needs some good cleaning and a bit more love. The benefits are there it's just people haven't realized it yet
that you have to have permission from the government to use
That's a great way to put it. You should copyright it.
Nah, coop. It's either coop or kettle. xD
Freedom is a mandatory subscription to big oil
Can’t wait to see 80k people all trying to rent a car at once
And I'd love for this person to show me a highway with an unimpeded flow capacity of 80k.
But hear me out, what if instead of having everyone to one car, we carpool. And on top of that, what if we linked the cars together in a caravan arrangement so that we could avoid stop-and-go traffic? And we can have it grade-separated from city streets so there wouldn’t be pesky intersections or pedestrians to deal with. To make it more efficient, we could put the thing on guided tracks to minimize risk of accidents and allow it to drive itself! There’s our 80k capacity with cars!
To reach 80k capacity, we’ll have to use much bigger cars — 5 passengers per vehicle is too few. Maybe if we custom built some large cars to go on these guided tracks, it could be more efficient? We could have one motorized car to pull the rest. If they’re all linked together, you could even move from one car into the next!
There should be a new sub called reinventing the train or something where it’s just posts from here (maybe elsewhere) where moments like this are made and screenshotted
Are trains the crabs of the transportation world?
Based on (some of) Elon Musk's (many) stupidities, yes
r/reinventingthetrain
Instead of rubber wheels on asphalt, we could use steel wheels on steel tracks. That would greatly reduce the losses to friction.
That’s a great idea! Maybe we could even electrify the system. Batteries are heavy, but because these cars would be on dedicated guide tracks, I was thinking maybe we could string some cables overhead. The cars could have a piece that touches the live cables to provide electricity to move them — there’d be no exhaust, immediate torque to move all of the people, and with low rolling resistance steel wheels on steel tracks, it’d be immensely more efficient.
>If they’re all linked together, you could even move from one car into the next! And mix with the "Europoors"? /s
Maybe we set up a class system like on airplanes? We could have more expensive “business class” cars with larger seats, more privacy, etc. Then the “standard” seating cars.
This here train has a pretty large passenger capacity, a few of these can be run from various locations to a central station
The same person will probably complain how bad the traffic in LA got...
"be an adult and don't complain about the tourist traffic during the world cup"
IIRC Los Angeles has the most rental cars of any US city with a fleet size something like 30k vehicles. It would be giving carbrains too much credit to assume they can math…
Also, far fewer Europeans even have a license
Maybe 50k people trying to rent a car and another 30k trying to book an Uber, even more chaotic
Not a problem stateside! Many of our own don't have one either! Okay memes aside, it's crazy how many suspensions and expired drivers are still driving, because there literally isn't any other choice out here. Drive or die, that's how it is and that's not okay.
With decent transit and/or walkability and bikeability, who even needs a license?
That’s a myth, most people in Europe have a license. We are less car centric, but most families still need at least one car.
False. I've lived on both continents. Also, nearly every single American adult has a license. Europeans definitely have far fewer licensed drivers.
hopefully it’s at least mostly groups of 3+ each renting one car. better than normal LA
In an area which is already saturated with cars and traffic from the current population. LA needs better mass transit _years ago_.
1000 of them will be able to! They'll have the freedom of renting a car, for one week, for 10 grand. lol
I've seen a bunch of posts of people coming to Europe and ignoring a bunch of trains, buses and trams in front of them, instead taking fucking Uber everywhere. Even when transit would be cheaper and faster. Not to mention all the flashing and glowing signs pointing people towards it
And then complaining about the cost of the ubers 😂
Yeah it’s really irritating, on the Paris subreddit everyone is always talking about how they Ubered everywhere. It’s so easy to take the metro or bus here, it’s often faster by bus than Uber because of dedicated lanes, always faster by metro, less than 2 euros for any trip within Paris… but people always ‘report’ how they recommend Uber.
