"No one in New York drove. There was too much traffic." -Phillip J. Fry
Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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communism is when bike lanes.
Gee, I wonder what causes congestion in high speed lanes and roads? Too many fucking cars at the same time? Nah, it must be some communist subversion
It's wild deer, there might not actually be any but just the idea of them makes people drive in a less efficient manner. It doesn't help that the deer are communist.
"Ants don't *create* ant colonies."
I drive. The biggest causes of congestion I see are…
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Dumb driving because Americans aren’t taught to zipper merge and can be dangerously unpredictable due to do widespread emotional instability.
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Bad car design. The customer isn’t always right, regular folks should not be driving tanks and should not have AI superseded user control. People die here all the time because of these things. Cybertruck is the most obvious example given its lack of bumper zones and tech that’s so cheap it kills it’s own users but the most common example is probably a Ford or GM pickup truck. I think the Japanese may have the best cars as I saw a compact van that seemed far more practical and safe than many American vehicles. China has some good looking ones too. Compact doesn’t look as sexy but is way better for everyone.
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Bad road design. I have no problems with bike lanes or even less lanes if travel time is roughly the same. I love roundabouts and sidewalks full of trees to shade pedestrians and wide enough to protect them from cars. I love when corners give me good visibility going around corners. In the US this is rarely the case. We are plagued by construction contractors milking cities to do projects slowly and create problems the people will want them to fix in the future and lack of regulation to ensure all modes of transport are viable in all but a few cities.
I think it’s established fact that you can’t reduce congestions by adding more lanes and roads. Not because of bad road design but because the amount of cars will fill up those new lanes. So saying ‘cars cause congestions’ is pointing at the fact that regardless of how many roads or lanes we have the will be filled. Hence roads aren’t the problem, but cars are.
I think more lanes can be a solution but it has a more particular place than does now and there seems to be diminishing returns after about three lanes.
I think it’s established fact that you can’t reduce congestions by adding more lanes and roads.
I mean, if it worked we would see the successes in all those giant freeway cities but instead the problem just grows.
If we just turn everything into road then nobody will have anywhere to go. It's the perfect solution
Another reason it doesn't reduce congestion is that lane changes are frequently the cause of accidents or hard braking, which creates traffic jams. And Americans' complete lack of lane discipline just makes it all worse.
Actually, inadequate lanes do contribute to congestion. The traffic will always be pretty much standard... the time of transit however is slowed so it may seem like there are less cars... but no, it is less road. Also, the curvature of the roads -- especially on on ramps can affect visibility of oncoming traffic and not providing for a properly lengthed merge lane is also a big problem. Some things that can help slow down (prevent speeding at merging areas/onramps) so it is easier to merge is having islands between the right and left lanes with greenery, more lights/slowdowns and providing a fast lane for carshares and buses. Building in service roads and bypasses also decreases the congestion.
pretty sure that mostly applies to mega cities that shouldn't have multi-lane roads to begin with
It applies to smaller cities as well as fat as you I’m aware, not just mega cities.
Actually none of those cause congestion, not demolishing 1,000,000 of homes to add 100 lines to my commute route does :3
/s
Isaiah is not a smart man.
Y'all are both stupid. Society creates congestion in car-transportation and on-foot transportation. Mass transportation is just more efficient in certain societal configurations and needs. There will still be trucks and deliveries of all kinds and workers and shit that need to use cars for their jobs to be efficient.
A lot of people could use mass transportation or try to reduce the distance they need to travel, but all of this petty back and forth is fucking stupid and worthless if it remains petty and shallow, and continues to avoid the real topic, which is not cars, which are just tools that allow an individual a range of autonomy that is faster and further in certain societal configurations.
So, the issue should be societal configurations (and human values), not cars.
Using cars is such an unproductive wedge issue that just irritates everybody who can see the bigger issues. It's noble, but amounts to basically greenwash trolling to anybody outside of your community (fuckcars). It's a hyperfixation on a ultra specific, single-solution to an ultra broad collection of societal efficiency and random other related topics that feels like some of you are just misplacing personal childhood trauma, and really need therapy, or you just enjoy being irritating, thus my belief that some of this really is just greentrolling, which, if you really wanted to fix stuff, there are better ways of doing it.
To be absolutely transparent, I don't entirely dislike y'all's existence, in fact, I quite appreciate it in many ways. But, everytime I see one of your posts or memes, I just kinda.... Tsk. And it irritates me a little bit, I can't upvote it, and I think I've finally been able to put that irritation into words, and feel compelled to voice my opinion.
So, opinion voiced, carry on /rant
"Please bro one more line on the highway bro please just one more lane"
this line makes me think of ai:
bro just a few more power plants, gimme a nuclear one and some coal fired, please bro, it'll all be worth it with just a few more gigawatts. It'll make sense then, just a few more plants broooo
See not congested at all.
There's quite some room in between the lanes. If they all move in a bit, I bet there's plenty of room for an extra bike lane on either side.
Fix and expand the US public transportation system. Building infrastructure for automobiles is fucking backwards.
Fun fact: The faster a car travels, the bigger the spacing between the cars gets. That's necessary to leave enough distance for emergency stops.
While the speed increases linearly, the spacing increases with the square, meaning at double the speed, the spacing quadruples, which in turn means that throughput (number of cars per hour) halves.
This is the reason why many regions use electronic speed signs to drop the speedlimit lower when there's congestion. Because it increases throughput and thus reduces travel times.
The optimum speed for high throughput is 30km/h.
Counterintuitive as it might be, drivers should be all for 30km/h speed limit in cities, because it would make them get to work faster.
Another related fun fact: Larger vehicles are harder to see around, so people have to leave even more distance which reduces throughput.
You can cite an infinite amount of proven facts and studies, car brains will never accept your „communist propaganda“. This whole discussion is too emotionally loaded to be based on facts.
Shit, look at LA.
Bikes are not usually allowed on the highway, yet the highway experiences congestion. How is that?
Because of the bike lanes in the other streets of course.
I once had the pleasure of cycling the Shimanami Kaido in Japan, a bike route that connects the islands of Honshu and Shikoku, hopping between all these minor islands on the way over suspension bridges carrying the main highway.
The bike lane is protected the whole time. In one case, the bike route is actually below the deck of the bridge, and you're on a fenced-in catwalk hundreds of feet over the channel between the islands. Views for miles over Osaka bay.
Honestly, when I look back at my life, it's probably my favorite thing I've ever done. If only the U.S. invested in bike infrastructure like that.
Current plan for the new cape cod bridges include a protected bike lane with a great view over the canal!
Too many people complain we could fit an extra lane in that space without thinking. Sure there are huge backups, but those are addressed with the new design not making cars slow down and not having entrance and exit ramps right there. Most importantly, you’re crossing to a two lane highway so there is no benefit to more than two lanes. Allowing continuous flow to the amount that the other side can handle reduces congestion. Anyone you can get on a bike is the one that will reduce congestion. And for all that is holy, let’s run the Cape Flyer often enough to be useful
That's great to hear! I was actually living in Somerville when I did that Japan trip. The extension of the bike path and really that whole rails-to-trails project were wonderful for the community. We need more projects like that - glad to hear the cape is getting some.