This is apparently in Columbus, Ohio – a pretty major city by any stretch of the imagination.
And yet there are people who rail (geddit?) against 15-minute cities and efficient public transit that ensures no one ever gets stuck like this.
Columbus is special. It’s a 15 minute city by car outside rush hour. But gods help you if you don’t have a car. The bus comes like every hour.
I spent years there trying to convince people that it needs light rail
Looks like you had a really good light rail system up until the late '70s?
https://allcolumbusdata.com/rail-transportation-history/
I’m assuming Judge Doom got involved at that point and paved over the lines
That looks more like they had a role in the national rail lines and trams, before proposing a really good light rail system and continuously changing their minds to oppose it. Which is exactly what I’d always heard. “Rail is too expensive and difficult and it doesn’t work, we’ve tried and it keeps getting proposed and shot down”
Cars (like any technology under capitalism) are meant to keep people dependent, desperate, and exploitable.
meant to keep people dependent
As compared to what? Public transport is the definition of being dependent! There’s plenty of criticism to be levied, exaggeration isn’t needed.
fans? books? phonographs? tractors? guns?
Definitely yes for tractors, you should see John Deere’s business practices and walled garden of maintenance and repairability! Peak capitalism right there.
This is naiive and dumb (like a lot of posts in this community).
If you drove to the grocery store, then you almost certainly have more groceries than are going to be comfortable to carry back by hand.
Nobody in NYC can buy groceries because they don’t have cars. Cars are the only way to get groceries home.
We use rolly carts in NYC and make more frequent trips. It’s also not uncommon to stop by Trader Joe’s or the supermarket on your way home. The best carts are those with the weird tri-wheels that go up and down stairs.
Love the rolly carts. Lil old ladies pushing them home all over the outer boroughs. They’re actually what I was thinking about when I made the above sarcastic reply. I think most supermarkets sell them for like $10 or something.
They’re a little more expensive. Cheap ones are $20 or so at dollar stores, but the nice ones are $80+. It’s worth the small investment though
Pffft. Amateur. Everyone knows if you can’t carry every bag you bought in one trip you are a failure.
Fair enough. Of course with public transit you could send some of you home with some of the goods while one person waits for the tow truck.
Sure. It’s definitely that, and not that most North American cities are designed expressly to force you to drive even if you want a single cup of coffee or a sandwich or something.
Oh this case for sure 100% without a doubt has to prove out the point you’ve been obsessing over.
No possible way it could be a situation that contradicts your pre-conceived notion, adds nuance, or just isn’t really relevant to it. I mean what are the odds of that ever happening? /S
As I’ve said, I live in a walkable city near grocery stores, that still doesn’t eliminate the need to occasionally drive to one.
You can call literally call anyone you know we all have cars here. If you don’t know anyone at all you can taxi or Uber. In smaller towns you may even be able to call the police non emergency number and get help from a community officer type employee who has a car and does minor non police related stuff. Many many many things would have to fail before you need to ask a stranger and even in that case you would be hard pressed to not find help within the first couple people you ask.
My point is that this entire situation is a massive systemic failure. You shouldn’t have to find yourself in a situation where your car breaking down means you’re stuck at the grocery store with no way to get home unless someone deigns to come and get you – hell, you shouldn’t even need to drive to get groceries, any well-designed city would have multiple grocery stores within a few blocks regardless of where you live, and a dense public transit network and/or cycling infrastructure so you can get to the ones that are farther away.
Living in London all my life, we grew up in a car-less household and my dad would do nearly all of the food shopping for our family of 6 himself (7 for a while when my uncle lived with us while he was studying), carrying it all home on the bus. I am still car-free and can get my shopping home using the bus or my bike on the way home from work. If you can’t do that in your city, then that’s the fault of your city’s planners. It’s a failure of providing good public transport.
deleted by creator
No, it isn’t underappreciated. It is severely overappreciated – i.e., it’s a bullshit excuse that’s been debunked over and over again.
FYI, misinformation and bad-faith rhetoric, including whataboutism, is uncivil and violates rule 1 of this community.
Believe it or not, some people don’t care to live in cities, and prefer the outskirts. Explain, how should a train station or a bike lane get me to the grocery store when I live on a farm?
I’ve been in the situation where my car broke down and I had no way to get home without someone deigning to get me. That’s literally how life is when you’re living out of town. One of my least favorite part about this comm and the sub before it is the sheer ignorance and unwillingness to acknowledge that a non-urban perspective exists, it comes across as arrogant, ignorant, and condescending.
This situation happened at a high-density gathering point (a grocery store) in a major city (Columbus, Ohio.) The people in the story didn’t break down by the side of some lonely highway passing through the desert with no signs of civilization for a hundred kilometers either way. I am therefore speaking of systemic failures in major cities that render people in major cities stuck like this.
That said, I’ve been to (and briefly lived in) multiple tiny rural farming villages in the middle of nowhere in India that still had a bus stop and/or a train station within walking distance. When that isn’t the case there are minivans or even livestock carts that get people to where they need to be going (those count as public transport too.) Public transit is literally how people (and their groceries) get around in the heartland. Y’all bring up this point of how not everyone lives in cities every single time – we know. Americans aren’t the only ones who live on farms or out of the way. We do, too, and we get by just fine without cars.
Your car will not break down, if you just walk to the grocery store.
I’m confused whats the alternative here? Even in Japan you’d hire a taxi if you have a full load of groceries you’re not taking the train.