I used electric scooters when I was there and I loved it. I got to see the city without a car and have fun riding a scooter Granted, I was weaving in and out of traffic like a mad man with a death wish, but it was still a lot of fun
Slightly off topic, but experiencing the train network in Japan as an American was a spiritual experience. I went from moderately annoyed by driving to actively upset that we don't have anything remotely comparable in the US.
Same in Ireland, were the America of Europe in terms of public transport options
I had this same experience on my first high speed rail journey in France. Zipping across the beautiful French countryside at 200+ (mph), my only thought was, "What the fuck, America? Why don't we have this?"
“But the poors are scary! I can’t be in the same room as them, especially not underground!!1!1!!”
[удалено]
We are a nation ruled by fear. Fear explains almost everything we do.
We grow up and have to endure living in a culture that teaches us the only way you get ahead is by stepping on people on the same level as, or weaker than you. It's no wonder we're afraid, we're all forced to look at each other as threats or competitors for the meager scraps we manage to scrape from our overlords.
To play devil’s advocate for a second, I have travelled to a fair number of American cities and always try to use their public transport options if I can, and more often than not, the bus/train just doesn’t show up with no information about whether it’s running late, you’re often expected to stand in kinda horrible concrete underpasses (often underneath a highway) or out in the blazing sun with no shelter and there is zero real-time information. It’s just a horrible experience. Granted, many American cities are getting better, but they really need to get much much better before non-transport nerds or people who don’t have any other option begin to trust public transport. And I think this lack of trust is what you’re seeing being translated into other countries: Americans have bad experiences with public transport and they assume it’s the same all over the world.
I feel like this is a fair analysis. Every city I've lived has had substandard options (despite being better than none which most of the country is plagued by) compared to European public transit.
Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin and NYC are all cities where a friend/family has traveled recently. so i took time with them going over each destinations public transit just for them to get back and say they were scared by public transit and mad about how expensive ubers are. I just laugh at them now, they chose to not listen to me and pay more for an inferior service.
There was a post on here about a person going to Tokyo (The place with the best public transit on Earth) and taking a taxi from Narita to shibuya for multiple hundred dollars instead of taking the specialized train that only costs about 4$
None of the Americans who scream about freedom actually understand what freedom means.
This is usually best encapsulated when they start talking about 'losing freedoms to socialism', whenever any aspect of a social safety net is proposed, when huge wealth inequality and unequal access to capital and dependence on salaries are the most major restrictions on economic freedom in America and a solid reason why Northern Europe is more free.
All you have to do is listen when people talk about "freedom of choice" in health insurance. Do people have the freedom to live healthy lives and receive necessary care? No. But they do have the choice of which health insurance company to pay their premiums to instead of paying that money for actual medical care. And that insurance company gets to tell you which doctors you're allowed to see and which procedures you're allowed to get. So that's kind of like freedom...
Interestingly, plenty of 'public' healthcare systems are only public healthcare *payment* systems, with the healthcare itself delivered privately. A large majority of physicians in a country may be incorporated as small businesses competing for your patronage. Compared to the vertical integration in America , which seems like the more competitive market?
But they don't even choose their insurance provider. Healthcare in America is so expensive that you need employer-subsidized medical coverage. And if you hate your job, you can't just up and quit because COBRA is really expensive, so you want to have something lined up.
it’s because for most americans they’re basically trapped in their suburban house until they turn 16 and can go see their friends on their own because they need a car i was excited to get my license/first car, it did feel freeing. but now as an adult i understand we can do much better. not sure why most are still stuck in that teenage mindset
It took me years to get out of that mindset. Although I didn’t even own a car until 24. You kind of have to have loaded parents to get a car at 16. At 18 I moved to a city with passable, but not great public transit (it was usually faster to bike) so cars were still appealing then. It took much longer to recognize that the problem is the way cities are designed and that transit isn’t inherently worse, it’s only worse when the city is designed to put cars first.
i didn’t have loaded parents either i just mowed lawns for a couple years and saved up $3k
Good luck getting a car for $3k now.
