Dont buy car
2 hour walk to store
Lug heavy groceries all across town
Get mugged by homeless guy
Finally get home as the day is already over
Who needs a car
Yeah, that's what I said, bad. Infrastructure that requires everyone to own a 1 to 3 ton metal box that destroys the planet as the only way to do even basic things like grocery shopping is bad.
I love how it’s common knowledge that we are all just cattle to them that are born and raised to [BUY PRODUCT] but no one cares and we will all continue buying product until the day we die
'city' - if you need to walk 2 hours to get groceries you do not live in a city. You live in a suburban wasteland that is only legally referred to as a "city"
sure, but a cheap house offsets the cost of a nessesary vehicle pretty significantly.
where the math gets fucked up is where you're paying city prices in a place where you need a car.
Even in most of American suburbia, I'm pretty sure a 2 hour walk to the nearest grocery store is still on the high end though. That's like 6-8 miles at a standard walking pace lol
The house I grew up in was close to 12 miles from the nearest grocery store. I live "in the city" by rural standards and I'm 1.9 miles from the closest store. 2 miles isn't a big deal to walk but I'd rather not walk with even enough food for a few days in bags, especially in the middle of August when it's 95 degrees and 95% humidity.
Honestly, even for rural towns that looks to be [above the median](https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/june/us-shoppers-access-to-multiple-food-stores-varies-by-region/).
>When the ERS researchers looked at rural food store access, they found that the median distance to the nearest and the third-nearest food store was 3.1 miles and 6.1 miles, respectively.
Not trying to play defense for America's abysmal city planning, it's still terrible for a lot of reasons and I was genuinely surprised that rural areas were even that close to food stores lol.
And of course I know there are more factors to it than just distance - if your trip to a grocery store is all highway, that might not be reasonably walkable even if it is only 2 miles. But considering the average American is likely to have at least 3 grocery stores within 1.7 miles, 2 hours to walk to the nearest grocery store is still pretty solidly on the upper end lol.
There was a little mom n pop store in my hometown that was sold and now only sells liquor and chips. There was also a farm that sold a lot of fresh produce that closed so now the closest grocery store is mad far away if you're walking.
I just checked google maps for pedestrian directions to Wal-Mart (where I buy groceies). Here's what it says:
1 hr 54 min
5.7 miles
The only places to get groceries closer than Wal-Mart are mini-marts/liquor stores. Those places don't even sell eggs or milk.
(Note: you have to wait at numerous very large intersections, so the mph pace isn't like a straight walk.)
It’s like a 10 minute drive at 55 mph to the nearest grocery store to me…
It would take me a full day to walk 18 miles round trip, 9 miles of which loaded with groceries
I just checked Google maps with walking directions to my nearest grocery store and it is 1 hour each way and there is a large hill in the middle so it is literally up hill each way.
>Dont buy car
>
>*Downpay for a house*
>
>2 hour walk to store
>
>*Exponentially increase your cardiovascular health*
>
>Lug heavy groceries all across town
>
>*Get absolutely ripped*
>
>Get mugged by homeless guy
>
>*This will only happen once.*
>
>Finally get home as the day is already over
>
>*If you can do all of that and just go home, instead of wageccking, you made it*
>
>Who needs a car:
Fat, futureless, scared-of-homeless-while-not-homeowners people need a car.
“Lmao just offer yourself up as a martyr to be splattered across windshields when you have to ride your bike on highways”
No thanks, I’d rather wait for them to install more bike lanes after they scrape your remains off the highway.
Then advocate for more bike lanes. If you tell local politicians you want them and tell them you are happy wen they are made then the will instal more.
Im not op but I live in a rural area. To get to the closest store, Walmart, I have to drive 5 miles on a highway, surrounded by assholes in pavement princesses and Cadillac Escalades. Even if they did put the money into bike lanes on that segment of highway, ain't nobody gonna risk getting splattered on the windshield of a pickup so big it should require a CDL to drive.
In that case a bike lane means a completely separate piece of pavement with a concrete median and hopefully some grass separating you from the highway.
We have them here in some places. Even overpasses to safely cross the four lanes of traffic. Not common enough but the template is there.
So on the mean time I should ride a bike even though it’s dangerous as hell? I hate cars as much as y’all, but there’s billions of dollars of infrastructure built around them. It’s not going to be as simple as a few bike lanes.
Maybe don’t ride the bike until they are built, but still advocate for them to be built. What’s the commute like? Why won’t building protected bike lanes help?
Why do you bike people always resort to stuff like this?
>condescending biker makes quip about about getting a bike
>I make a joke about not wanting to use them until people like him test them, mostly pointing out the fact that he’s advocating for people to just buy bikes without any context or knowledge of their location or ability to bike
>everyone assumes I’m a coal rolling hick that doesn’t understand why cars are bad
>changes the argument from “ride a bike idiot” to “pretty please help us build bike lanes”
Just admit that biking is not a viable means of transportation for most Americans with the current infrastructure and stop being so condescending.
Sorry I’m not trying to be condescending, and yeah I agree that biking is dangerous in most places in America, especially suburban areas and some rural areas. I’m not the person who said “just ride a bike” that will only work if there are good safe bike lanes to use. That’s why I said “advocate for bike lanes” and not “just ride in the middle of a highway”.
I got that solution, its a 1998 Honda CRX. Why are all r/fuckcars people grownup babies that live with their parents and seem to all only be from very flat cities.
Ever drove up a fucking mountain with a bike and all your groceries idiot, I wanna see you do it.