Living in Wroclaw, PL. Closest grocery store is 100m from where I live. Closest discount store is 350m. Closest hypermarket is 850m. Closest mall is 600m. Closest bakery is 50m. Closest restaurant is 250m, 300 for kebab, 450 for mexican, chinese, thai, korean, and italian, 600m for sushi Closest pharmacy is 300m. Closest clinic is 450m. Closest hospital is 1,3km. Closest bank is 100m.
Very not city centre btw. When your apartment is closer to things you need than the distance between free parking spot and the shop in US the car becomes pretty useless
Similar in Turku, Finland.
And I live on the very edges of the city. 500m to a store and pharmacy, supermarket a bit further. But there’s buses that go like every 7 min during the day.
Now they’re also opening more cross city lines, so that’ll make it so that I have a bus stop outside my building that will take me to one of the largest malls in Finland in a few minutes. And the other connection takes me to the centre of the city which has a mall even larger by sales.
I’ve not owned a car for years, and even when I buy lots of groceries, the bus connections are so good that I’ve not needed a car. I’m a single guy though, but sometimes I’ll have like 25kg of groceries on me when I weigh myself for the luls. A backpack and bags in both hands.
If I need something bigger that requires a car, I can use a taxi or loan a car from a friend.
Mumbai, India. Six grocery stores, five pharmacies, two clinics, and multiple cafes and restaurants within a 3-minute bike ride from where I live. A full-fledged mall, a hospital, a 7-Eleven convenience store, and an upcoming metro station 5 minutes away, a major discount department store, a shopping complex, and the train station 10min away (by bike).
That’s on top of the fact that there are multiple Instacart-style app-based delivery services that’ll bring groceries to you, so you don’t even have to get out of the house if you don’t want to. (I steer clear of those because they grossly underpay their low-level employees, but they’re there if you really need something in a pinch)
I live a solid 25-30 km outside the city center. Not once have I felt the need for a car in my eight years living here, even for longer distances.
Surely thats not applicable in most of the world.
Japan has accessible grocery stores and department stores just about everywhere. That makes it a lot easier to just get what you need and take it home because of how easy it to get to and from the store. If the load is something you can’t carry by yourself most stores offer a delivery service.
aT lEaST iT’S lEsS CrOwDeD tHaN PuBlIC TrAnSpORT
We should feel compassion towards addicts. Yes, even car addicts.
Sure, provided they show they want to make changes to the way they do things – at the very least by not actively fighting tooth and nail against systemic measures that could free them of that addiction.
In my country, most people who own a car are also members of a drivers’ club where you pay a membership fee in exchange for being able to call them for assistance in situations like this (they might repair or tow your car). Is that not a thing in the US?
It is, but they’re expensive, and since owning a car is already a pretty expensive necessity not everyone has it.
OK, in my country it’s about 100 euros for an entire year, ie much less expensive than many other expenses that come with owning a car.
American drivers are required by law to purchase car insurance, and “roadside assistance” as it’s called is usually a mid or premium feature of said insurance
I see, car (liability) insurance is also mandatory here, but it’s a separate thing from automobile club membership.
roadside assistance costs significantly more than the legal minimum amount of automotive insurance
That’s right, it’s a mid or premium feature…
That sounds similar to AAA, pronounced “Triple A.” In the US, it’s an optional “club” that provides emergency road service to members. I’ve had to rely on it before, and recommend it for those who drive a used car (which can have unforeseen issues in the works.)
Yes, someone below already mentioned that and it seems to be the equivalent.
My bad. I usually skim other comments to make sure I’m not making a repeat post, but apparently I dropped the ball here.
AAA
$$
It’s not free.
i mean your insurance is supposed to cover the fees of tracting the car to the first garage, and pay you a taxi or whatever
isn’t that a thing in Murica
We call that roadside assistance and many people do not have it as it is not required. Manny more people don’t know they have it. Actually some phone companies include it in their plans, I’ve also seen it as a feature on some credit cards. But if you don’t think about it, you forget you have it.
American car insurance covers collision damage from other cars or external factors. It doesn’t cover mechanical failures. You can get extended warranty coverage, both from your car dealer or from third parties, but this is usually not financially worthwhile.
oh. I do get coverage for all failures & replacement car for about 110€/month
Columbus, isn’t that where that school shooting happened?
Do you have any idea how little it narrows it down?
Are you thinking of Columbine?
No, but I was bowling for it
Uber exists. They could have easily spun up the app and called for a ride.
Buses also hit grocery stores or surrounding areas, often even in towns with limited public transit.
Uber exists. They could have easily spun up the app and called for a ride.
Clearly a single mom with two kids who can’t afford the upkeep on her car doesn’t have the money to spend on an Uber ride, or she would’ve done that already.
The bus network in and around Columbus, Ohio (which is most likely where this happened, based on OOP’s location) also doesn’t seem to be all that great – for all you know the nearest bus stop to the grocery store or to their house may well be kilometers away
For all you both know, apparently. You’re both arguing your side without much of a basis in fact…seems a little desperate.
Also AAA is very widely used to tow/get a ride when your car breaks down
Y’all wilding out. Uber, lyft, AAA - those are paid services. If your car is randomly breaking down in a parking lot, you probably don’t have a lot of money, people with money don’t drive unreliable cars. I mean sure, maybe they left the dome light on for hours, but I doubt it.
Yes its insane you can’t find affordable housing close to stores. Yes needing a car sucks.
I mean, parts fail. I had a new battery shit out on me after a couple of months, despite keeping up with regular maintenance. Everyone in this thread is running with completely unverified ideas about why the event happened the way it did, with no supporting evidence and then lashing out at others for disagreeing. Y’all all trying to verify your biases.
Surprisingly carbrained for a community called fuckcars, this place
Doesn’t an AAA membership cost money and have limits on how often you can use it each year