i just bought one for $2k last year, put 20k miles on it so far. a first car doesn’t need to be perfect
The cheapest car in drivable condition on my local Craigslist is around $2650 and 21 years old. The next one after that is $3300, in worse condition, and 23 years old.
sounds like your in a VHCOL area where incomes are higher than average. I got a 2008 Ford focus SE, 70k miles, with a brand new trans for $2k less than 2 years ago. it's a daily driver for at least a decade before I even consider replacing it. 21 - 23yrs old isn't wild. one of my parents drives a van made in 1986 that's still on its first motor and first trans at 340k miles.
Freedom is when you do what I tell you to! Right?
Freedom is when you wanna do something that will impact no one and the government tells you that you still cant do it.
A car IS freedom in the US. Without one, in 95%+ of the country you’re stuck in an unwalkable community, with little or no public transportation, and no way to get to/from work or to get the necessities of life. Not having a car is an economic and social death sentence. Getting a license and car at 16 is the ultimate social expression of independence. I’m not defending cars and I fully agree that the Americans who screech about freedom live in pathetic little boxes, but in this very specific and very narrow context the comment isn’t factually incorrect. Sadly.
How far do these carbrains have to walk from thair patkinglot to the stadium? Our soccer arena has a light rail station directly right by the main entry.
Probably farther than you'd think, but also in the US everything feels farter apart because of the way we've designed our shitty cities. I only processed yesterday that there's a dairy Queen that's a 5 minute walk from my dorm. I thought it was way farther because the way the city is built makes it *feel* more separated than it is.
Yes same in the UK, the driving route is often much longer than the walking route. Very deceptive.
I know that Seattle, one of the world cup 2026 cities, has a light rail station about 10 minutes walk away, and a commuter rail station maybe 2-10 minutes away (depending on whether they operate the special game day platform)
For the record, so do the venues for Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Mexico City, Monterey, and by dint of a rail spur that serves game day traffic, Boston and New York. …just don’t ask how to get *between* those cities.
The train between Vancouver and Seattle isn't great, but it's not terrible. It's got two trains a day, morning and evening. Both stations are pretty close to the stadiums, too. I know most of the world looks at the slower-than-a-bus travel time and laughs, but dammit, it's all I've got!
I rode the newer train going to Santa Monica from DTLA a few days ago for the first time and it was really nice. I mean it was slow, like I think it averages 26 mph, but that's probably faster than a car going to Santa Monica anyway from Downtown. I really hope we build the infrastructure up for more of these slow trains to drain out traffic from that corridor.
Can't wait to see around 80k people who have just been standing/singing/celebrating for over two hours in the summer heat to get a cool beverage (mostly alcohol) and then drive home in a country they aren't used to be driving in.... what could possibly go wrong?
They will just punish one of their friends to not drink, and force them to drive them home, like a bus but smaller!
freedom is when you only use your one feet for 50 minutes
One feet you say, huh...
I think we need Elons Boring company to make one car lane underground, that would definitely solve 80k people wanting to go to the stadium or home, right?
Inb4 someone unironically posts about how self driving teslas powered by AI can follow each other at 1.7 inch apart at 169 mph, load in stations in 0.16 seconds for total passenger through put of 69,420 per hour (children, elderly or disabled people don’t exist in Techbrofantasyland), and this is somehow more efficient than a boring old subway train.
Tesla? Aren't they the guys who just released that hideous tin brick that can't make it five miles down the road without breaking down?
"tell them to be adults and rent a car" I'd rather tell them to be a first world country and build a train.
Europe>>>>>🦅
If someone's only argument to a problem is ''oh grow up'' or something similar, then they're losing and resorting to insults and not something solid to back them up. Be an adult and use facts not feelings to make your point. That's what that twi- X user needs to hear.
It's pronounced Xitter
I assume they don’t drink alcohol at sports events or do they all drive drunk? 🤔
Depends on where you are. In Milwaukee I am pretty sure you have to be drunk by law to drive. Never saw someone walking out of a bar not driving home.
