r/fuckcars / Not Just Bikes / Urbanists / New Urbanism / Car-Free / Anti-Car - People and grifters who hate personal transport, freedom, cars, roads, suburbs, and are obsessed with city planning and urban design

[Bonesjones]

There is this strange assumption of urbanists that density is for the upper-middle class, when in reality, historically it has not been true, and in third world countries (sorry, the Philippines would be "third world" for this example) this is still the case—high density is abject poverty.

It's just more delayed adolescence. In the past you'd want to live near a city to find your best chance at a mate, then settle down and move out places more peaceful and quiet. Now, they don't actually grow up and just want the perpetual night life and "things to do".

The disconnect happens because these people don't actually drive. They just look at the same meme pictures and think "hmmm cars bad" like the brainlets they are.

Also you learn to plan around congestion if you have half a brain. You stop and do errands, or go to the gym or park for 30 minutes, or listen to podcasts or do the other million things people do.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I've been following urbanism for about ten years now. In 2014, there were things like "suburbs unsustainable", "induced demand", "parking minimums", and a few other things, not the same insanity as today, but one thing that was hot in 2014 but now is totally silent now is Vancouver (British Columbia, not Washington). They liked the lack of freeways, the relative density to other North American cities, the rail, and talked about what a "beautiful city" it was (likely its non-urban surroundings—mountains, trees, and oceans) and how it routinely topped quality of life indexes published/boosted by urbanist rags (CityLab, etc.).

Now no one talks about Vancouver anymore. I wonder why.

It's just more delayed adolescence. In the past you'd want to live near a city to find your best chance at a mate, then settle down and move out places more peaceful and quiet. Now, they don't actually grow up and just want the perpetual night life and "things to do".

They probably get pissed at this State Farm commercial, start as a single urban bugman, end as suburban father.

Spoiler: archived version

 

[Car Won't Crank]

do these niggers think people just drive in silence and do nothing? cars have had radios and speakers forever. Listening to music or the news or a podcast is just as good as reading a book if its just to fill the time when commuting.
You can also eat breakfast while driving but its a bit dangerous if you aren't skilled at it

Or if you have a glorious V8 like my man @God's drunkest driver the soundtrack is built in front you and the throttle pedal is your music key.

 

[Atypical Dog]

There is this strange assumption of urbanists that density is for the upper-middle class, when in reality, historically it has not been true, and in third world countries (sorry, the Philippines would be "third world" for this example) this is still the case—high density is abject poverty.

No offense taken. Being real with you, most of our own middle to upper classes hate our own country and idolize the West (call it American colonization). The densest parts of the country are indeed the poorest - not in aggregate, but per capita. Manila the city is extremely dense, right by the sea, the home of many of the big businesses, sat cheek-by-jowl next to grinding poverty.

Gee, one would think "psychoanalysis" is just a disingenuous way to insult someone, but try to make it seem academic.

Medicalized diss tracks for your academic assassination needs.

It's just more delayed adolescence. In the past you'd want to live near a city to find your best chance at a mate, then settle down and move out places more peaceful and quiet. Now, they don't actually grow up and just want the perpetual night life and "things to do".

I honestly think that settling down has begun to go out of style. Not only is it a lot harder to afford, people get used to just having fun and doomspending, which looks like a better idea when you don't see a way up from where you're at.

Spoiler: Power Level

My more complete thoughts available here - I have thought way too much about this.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

People talk about unaffordability but even with batshit prices that exist today, it’s not impossible if you work at it and are willing to make sacrifices.

Sure, you can’t buy a condo in NY on McDonald’s wages, but fuck that. Outside of some bughives, $200k houses exist if not the best of the best. That’s affordable by various reasonable calculations on a salary of $70k a year or lower - and $70k isn’t insanely high anymore.

You could swing $200k in $40k a year if you scrimped and saved.