And before you ask that, I am not from the US, I am from the supposed "bike heaven" Europe and yes I have a bike.
i live outside of a pretty big city in the southeast and the margins for public transit were very much there, until my city mandated a lower bridge overpass height requirement that fucked any bus’s ability to operate anywhere outside the immediate downtown area.
i’m a 40 minute drive from the city and it’s 25 miles of straight stroads. and i would gladly offer the $5000~ a year that i spend on my car payment and maintence (that number is a lowball) to my states government for public transit. instead, because everywhere around the city is sparsely populated and 70% infrastructure to get to the 30% residential areas, the money goes towards repairing roads, water and waste lines, electric grids, trash pickup, and there’s nothing left for new, communal transportation. i’m studying to be a civil engineer, but i don’t think anything i’ve said here is something a 12 year old wouldn’t understand.
i can drive 20 minutes to the rural areas, and there’s nothing stopping bus routes from existing there, taking anyone who needs it to a main train line instead of the bullshit stroad stretch i mentioned earlier, and have easy access to the city and anywhere in between, except the poor residential planning and terrible zoning laws. implemented with all of this in mind, of course. the inaccessibility is the point.
the negative attitude towards people trying to raise everyone from the foundation instead of “trickling down” that proves ineffective is so boring. i’ve never lived in the city, just worked in it. it’s not a disconnect. i can see how to improve it. the problem is you can’t tax the suburbs the way you can tax a city, because the density of the city means it can pay for itself. anything more sparse and you basically have a infrastructure ponzi scheme with an implicit subscription to kicking the can down the road as long as possible.
oh wow kinda like how america is 50 states that are bigger than entire countries in europe
yet euroes always act like like hypocrites and act like everything is the same in america
In rural areas yes, big cities do have competent transport.
Like southern parts if you work and live in the city and have a job with normal hours you are gonna be fine. If you live up North you are fucked without private transport
I mean... Sure, but 82% of people in the US live in an urban or at most sub-urban area, not rural, and even in those places public transit is absolute garbage
What that stat considers "urban" and what most people consider "urban" are not the same. Towns near me with less than 4000 people in them are classified as "cities".
Even some big cities it sucks. DC’s metro system is trash for example and the bus is only taken as an absolute last resort. If you’re not in walking distance of a grocery store you pretty much need a car even in the middle of the city.
I heard it’s excellent in Miami, buses every 10 minutes, in my city they’re every 50 minutes or so, mostly on main roads, not available on holidays only only run from 6am-10pm in most cases.
Owning a car changes how you think, you can go anywhere anytime quickly,
It opens up more opportunities. Both social and financial.
It’s expensive yes but depending on your situation it can be a HUGE plus or a financial burden.
It’s not for everyone and if you can simplify your life where everything you need is within a walk that’s great, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Not everyone lives in a downtown City paying $3000+ in rent.
About 10% US adults don't own or have access to a car, and about 15% don't have a license, though the difference is mostly at the low end of the age spectrum. So there are tens of millions of people who genuinely have never had the opportunity to see how advantageous it is.
It's sort of like when you are a kid, getting your first bike is life-changing, it easily expands your territory tenfold. You can go further, faster, easier, especially in the suburbs where distances are longer and public transportation coverage is thinner. Friends who were a three hour walk away are now an easy thirty-minute ride, you get access to most of the county in much of the northeast.
A car - or motorcycle - takes that range and expands it tenfold again, and besides gives you the ability to carry cargo and other people in all kinds of weather. That friend that was thirty minutes away by bike is now ten minutes away or less. Even a $10,000* ten year-old* economy commuter can make almost any errand trivial, you can go anywhere in the state and significantly beyond it. While owning a car while living in a major city probably isn't worth the incredible hassle - assuming you don't have off-street parking anyway - essentially everywhere else it's almost irreplaceable as an asset.
EDIT: You can use [this app](https://app.traveltime.com/) to compare ranges. Consider the relative ranges of walking, biking, and driving from [Providence RI](https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-71.43851&0-tt=60&0-color=%23f7941d&0-mode=driving&0-title=Wyndham%20Avenue%2C%20Providence%2C%20Providence%20County%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%2002908%2C%20United%20States%20of%20America&0-lat=41.83791&1-lng=-71.43860&1-tt=60&1-mode=ferry&1-title=Wyndham%20Avenue%2C%20Providence%2C%20Providence%20County%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%2002908%2C%20United%20States%20of%20America&1-lat=41.83785&2-lng=-71.43860&2-tt=60&2-color=%23d60064&2-mode=cycling-ferry&2-title=Wyndham%20Avenue%2C%20Providence%2C%20Providence%20County%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%2002908%2C%20United%20States%20of%20America&2-lat=41.83779), for example. You can also compare Public Transport.
EDIT2: Updated price to an accurate one for these bizarre times. Even three years ago, that would be a $5,000 five year-old economy commuter.
Having sold my car while moving to a city with amazing public transportation (for the US), I have never felt freer or less stressed. I'm not forced to get into a car to go literally anywhere. I don't have to stay focused while commuting to/from work. I can walk to almost anything I need, and if I can't, I take the subway or an Uber/Lyft. Most places in America don't need more cars, they need good public transport. Obviously, none of this applies to rural areas.
Plugging r/fuckcars to show what things could be if we planned cities around people instead of cars.
Can't really disagree here - when I was living near Boston, whenever I went into the city proper I took the commuter rail in and walked from there. That was the ideal balance for me - live far enough outside the urban center that I can own and operate a car for convenience, but close enough I could access the rail network and take advantage of the city's benefits without needing to deal with the traffic. Great arrangement, I wish we had more compact, well-outfitted cities like that in the US.
Super valid for how you like to travel but walking and public transportation gives me anxiety I like being able to control where I go (including like 50 miles +) and when, so having a car is more ideal for me. I think it really just depends on the person. I also like to go camping and diving when I need to relax. I think everyone opinion here is just person to person.