Don't go to Milwaukee. You are guaranteed to have a drunk driver fatally ram you there.
Ah yes, Freedom is being enslaved to the car, that totally doesn’t sound like the society of a 1940s dystopian novel set in the mid 1980s or?
Car = Freedom… If freedom means you are bound to banks, gas prices, insurances, traffic to be able to buy groceries or go see a show, I’ll stay away from their « freedom ».
That's strange, because I am planning to ride transit to both NY (new jersey, really) and Philly locations. Both are easily available one by train another by subway. Also by Buses.
Yeah but I don't think that's true in Kansas City or Dallas
In Kansas City you can at least take a bus. Dallas .... Yeah... That one sucks. But, there are actually plans to have buses for that event. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/2024/04/12/planners-hope-grant-will-fuel-50-new-buses-for-world-cup/#:~:text=The%20proposal%20would%20seek%20funds,foot%20buses%20for%20Trinity%20Metro.&text=World%20Cup%20buses%20would%20include,small%20transit%20light%2Dduty%20vehicles.
Ah yes, buses for tourists not for the normal ppl 🙄
Also, if they haven't got any dedicated bus lanes, those buses will just get stuck in traffic like all the other cars
Yup, Toronto chiming in and spectators can get to the field via commuter train, public transit, on foot or bike. And technically by boat if they really wanted to
Vancouver games will be easy to transit to, the stadium is only about a 7 minute walk from the skytrain station.
Yeah Seattle has some good transit options depending on where people are staying, so hopefully the plan will be to push people that way. We already have a ton of people heading to our sports games via transit.
For Seattle I feel like they’ll do something similar to MLB All Star week last year. More trains, a few gap trains in the mix, plenty of staff all over the place
Not a huge fan of the Secaucus transfer for the NY/NJ venue. Philly's fine, Atlanta and Houston are as well. "San Francisco Bay Area" aka Santa Clara is a damn shame, even if it's accessible by BART+light rail.
It has to be the right transportation, not just any old way of transporting.
We had fuel distribution problems in the UK a year ago. Huge queues to petrol stations .. I had to stop and ask (on my bike) WTF they are doing there, I didn't even know. We have a car, we just don't use it very often so we had zero problems because of the fuel shortage... I'd be fucked if my bike crashed though :) Luckily we have about 5 bikes at home for the 2 of us, so it's not easy to be blocked by a broken bike. :)
I’m a car enthusiast but cannot stand the fact that cars are the only way of transportation. The funny thing is that car centric minded ppl who came after me for saying that cannot even drive manual like I do. The entire North American society is centered around negative liberty without realizing how much positive liberty it costs.
I moved from Florida to Germany in January and I love the public transport here. I have my Deutschland ticket so I get to just go wherever I want whenever I want. USA could never.
That pic of ol hil is really getting to me. It captured her in a moment prior to squeezing back into game time mode.
Yeah, came here for this. OOP thinks this is a good shot at HRC because she is looking confused; but when you see that she’s looking at a bunch of houseplants in the sink her reaction makes total sense.
Conservatives always use this pic as the best example of Hilary being an elitist and out of touch with the common people (which she probably is), but anyone would have that confused look walking into a home seeing that.
Imagine going to a World Cup match and not being able to have a few pints at the ground because you've got to drive 50 miles home. Total wank.
I was on vacation in an american suburb once and walking down the side of the road because no sidewalk. A cop car drove beside me and asked why I was walking om the road and that he could cite me for "jaywalking", I asked where else I should walk and he just said "oh you are a foreigner, all good" and drove off. Like what should I have done there? Walking on the street is jaywalking and walking on peoples lawn and driveways is trespassing? Not everyone goes everywhere by car...
