- cross-posted to:
- memes@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- memes@slrpnk.net
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/28104349
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A tweet by @BrentTodarian which says “Never forget, the electric car is here to save the car industry, not the planet”I’m an American who was lucky enough to live in Berlin for a couple of years. The thing I miss the most is functional public transit, it makes life so much less stressful.
Being from another country with semi-good public transit, Berlin is a fucking epic place. I can get around city fast and most of the time I have options to choose on how I want to get from point A to B.
Also, hate how people like to dunk on German railroad comparing it to Japan. They fail to realize that German railroad also serves many countries in EU while Japan serves only to itself. It is much easier to plan out railways when your system is locked in one country.
Other countries aren’t the issue (and in fact switzerland mostly stopped allowing german trains into their network because they were the main reason for delays).
Japan has dedicated tracks for their shinkansen (and afaik for low speed passenger trains as well), whereas in germany ICE, IC, all regional trains, and freight trains share the same network. Different speeds on the same track lead to delays much faster as trains have to wait to be overtaken etc. The network is also operating above capacity (which has the obvious upside of better coverage/more frequent trains, but still we need more capacity). Many parts of the network are also simply old and have not been maintained well - we still have some manually operated signals ffs.
None of this is easy to fix and overall the railway network is still very good in an international comparison, but the neglect of the past 30 years is very obvious and has led to a lot of problems.
I truly loved it so much! Plus if you drink a little too much you can just nap on the ring for a lil bit!
I’m an American who lived in a small city in Japan for a while. The city only had two small railroad stations, and so most people owned cars. Or at least most working adults that I knew owned cars.
HOWEVER, for day-to-day getting around, people rode bicycles, and if that wasn’t an option, then they took the bus. I think their cars were more for getting groceries and for driving their kids around. I’m not completely sure. But you absolutely didn’t need a car.
And if you wanted to travel a big distance to go to another city? Train or bus. I think their highways were all toll roads, and so it was cheaper to take the bus.
Like you said, it was just so “functional”. If you went out in the city in the middle of the work day, you’d see all of these ancient people going around doing their daily business in the city. In America, those same people would be trapped in their houses or forced into segregated senior living because they’re too old to drive. You don’t see them in America, because we discriminate against them.
I will truly never understand why older people hate public transportation so much, they would benefit the most!
100% agree. Unfortunately, with the infrastructure in the US I don’t see us making a move to successfully public transit anytime soon.
ebikes.
I try, I really do, to use public transit whenever I can. But a large majority of the time it will cost over twice the cost of driving, take over twice as long, and the final stop will be over a mile from my destination. Two of those caveats I could probably live with; all three makes it a non starter.
Admittedly, I live in a car centered American city.
Parking is way too cheap.
Thats exactly why so many people think EVs are the only solution. They have never actually experienced fast, efficient, convenient, and clean public transit. The vast majority of the US thinks public transit equals an hourly bus thats never on time and reeks of piss, and thats a fair view because for many thats all they have ever been offered.
I have a 45 minute commute because rent is double in town.
I’m saving up to eventually move into town anyway because I value my time and I hate living in rural areas with a deep passion because its full of morons. But still, an electric car would probably significantly mitigate my CO2 output in the mean time. Though I’m driving a small hatchback anyway so its already relatively fuel efficient.
We’re in Japan right now and I’m so angry about how amazing their infrastructure is. We’ve been all over Tokyo, and now down in Odawara and took a day trip up into the mountains of Hokone and every single thing has been facilitated by public transit. We looked at taking an Uber once at the end of a very long day to avoid more walking, but even then decided hitting up the train again was worth it when we saw the Uber cost.
I have an EV and I love it, but if the Bay Area in CA could have this level of usable public transportation I’d drop my car in an instant. Instead if I want to visit friends that are 4 miles away from me I can either drive for 7 minutes or take a 90 minute bus trip with two transfers.
Yup! I left the US for Denmark and the public transit was a driving (pun intended) factor. We went from a bunch of vehicles (3 cars and 4 motorcycles) to bicycles and taking the train and I absolutely love it
Removed by mod
I’m curious does all cars to you include things like work trucks? I mean company work trucks/vans not some guy that just likes trucks.
I should have clarified this is about individual vehicles