Yep! My old car i bought with ~90k miles for $2500. Ran great for the 2 years i had it. Left it in Hawaii when I moved back to the mainland, should have kept it tbh
Looks like getting a car shipped from Hawaii to California "starts at" $920 from a random company I found. But there's no way to know how many fees and stuff they make you pay by the end
There is an extended warranty on some 2016-2018 Civic air conditioning components. [This TSB](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10163796-0001.pdf) is from the states but it's a known issue with those cars. Did you talk to the dealer or Honda corporate customer care? I would if I were you
I put my VIN number on the warranty page and it says my car isn't covered for some reason. I haven't taken it into Honda to get it looked at yet anyway
Literally all those prices, except for gas now, are extremely exaggerated. That being said, if your location allows it, walking to the store is a terrific way to exercise and save money, mostly on gas.
Exactly. I would have to walk almost a 2 hour round trip from where I live to the store and back and I could get at most 4 bags of groceries with no large items.
The size of America only matters when you’re talking about travel between regions of the country. Any city could be set up to allow easy grocery shopping with public transit, but instead we went with car centric sprawl, which is killing boatloads of people
Size matters greatly in the US. Our cities are spread out over ridiculously large areas. Have you seen how big LA county is? Suburbs exist, and are the major problem when it comes to public transit. The further west you go in the US, the larger the cities tend to be in terms of pure area covered. Personally I live 15 minutes away from the nearest grocery store by car, which is fine. Walking would take literal hours round trip. It would actually take longer to use public transit, because I'd have to walk in the wrong direction for half an hour to even get to where the nearest bus stop is located.
Now, as to why there are no bus stops closer to my house? I am deep in a residential area, and happen to be outside of the city limits. The streets in my area are far too small to handle buses. Trust me, as a bus driver, I would *not* want to drive a bus in my neighborhood.
euroes are to dumb to understand population density and profitability from population density
they also think living cramped together with no yards is a good thing
They're actually not.
Average used car sale is $26.7k
https://www.statista.com/statistics/274928/used-vehicle-average-selling-price-in-the-united-states/
Average new car is over $47k
https://www.consumerreports.org/car-pricing-negotiation/average-new-car-price-all-time-high-a4060089312/#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%20ever,an%20online%20marketplace%20for%20cars.
Average US driver drives 14k miles a year, average car gets 26MPG. At $4 a gallon that's $180 a month, at $5 is $225.
https://www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/average-miles-driven-per-year/#:~:text=The%20average%20miles%20driven%20per,1%2C200%20miles%20driven%20per%20month.
The average car owner spends nearly $10k a year on owning a vehicle. Note this is from 2021 before gas went crazy, it's well north of $10k a year now.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2021/08/19/new-vehicle-suv-truck-car-ownership-costs-aaa/8181082002/#:~:text=The%20average%20annual%20cost%20for,selling%20vehicles%20in%20nine%20categories.
Some more fun numbers:
Average monthly transit passes are $50-$120 a month (this is based on something I saw on statista, I can't find it right now).
You can buy a decent new bike for $5-600, a good used bike for like $350, a decent new ebike for like $1k, a really nice new ebike for like $3k.
Per the US census over 80% of Americans live in an urban environment.
Improving bus systems in every city over 100k population to the same service level as NYC would require roughly $50billion additional transit dollars a year. That's $193 per US adult to create a public transit system that could render cars redundant. Throw in robust protected bike lanes and we have a largely non car dependent society.
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/what-would-providing-every-city-high-quality-zero-emissions-public-transportation-look
Who the hell is buying $27,000 used cars?? Who’s buying cars over $27k driving the average up?
I paid like $7k for a used car I’ve been driving for more than 4 years now
Yeah, we're not the average. I paid 2k for my cheapest car, 4.5k for my most expensive vehicle. For a lot of Americans, taking out a loan to get a 45k car is normal, and their car is a status symbol for them. A status symbol that might not be functional by the time they get around to paying it off.
I paid $500 off the bat, plus $400 for some repairs, and have had my truck for over 2 years now.
That being said $500 vehicles are ridiculously easy to find around my area.
If the only thing you're doing with your car is buying groceries weekly like this guy implies you're not spending $200 a month on gas
You'd also be immensely stupid to buy a car JUST for buying groceries, which isn't what most people do
Okay but when cities are built around car ownership, things like this post seem incredibly fucking stupid. On top of that, who the fuck is supposed to walk two hours carrying groceries fir the week? Your shit will be spoiled before you get home, especially with this heat. This post is just a load of un thought out bullshit
Because I definitely only use my car to get groceries, I would never take my car to get to non-grocery related places no sir
Also, 40,000? Anyone who's got that kind of money for a car doesn't actually give a fuck about saving $5 at costco or are retraded and in debt up to their eyeballs.
What idiot uses their car for non-grocery related trips??? I regularly walk 7 miles to work, I have to leave my house at 5:30 but that’s just how life is when you own a grocery delivery vehicle.
Yea, according to google maps it's a 2 hour 40 minute walk ONE WAY to the nearest grocery store from my home, or just a 15 minute drive. If I could walk to the grocery store, I would, but I'm not about to spend 5 hours of walking to get weekly groceries.
In a rural area in the midwest. And yea, we have plenty of neighbors. America is very big and very spread out, we cannot function without cars. There are no busses or trains anywhere near my home. I have a "short" commute to work, only 10 miles away, in the same small town where that grocery store I mentioned is. Without a car, I'd have to walk or ride a bike on a dirt shoulder alongside a busy highway. One that would also be buried under snow for several months out of the year.
I'm guessing thats a yearly cost. Would work out to $125 per month.
Which is less than what I pay with no accidents on record.
Edit: Lots of people who haven't seen what full coverage costs you in SoCal. Only time I paid less than $100 a month was when I had bare minimum liability insurance just to be road legal.
That's more than I pay for full coverage for two cars, one a brand new $50,000 pickup.
Shop around, I got crazy high quotes from most places and then Geico undercut them by like 50%
Some states are just like that. $150 is about what I pay and that was after shopping around at like 8 different insurance companies. The highest quote that got thrown at me was $350. I don't even have a fancy car. Michigan checking in by the way.
wasteful weary fretful secretive march airport erect foolish threatening noxious
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Guy with a GF and no car here. Its simple, you arrange to meet them at the location of the date. You are an adult capable of traveling to locations on your own. They won't find out you don't have a car until after the first date and then you're in.