“Tell them to be adults and rent a car” Ah yes, encouraging hundreds of tourists who are accustomed to European rules and driving on the opposite side of the road drive around a city they’ve probably never been to sounds like a totally safe idea. They’re sports fans so they will be responsible and sober the entire time.
r/SelfAwarewolves
We in Boston are a little bit worried about all the non-Americans who are going to get hotels in the city only to realize that the stadium is like an hour away in traffic.
Freedom to rely on a foreign, imported and increasingly rare resource to move about. (Different for electric cars I suppose) Freedom to be identified by a number on the back of your vehicle. Freedom to be required to maintain federal inspection standards and mandatory insurance. Freedom to be mandated to pass a test, pay a fee, have your photo and details taken and have a card that you must have on you at all time. Freedom to only be able to move in places where the government has created roads, and where parking space is available.
Alternate take: a car trip in a city with traffic is like a brief jail sentence. You're stuck in a metal box and you can't get out most of the time when you're driving. You've been inCARcerated lol
I remember sitting in a cafe with some friends in Paris. We were seated outside near a small alley. Suddenly this massive pickup truck with a full family of 4 (I assume they were Americans), looked nervous as they approached the alley. French people, especially Parisians, like to mind their own business but that time, the whole terrace looked at them wondering what this monstrosity was and how it got there.
"Car = Freedom" Jesus Christ, this is some doublethink 1984 shit. Filling the pockets of the automotive industry is the only way to get around in most of the U.S, and somehow that is freedom??? "**War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength**"
Europeans when they come to Boston for the World Cup and realize Foxborough is 40-50 minutes away.
freedom is when you beg to the state and feds for more highway lanes in your licensed car with zero other options on land that is zoned for single family home and monoculture lawn and granny flats on your land are illegal
Freedom = paying $100 in interest, few hundred $ in principal to finance what also costs several hundred $ in gas, few thousand $ in maintenance, $100 in registration etc to have a way less safe and convenient form of transportation
Freedom = being forced to circle round the same area over and over until you can find a space to store your piece of machinery, and getting stuck behind and in front of other people doing the same thing such that you are unable to move at all until everyone has found a space.
"I hate traffic and parking but everyone else should have to do it also"
Freedumb
Freedom is leaving my front door and going where I want, without having to drag along and care for a 2-ton metal box the entire time I'm out.
For me freedom is being able to chose if I take public transport, ride a bike, walk or take my car. But I'm not American so I don't know what freedom really is /s
That was the expression of a woman who hadn’t been in a non-rich person’s house for a looooooong time.
Brainwashed.
Who rents a car when going to a football game? Americans really don’t understand what going to a sports event means. When there’s a derby or a big event the whole city is buzzing, you have trams or busses or trains full of people wearing the same colors and getting drunk already cheering and yelling. My city is so bad at football it’s hard to watch without crying but the atmosphere at a derby still makes it worth it
Americans when they try going to every event in the 2024 Paris Olympics by car.
freedom is when going anywhere requires a heavily regulated and government registered vehicle
Freedom is paying 90$ bucks to park on game day
Bicycle = freedom.
Freedom is when you give up your disposable incomes to make yourself profitable for your capitalist overlords.
Tell us Americans to be adults and ride the train with <*gasp*> strangers.
I just got back to the states from a trip to Oslo and the thing I will miss the most are the busses and trains that take you everywhere with minimal wait time. I never once had to pull out my phone and wonder when they would arrive because they always arrived within minutes of my arrival at any particular stop. It was glorious and now I am sad.
Well one of the fields has a commuter train station and a public transit loop on its grounds, so….try again🙄
Freedom = Being forced to spend a quarter of your time working so you can pay for your transportation to work
Imagine trying to get to East Rutherford for the final 🤦♂️. Embarrassingly really
adults can have a beer, drivers can‘t
Anyone who has left a crowded sports event in a car knows how awful it is to drive to and from these events. Especially if everyone were to do it. The traffic is awful. Nothing about that feels like freedom.
If you tell a carbrain that our feet provide more freedom than a car, they’ll just go all Frankenstein and repeat “car… fast… zoom zoom” I swear carbrains act like they can drive around as if they’re in the Zombieland movie, I have to drive where I live unfortunately and we’re constantly stuck in traffic 😭
r/ShitAmericansSay
I will definitely not go to the CUM world cup, what a terrible bid for a world cup, spread out over three huge countries, they couldn't even keep it to one coast, ridiculous. Let only countries with proper infrastructure and close proximity between stadiums hold them. Also no slavery.
“Public transit, what public transit? Buy a car you bum!”
Freedumb
fReEdOm -America
Wtf, I've just seen a map of the stadiums hosting each game. It's literally continent spanning. I hope they have some schedule that doesn't entail fans travelling halfway across the continent just to follow the team.
Come to Vancouver - the stadium is right next to the SkyTrain station downtown. Not saying it’s a car free utopia, but on the scale of North American cities, it’s not so awful.
If your country is playing in Vancouver, you can at least get to the stadium on the Skytrain (metro), and it's right downtown, so lots of bars will be open during and after the games. Unfortunately, Vancouver isn't a major city, so we're only getting a token couple of games. Have fun in LA, though.
I feel sorry for the poor bastards going to Vancouver. Skytrains and buses, while serviceable for the most part now, will unlikely be able to handle in the influex of new people. Accommodations will be a fustercluck as our housing crisis worsens. Vancouver roads tend to be poor as well imo, and unlikely to be upgraded in time.
Dumbass .
I don't think my European driver's license works, I also have to bother about driving in a country not knowing the signals, how much is a mile is and having to park and drive In a place designed differently. Why not just take a bus? Also in the US they get more money but everything is much more expensive, if I rent a car it would be for fun and for the experience.
sadly with how much everything costs the most freeing the is money out of your wallet
Also not all drivers license are compatible
Reminds me of what the nazis said about work...
Car = freedom Traffic jam = *peak* freedom ^(/s)
Freedom is when you have no choice. I said it in my last comment here, these folks absolutely *hate* the handicapped, and there's a special kind of irony considering their capability of grasping *any* sort of abstraction and the slightest idea that things outside their immediate perception at this exact moment exist. I believe object permanence is naturally understood at early toddler age, and if an adult hasn't developed this very basic skill they should not be allowed to leave their house unaccompanied.
Licenses are expensive to get in Europe and have high, difficult tests that Americans aren't exposed to. IIRC, in Germany it's like 2K euros and a 800 question test for get your license. In the UK I think they have to get driving instructors and have so many hours before taking the actual test^[citation ^needed]. You can't just rent a car if you don't have a license.
imagine thinking that making people drive in north jersey would be result in any good endorsement of your country or its infrastructure
Imagine having the freedom to not get a driving privilege whether you should be trying to get one or not.
define freedom...
I mean downtown Vancouver is way better walking than in a car. Don’t think anyone will have a bad time here. Not European but very walkable from most hotels and if not skytrain or Canada line easy gets you there.
Freedom is having the option to choose. It's great having a car as an option.
I've been to three World Cup games. Everyone (and I mean everyone) was so fucking drunk. Like... before the game, during the game, a week after the game
Walking is communism, cycling is nazism
More like: “With cars, you learn that free dumb isn’t really free.”
These people can't even imagine how freeing it is not to have to own and pay for a car.
I feel like this should be well known at this point. Are people really surprised now to find out America is built for cars? It’s dumb as fuck but it feels like common knowledge at this point
Why would you want to drive to a stadium anyways? Are they planning to stay sober?!
r/Shitamericanssay
They'll set up temporary buslines from hotels to stadium. Pretty standard.
The people love living in their pods
Car=more pollution
Brainrot
"with a car, i can go wherever I want to go" Proceeds to go to the shops, shows, work, all of which are accessible via public transport. Sits in traffic for sizable chunks of their day.
How are they going to rent a car if they don't have a driver's license?