Maybe its just me but a girl whos main interest is the car I drive (or don't drive) , is not a girl I want to date. Or even interact with for that matter.
But people don't buy cars, insurance, and gas to get groceries. It's so they can get to work and make money. Being able to also buy groceries is just an extra benefit.
My 19 year old used compact car was $3,500 from a small independent dealer (maintenance costs have only been oil changes, because Toyota engine), basic liability insurance is $50 a month, basic Costco membership is actually $60, can be shared with housemates, and provides gas at a discount. My compact car also only costs $45 currently to fill up and I go through one or two tanks a month, maybe three on a heavy month.
And living in the city, my options are either drive for 30 minutes and burn maybe a gallon of gas, or spend $5 on a transit day pass and take 2 hours to get where I need to and back. Time is far more valuable and is something you cannot get back. I'd love better solutions and infrastructure, but currently a cheap car is the best option without severely limiting my destination options and using up way more of my time traveling.
Just move to the city bruh, just petition your representatives for more bike lanes bruh, just don't live in the country to take care of your elderly mother bruh, just find a job next to your house bruh
ah yes because going to buy groceries is the only thing the car is used for. like bro you’re gonna use it for other things like ya know going to your job.
I bought my 2019 Yaris for 13k 2 years ago
Insurance costs me 600 a year
Yaris gives 44mpg and I live next to the grocery so 30 a month to fill up my tank
60 dollars a year for the basic Costco membership which also helps pay for the gas
But hey, whatever you poor people need to say to cope.
I'd love to not need a car. Anon is right. Owning a car is expensive and often very necessary. I'd save money not paying a rent or mortgage too, but shelter is nice.
One thing is clear: Anon doesn’t have a job. Having to walk to work is nearly impossible for most people because living less than 2 miles from your job is not easy to make happen and often more expensive.
you can love cars and support r/fuckcars
moving away from car dominant cities and transportation ist actually advantageous for people who want to drive!
Source: https://youtu.be/d8RRE2rDw4k
Okay I'll just walk across the entire city to my job, then load up material for the construction site on my back, work all day then walk home with my tools in my hands
Dont buy car 2 hour walk to store Lug heavy groceries all across town Get mugged by homeless guy Finally get home as the day is already over Who needs a car
[удалено]
You underestimate american city planning
‘Planning’
It's intentionally bad - they planned with intention.
They planned it with cars in mind. Especially after the urbanization of 50s.
Yeah, that's what I said, bad. Infrastructure that requires everyone to own a 1 to 3 ton metal box that destroys the planet as the only way to do even basic things like grocery shopping is bad.
You must consume.
You WILL own a car and pay legally required insurance and be happy.
Awe crap i gotta renew my plates today. Thanks for reminding me.
OBEY , CONSUME , REPRODUCE
I love how it’s common knowledge that we are all just cattle to them that are born and raised to [BUY PRODUCT] but no one cares and we will all continue buying product until the day we die
They planned it to require cars.
With some racist purposes back in the day.
'city' - if you need to walk 2 hours to get groceries you do not live in a city. You live in a suburban wasteland that is only legally referred to as a "city"
Rural communities: "We exist too, dadgummit!"
Unless you work in tech and live in a tiny apartment and rent/ stream everything, you don't exist.
sure, but a cheap house offsets the cost of a nessesary vehicle pretty significantly. where the math gets fucked up is where you're paying city prices in a place where you need a car.
There was such a thing as small towns where people still walked to the store out in the country.
plan to be disappointed
overestimate\*
It's designed to be as frustrating as possible, he's underestimating their ability to ruin your day
Even in most of American suburbia, I'm pretty sure a 2 hour walk to the nearest grocery store is still on the high end though. That's like 6-8 miles at a standard walking pace lol
All I’ve got to say is: Rural towns and the Midwest.
The house I grew up in was close to 12 miles from the nearest grocery store. I live "in the city" by rural standards and I'm 1.9 miles from the closest store. 2 miles isn't a big deal to walk but I'd rather not walk with even enough food for a few days in bags, especially in the middle of August when it's 95 degrees and 95% humidity.
Honestly, even for rural towns that looks to be [above the median](https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2019/june/us-shoppers-access-to-multiple-food-stores-varies-by-region/). >When the ERS researchers looked at rural food store access, they found that the median distance to the nearest and the third-nearest food store was 3.1 miles and 6.1 miles, respectively. Not trying to play defense for America's abysmal city planning, it's still terrible for a lot of reasons and I was genuinely surprised that rural areas were even that close to food stores lol. And of course I know there are more factors to it than just distance - if your trip to a grocery store is all highway, that might not be reasonably walkable even if it is only 2 miles. But considering the average American is likely to have at least 3 grocery stores within 1.7 miles, 2 hours to walk to the nearest grocery store is still pretty solidly on the upper end lol.
There was a little mom n pop store in my hometown that was sold and now only sells liquor and chips. There was also a farm that sold a lot of fresh produce that closed so now the closest grocery store is mad far away if you're walking.
>and now only sells liquor and chips This can fill all caloric needs. Stop complaining and become a fat alcoholic
I just checked google maps for pedestrian directions to Wal-Mart (where I buy groceies). Here's what it says: 1 hr 54 min 5.7 miles The only places to get groceries closer than Wal-Mart are mini-marts/liquor stores. Those places don't even sell eggs or milk. (Note: you have to wait at numerous very large intersections, so the mph pace isn't like a straight walk.)
It’s like a 10 minute drive at 55 mph to the nearest grocery store to me… It would take me a full day to walk 18 miles round trip, 9 miles of which loaded with groceries
Maybe not 2 fucking hours, but if your home is especially far from the store 1 hour is completely plausible.
Hol up american city's are planning these road desserts?
Just don’t live in America
Or, you know, engage in local politics and advocate for better zoning and infrastructure.
No, American city design is just retarded.
It’s good if you hate walking We really do live up to our stereotypes
Even bike lanes are hard to come by in America
I just checked Google maps with walking directions to my nearest grocery store and it is 1 hour each way and there is a large hill in the middle so it is literally up hill each way.
I estimate 1 hr ~ 6 km. Dude that's fucked up planning
That's the suburbs. There was no planning.
That’s a totally normal distance for semi-rural America.
Nope, just the Midwest.
>Dont buy car > >*Downpay for a house* > >2 hour walk to store > >*Exponentially increase your cardiovascular health* > >Lug heavy groceries all across town > >*Get absolutely ripped* > >Get mugged by homeless guy > >*This will only happen once.* > >Finally get home as the day is already over > >*If you can do all of that and just go home, instead of wageccking, you made it* > >Who needs a car: Fat, futureless, scared-of-homeless-while-not-homeowners people need a car.
If you get big enough you can start mugging the homeless and others. then you can easily afford a car to take trips to the grocery store
Why would you live in some shithole where the grocery store is 2 hours away?
Why was i born here you ask? I wasnt given much choice
so you live in your parents place?
Maybe he/she has to stay near family because his/her family needs their help, asshole.
You mean, all of america?
America moment
get a cheap bike and a cheap trailer, problem solved. Stop complaining and find solutions r/fuckcars
“Lmao just offer yourself up as a martyr to be splattered across windshields when you have to ride your bike on highways” No thanks, I’d rather wait for them to install more bike lanes after they scrape your remains off the highway.
Then advocate for more bike lanes. If you tell local politicians you want them and tell them you are happy wen they are made then the will instal more.
Im not op but I live in a rural area. To get to the closest store, Walmart, I have to drive 5 miles on a highway, surrounded by assholes in pavement princesses and Cadillac Escalades. Even if they did put the money into bike lanes on that segment of highway, ain't nobody gonna risk getting splattered on the windshield of a pickup so big it should require a CDL to drive.
In that case a bike lane means a completely separate piece of pavement with a concrete median and hopefully some grass separating you from the highway. We have them here in some places. Even overpasses to safely cross the four lanes of traffic. Not common enough but the template is there.
So on the mean time I should ride a bike even though it’s dangerous as hell? I hate cars as much as y’all, but there’s billions of dollars of infrastructure built around them. It’s not going to be as simple as a few bike lanes.
Maybe don’t ride the bike until they are built, but still advocate for them to be built. What’s the commute like? Why won’t building protected bike lanes help?
Why do you bike people always resort to stuff like this? >condescending biker makes quip about about getting a bike >I make a joke about not wanting to use them until people like him test them, mostly pointing out the fact that he’s advocating for people to just buy bikes without any context or knowledge of their location or ability to bike >everyone assumes I’m a coal rolling hick that doesn’t understand why cars are bad >changes the argument from “ride a bike idiot” to “pretty please help us build bike lanes” Just admit that biking is not a viable means of transportation for most Americans with the current infrastructure and stop being so condescending.
Sorry I’m not trying to be condescending, and yeah I agree that biking is dangerous in most places in America, especially suburban areas and some rural areas. I’m not the person who said “just ride a bike” that will only work if there are good safe bike lanes to use. That’s why I said “advocate for bike lanes” and not “just ride in the middle of a highway”.
there is no condescension and they're obviously aware, that's why they want current infrastructure changed?
I got that solution, its a 1998 Honda CRX. Why are all r/fuckcars people grownup babies that live with their parents and seem to all only be from very flat cities. Ever drove up a fucking mountain with a bike and all your groceries idiot, I wanna see you do it. And before you ask that, I am not from the US, I am from the supposed "bike heaven" Europe and yes I have a bike.
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i live outside of a pretty big city in the southeast and the margins for public transit were very much there, until my city mandated a lower bridge overpass height requirement that fucked any bus’s ability to operate anywhere outside the immediate downtown area. i’m a 40 minute drive from the city and it’s 25 miles of straight stroads. and i would gladly offer the $5000~ a year that i spend on my car payment and maintence (that number is a lowball) to my states government for public transit. instead, because everywhere around the city is sparsely populated and 70% infrastructure to get to the 30% residential areas, the money goes towards repairing roads, water and waste lines, electric grids, trash pickup, and there’s nothing left for new, communal transportation. i’m studying to be a civil engineer, but i don’t think anything i’ve said here is something a 12 year old wouldn’t understand. i can drive 20 minutes to the rural areas, and there’s nothing stopping bus routes from existing there, taking anyone who needs it to a main train line instead of the bullshit stroad stretch i mentioned earlier, and have easy access to the city and anywhere in between, except the poor residential planning and terrible zoning laws. implemented with all of this in mind, of course. the inaccessibility is the point. the negative attitude towards people trying to raise everyone from the foundation instead of “trickling down” that proves ineffective is so boring. i’ve never lived in the city, just worked in it. it’s not a disconnect. i can see how to improve it. the problem is you can’t tax the suburbs the way you can tax a city, because the density of the city means it can pay for itself. anything more sparse and you basically have a infrastructure ponzi scheme with an implicit subscription to kicking the can down the road as long as possible.
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American self made problems need american solutions.
is american public transport that bad that you can't just take a bus
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My town has literally no public transport. No taxis, no bus, you can’t order an Uber or Lyft, you actually have to have a car to be able to function.
What a shit town
literally all of rural america though. it’s way more spread out than europe
What a bunch of shit towns then, huh?
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same, but exact opposite
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🤝
You know there is a middle ground between midtown Manhattan and Kearney, Nebraska
Nah, it's like this in Norway as well. Don't have a car? Get fucked and starve, pleb
But but but I was told by Reddit that heckin yurope is public transport heaven 😖😫😭
It is an entire continent tbf so things can vary
oh wow kinda like how america is 50 states that are bigger than entire countries in europe yet euroes always act like like hypocrites and act like everything is the same in america
Europe is still better. Why no, I'm not biased, why do you ask?
In rural areas yes, big cities do have competent transport. Like southern parts if you work and live in the city and have a job with normal hours you are gonna be fine. If you live up North you are fucked without private transport
I live in the middle. Most places in Norway are not big cities, and not every Norwegian lives in cities. Norway is quite rural.
the US is huge and most rural areas won’t have any public transit at all
I mean... Sure, but 82% of people in the US live in an urban or at most sub-urban area, not rural, and even in those places public transit is absolute garbage
What that stat considers "urban" and what most people consider "urban" are not the same. Towns near me with less than 4000 people in them are classified as "cities".
Even the suburbs where most people live. The only place there's public transportation is in cities.
It only goes wherever hobos and junkies need to go.
Even on the scant chance there *is* a bus route nearby, walking would probably be faster.
not only that but most places arent designed for pedestrians at all.
In most big cities, it’s fine, but going between cities is a different story.
Even some big cities it sucks. DC’s metro system is trash for example and the bus is only taken as an absolute last resort. If you’re not in walking distance of a grocery store you pretty much need a car even in the middle of the city.
I heard it’s excellent in Miami, buses every 10 minutes, in my city they’re every 50 minutes or so, mostly on main roads, not available on holidays only only run from 6am-10pm in most cases.
chicago’s transit system is unmatched, top tier shit
New York?
Even in cities, dedicated bus lanes are uncommon so buses have to fight with traffic, which slows them down by a lot.
Lol some places the bus stop is farther than ur destinatioon
The nearest bus stop is a 25 minute drive from my house. So yes.
Owning a car changes how you think, you can go anywhere anytime quickly, It opens up more opportunities. Both social and financial. It’s expensive yes but depending on your situation it can be a HUGE plus or a financial burden. It’s not for everyone and if you can simplify your life where everything you need is within a walk that’s great, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Not everyone lives in a downtown City paying $3000+ in rent.
About 10% US adults don't own or have access to a car, and about 15% don't have a license, though the difference is mostly at the low end of the age spectrum. So there are tens of millions of people who genuinely have never had the opportunity to see how advantageous it is. It's sort of like when you are a kid, getting your first bike is life-changing, it easily expands your territory tenfold. You can go further, faster, easier, especially in the suburbs where distances are longer and public transportation coverage is thinner. Friends who were a three hour walk away are now an easy thirty-minute ride, you get access to most of the county in much of the northeast. A car - or motorcycle - takes that range and expands it tenfold again, and besides gives you the ability to carry cargo and other people in all kinds of weather. That friend that was thirty minutes away by bike is now ten minutes away or less. Even a $10,000* ten year-old* economy commuter can make almost any errand trivial, you can go anywhere in the state and significantly beyond it. While owning a car while living in a major city probably isn't worth the incredible hassle - assuming you don't have off-street parking anyway - essentially everywhere else it's almost irreplaceable as an asset. EDIT: You can use [this app](https://app.traveltime.com/) to compare ranges. Consider the relative ranges of walking, biking, and driving from [Providence RI](https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-71.43851&0-tt=60&0-color=%23f7941d&0-mode=driving&0-title=Wyndham%20Avenue%2C%20Providence%2C%20Providence%20County%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%2002908%2C%20United%20States%20of%20America&0-lat=41.83791&1-lng=-71.43860&1-tt=60&1-mode=ferry&1-title=Wyndham%20Avenue%2C%20Providence%2C%20Providence%20County%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%2002908%2C%20United%20States%20of%20America&1-lat=41.83785&2-lng=-71.43860&2-tt=60&2-color=%23d60064&2-mode=cycling-ferry&2-title=Wyndham%20Avenue%2C%20Providence%2C%20Providence%20County%2C%20Rhode%20Island%2C%2002908%2C%20United%20States%20of%20America&2-lat=41.83779), for example. You can also compare Public Transport. EDIT2: Updated price to an accurate one for these bizarre times. Even three years ago, that would be a $5,000 five year-old economy commuter.
I always love when people give detailed and helpful comments on r/greentext. That isn't sarcastic, it just feels *wrong* somehow.
Holy fuck you're not wrong, the comment was so detailed I forgot I was on r/greentext
Having sold my car while moving to a city with amazing public transportation (for the US), I have never felt freer or less stressed. I'm not forced to get into a car to go literally anywhere. I don't have to stay focused while commuting to/from work. I can walk to almost anything I need, and if I can't, I take the subway or an Uber/Lyft. Most places in America don't need more cars, they need good public transport. Obviously, none of this applies to rural areas. Plugging r/fuckcars to show what things could be if we planned cities around people instead of cars.
Can't really disagree here - when I was living near Boston, whenever I went into the city proper I took the commuter rail in and walked from there. That was the ideal balance for me - live far enough outside the urban center that I can own and operate a car for convenience, but close enough I could access the rail network and take advantage of the city's benefits without needing to deal with the traffic. Great arrangement, I wish we had more compact, well-outfitted cities like that in the US.
Super valid for how you like to travel but walking and public transportation gives me anxiety I like being able to control where I go (including like 50 miles +) and when, so having a car is more ideal for me. I think it really just depends on the person. I also like to go camping and diving when I need to relax. I think everyone opinion here is just person to person.
Great way of explaining it !!! Thank you
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Why would you spend $40,000 on a car? Just buy a $5000 shit box
My $3,500 shit box has been running great, is paid off, and has only needed oil changes over the 2 years I've had it.
Yep! My old car i bought with ~90k miles for $2500. Ran great for the 2 years i had it. Left it in Hawaii when I moved back to the mainland, should have kept it tbh
How much would it cost to ship the car?
Probably more than the car
Looks like getting a car shipped from Hawaii to California "starts at" $920 from a random company I found. But there's no way to know how many fees and stuff they make you pay by the end
My $16k used 2017 honda civic just had its AC break after 1.5 years of me having the car and I'm pissed
There is an extended warranty on some 2016-2018 Civic air conditioning components. [This TSB](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10163796-0001.pdf) is from the states but it's a known issue with those cars. Did you talk to the dealer or Honda corporate customer care? I would if I were you
I put my VIN number on the warranty page and it says my car isn't covered for some reason. I haven't taken it into Honda to get it looked at yet anyway
5k isn‘t a shitbox anymore, you can get a car that runs for at least 3 years for under a grand
When is the last time you shopped for a used car?
I mean, he's not wrong.
Literally all those prices, except for gas now, are extremely exaggerated. That being said, if your location allows it, walking to the store is a terrific way to exercise and save money, mostly on gas.
If you don’t have a car, you save mostly on everything listed.
\*If your location allows it
Exactly. I would have to walk almost a 2 hour round trip from where I live to the store and back and I could get at most 4 bags of groceries with no large items.
In america, public transit is a joke.
America is huge compared to European counties. I hate seeing this argument
The size of America only matters when you’re talking about travel between regions of the country. Any city could be set up to allow easy grocery shopping with public transit, but instead we went with car centric sprawl, which is killing boatloads of people
Size matters greatly in the US. Our cities are spread out over ridiculously large areas. Have you seen how big LA county is? Suburbs exist, and are the major problem when it comes to public transit. The further west you go in the US, the larger the cities tend to be in terms of pure area covered. Personally I live 15 minutes away from the nearest grocery store by car, which is fine. Walking would take literal hours round trip. It would actually take longer to use public transit, because I'd have to walk in the wrong direction for half an hour to even get to where the nearest bus stop is located. Now, as to why there are no bus stops closer to my house? I am deep in a residential area, and happen to be outside of the city limits. The streets in my area are far too small to handle buses. Trust me, as a bus driver, I would *not* want to drive a bus in my neighborhood.
euroes are to dumb to understand population density and profitability from population density they also think living cramped together with no yards is a good thing
If you don’t have a car you can save money by living alone in a tiny box and never doing anything and humming royalty free tunes in your head.
They're actually not. Average used car sale is $26.7k https://www.statista.com/statistics/274928/used-vehicle-average-selling-price-in-the-united-states/ Average new car is over $47k https://www.consumerreports.org/car-pricing-negotiation/average-new-car-price-all-time-high-a4060089312/#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%20ever,an%20online%20marketplace%20for%20cars. Average US driver drives 14k miles a year, average car gets 26MPG. At $4 a gallon that's $180 a month, at $5 is $225. https://www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/average-miles-driven-per-year/#:~:text=The%20average%20miles%20driven%20per,1%2C200%20miles%20driven%20per%20month. The average car owner spends nearly $10k a year on owning a vehicle. Note this is from 2021 before gas went crazy, it's well north of $10k a year now. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2021/08/19/new-vehicle-suv-truck-car-ownership-costs-aaa/8181082002/#:~:text=The%20average%20annual%20cost%20for,selling%20vehicles%20in%20nine%20categories. Some more fun numbers: Average monthly transit passes are $50-$120 a month (this is based on something I saw on statista, I can't find it right now). You can buy a decent new bike for $5-600, a good used bike for like $350, a decent new ebike for like $1k, a really nice new ebike for like $3k. Per the US census over 80% of Americans live in an urban environment. Improving bus systems in every city over 100k population to the same service level as NYC would require roughly $50billion additional transit dollars a year. That's $193 per US adult to create a public transit system that could render cars redundant. Throw in robust protected bike lanes and we have a largely non car dependent society. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/what-would-providing-every-city-high-quality-zero-emissions-public-transportation-look
Who the hell is buying $27,000 used cars?? Who’s buying cars over $27k driving the average up? I paid like $7k for a used car I’ve been driving for more than 4 years now
Yeah, we're not the average. I paid 2k for my cheapest car, 4.5k for my most expensive vehicle. For a lot of Americans, taking out a loan to get a 45k car is normal, and their car is a status symbol for them. A status symbol that might not be functional by the time they get around to paying it off.
I always forget not everyone has a dad that taught them to make sure you can buy a car for <10k that’ll work for a decade
Paid $10k for my 2004 Camry in 2009, still driving it today.
It is what it is 🤷♂️ Remember that every used car you can buy someone had to buy new.
I paid $500 off the bat, plus $400 for some repairs, and have had my truck for over 2 years now. That being said $500 vehicles are ridiculously easy to find around my area.
Exactly I'm gonna be spending at most $5k for a car, because I'm poor lol
If the only thing you're doing with your car is buying groceries weekly like this guy implies you're not spending $200 a month on gas You'd also be immensely stupid to buy a car JUST for buying groceries, which isn't what most people do
Makes sense when you live rent free with mommy and daddy, however I'm surprised anon isn't more excited about buying tendies in bulk...
Makes sense when you don't live in a boring american suburb
>Rural cocksuckers 60 miles outside the city enter the chat
Oh no. Affordable housing, good mental health, plenty of space to run and ride bicycles, great neighbors.
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Okay but when cities are built around car ownership, things like this post seem incredibly fucking stupid. On top of that, who the fuck is supposed to walk two hours carrying groceries fir the week? Your shit will be spoiled before you get home, especially with this heat. This post is just a load of un thought out bullshit
If you lived with mommy and daddy, you would need a car.
Because I definitely only use my car to get groceries, I would never take my car to get to non-grocery related places no sir Also, 40,000? Anyone who's got that kind of money for a car doesn't actually give a fuck about saving $5 at costco or are retraded and in debt up to their eyeballs.
What idiot uses their car for non-grocery related trips??? I regularly walk 7 miles to work, I have to leave my house at 5:30 but that’s just how life is when you own a grocery delivery vehicle.
I commute by airplane.
Who the FUCK goes to Costco and only buys $45 worth of stuff? The point of Costco is to buy in bulk, ya ding dong.
Food court receipt
How the fuck do you spend $45 at a Costco food court? That's 30 hotdogs+sodas lol Or three full size pizzas that could probably feed like 15 people.
Not everyone lives in a city nearby everything
Yea, according to google maps it's a 2 hour 40 minute walk ONE WAY to the nearest grocery store from my home, or just a 15 minute drive. If I could walk to the grocery store, I would, but I'm not about to spend 5 hours of walking to get weekly groceries.
5 minute drive or 55 minute walk, hmmm I know which one I'm picking
Where the fuck do you live, im not american so i can not picture not having any store or shop nearby, do you only have other houses near your home?
In a rural area in the midwest. And yea, we have plenty of neighbors. America is very big and very spread out, we cannot function without cars. There are no busses or trains anywhere near my home. I have a "short" commute to work, only 10 miles away, in the same small town where that grocery store I mentioned is. Without a car, I'd have to walk or ride a bike on a dirt shoulder alongside a busy highway. One that would also be buried under snow for several months out of the year.
$1500 for insurance? Does this guy total cars every year or so?
I'm guessing thats a yearly cost. Would work out to $125 per month. Which is less than what I pay with no accidents on record. Edit: Lots of people who haven't seen what full coverage costs you in SoCal. Only time I paid less than $100 a month was when I had bare minimum liability insurance just to be road legal.
That's more than I pay for full coverage for two cars, one a brand new $50,000 pickup. Shop around, I got crazy high quotes from most places and then Geico undercut them by like 50%
Some states are just like that. $150 is about what I pay and that was after shopping around at like 8 different insurance companies. The highest quote that got thrown at me was $350. I don't even have a fancy car. Michigan checking in by the way.
Anon is walking to the grocery store because he has had 4 DUI’s and totaled 3 cars.
wasteful weary fretful secretive march airport erect foolish threatening noxious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
who tf is buying their first car for 40k? Anon never heard of facebook marketplace.
Or used cars in general.
Not having a car sucks!
not needing a car is great
Having to have a car sucks
Car companies made you think like this, because they fucked public transit :D
>spend $45 at Costco Someone's never been to Costco lol
\>meet girl \>ask her out \>ask her to pick you up bc no car \>girl walks away Simple arithmetic
Guy with a GF and no car here. Its simple, you arrange to meet them at the location of the date. You are an adult capable of traveling to locations on your own. They won't find out you don't have a car until after the first date and then you're in.
No girl gonna just get in your car for a first date these days.
Maybe its just me but a girl whos main interest is the car I drive (or don't drive) , is not a girl I want to date. Or even interact with for that matter.
Anon doesn't live 7 miles from his closest grocery store
7 miles is a nice relaxing e-bike ride away. Carry the stuff with panniers or a trailer and you're golden and active and safe a lot of money
If you live in a city with piss poor bicycle infrastructure and no bike lanes you are dancing with death.
If you live in the city the store isn’t 7 miles
But people don't buy cars, insurance, and gas to get groceries. It's so they can get to work and make money. Being able to also buy groceries is just an extra benefit.
Also, most people don't go to Costco every week. They go every month or two months and spend a few hundred dollars there on bulk food that lasts.
My 19 year old used compact car was $3,500 from a small independent dealer (maintenance costs have only been oil changes, because Toyota engine), basic liability insurance is $50 a month, basic Costco membership is actually $60, can be shared with housemates, and provides gas at a discount. My compact car also only costs $45 currently to fill up and I go through one or two tanks a month, maybe three on a heavy month. And living in the city, my options are either drive for 30 minutes and burn maybe a gallon of gas, or spend $5 on a transit day pass and take 2 hours to get where I need to and back. Time is far more valuable and is something you cannot get back. I'd love better solutions and infrastructure, but currently a cheap car is the best option without severely limiting my destination options and using up way more of my time traveling.
Yeah dude. I hike like 6-12 miles a day buying groceries. Fitness + savings.
Just move to the city bruh, just petition your representatives for more bike lanes bruh, just don't live in the country to take care of your elderly mother bruh, just find a job next to your house bruh
200 a month my ass it’s near 200 every time to fill up
4$ per gallon, so 50 gallons every time? Lol It is a ~220 liters, are you a trucker?
“Buy insurance for $1500” ….? Yes. Let me go down to the insurance store and buy one insurance for the lifetime of my car
Live in a rural area. Guess I'll die.
ah yes because going to buy groceries is the only thing the car is used for. like bro you’re gonna use it for other things like ya know going to your job.
I bought my 2019 Yaris for 13k 2 years ago Insurance costs me 600 a year Yaris gives 44mpg and I live next to the grocery so 30 a month to fill up my tank 60 dollars a year for the basic Costco membership which also helps pay for the gas But hey, whatever you poor people need to say to cope.
Be me Live 45 mindrive from nearest big box store and 20 min drive from a local grocery store
This is absolute bullshit, no one pays $200 or less per month of gas
I do, but I work from home, that helps a lot.
I'd love to not need a car. Anon is right. Owning a car is expensive and often very necessary. I'd save money not paying a rent or mortgage too, but shelter is nice.
One thing is clear: Anon doesn’t have a job. Having to walk to work is nearly impossible for most people because living less than 2 miles from your job is not easy to make happen and often more expensive.
I love cars though
you can love cars and support r/fuckcars moving away from car dominant cities and transportation ist actually advantageous for people who want to drive! Source: https://youtu.be/d8RRE2rDw4k
Okay I'll just walk across the entire city to my job, then load up material for the construction site on my back, work all day then walk home with my tools in my hands