The problem is that the entire “new generation” of homowners don’t save- they spend all they have every paycheck and if they get a raise they move closer to bugman central and pay more rent instead of moving further away and saving more. You know, like you could do if you owned a car …

It’s way easier to just bitch and complain and refuse to do anything to improve your own situation.

 

[Apple Porcupine]

There's the simultaneous assumption that drivers can't do anything AND are simultaneously jammed up with lights and congestion. Not only is congestion a tiny part of my commute (if it happens at all) that's the best time to do whatever. Years ago I remember getting stuck in Houston traffic and I remember thinking "I've got a delicious Whopper, I'm playing my favorite music, and the air conditioning is blasting in my face. All things considered this isn't bad."

It's a skill issue, they just suck at driving. The best excuse they've come up with is "I can't play video games or read a book while driving so it's all wasted time." (They apparently don't even appreciate the world around them that they get to take in.) I'll give them credit that at least there's a bit of consistency in their obsession with "efficiency". The one point they have is that their commute also gets to be exercise if it's a 30 minute bicycle ride, but eventually that stops feeling like exercise and just starts to wear you down and is reliant on being in the correct climate (not to mention the proliferation of e-bikes which almost entirely takes the exercise component away).

On a personal note I'm one of those people that gets incredibly motion sick trying to read anything in a moving vehicle. Car train subway or plane, doesn't matter. So it doesn't make a difference to me what mode I'm commuting by, it might as well be the safest, cleanest, most comfortable one.

Now no one talks about Vancouver anymore. I wonder why.

Sure they do!

Again, points for consistency. It always is "North America bad, Europe good", they are incapable of straying from this path.

 

[Yamamura]

Sure they do!

Again, points for consistency. It always is "North America bad, Europe good", they are incapable of straying from this path.

They seem to omit the parts where you get harassed by fentanyl users, but alright.

 

[James done did it]

Samuel Colt and Henry Ford are dirty names to them because they made everyone EQUAL, in a meaningful way, WITHOUT communism, and that just won't stand.

They don't think this way because cars are secretly stupidly insane expensive and nobody can afford them. Which is true if you live in an anti-car city with limited parking options where they haven't invested in sufficient garage infrastructure.

I really want to just go around being an unironic car brain. Have you noticed how the USA is such a wealthy country? It has a lot to do with how car ownership increases opportunity! A person with a car can access nearly 4x the job opportunities than someone without a car in New York City, the most dense and transit oriented city in the US. This gives said person more bargaining power. They can say take this job and shove it significantly easier which is one reason why US wages are significantly higher, since car ownership is nearly universal and the country has historically encouraged it.

Over 90% of Americans own cars including over 70% of those in poverty last time I checked. I remember being in grad school around these types and this issue came up in class and it gobsmacked them. They as a class have basically zero idea what being poor actually looks like. Buses are for absolutely destitute bums, retards, children and people who don't want to deal with parking. Working poor people don't have the time to fuck around with riding the bus. Doing shit that makes car ownership harder has zero impact on me, short of seizing my vehicle and shooting me there is basically nothing you can do to stop me driving. If you make your city undrivable I simply won't visit it. It can devastate the poor who can afford to maintain and fuel their car but cant afford $700 tabs.

People who jerk off about the streetcar are the same people who cry about factory towns, my response is where the fuck do you think the streetcar goes? It takes people to the factory. The factory probably paid to have it put in. And good luck getting some other job faggot, if you're an unskilled laborer the factory is usually the only game in town that you can actually access. Give the same Joe Schmoe a car? He can go anywhere in town, or the next town over, and has far more options.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

Those “streetcar suburbs” were also surprisingly small - because people had to be able to walk to the stops in reasonable time.

It’s really hard to understand just how fucking big our cities are now.

In 1920 the population LA was like 500k. Today that’s the population of a small shithole.

 

[Bonesjones]

Buses are for absolutely destitute bums, retards, children and people who don't want to deal with parking.

It's kind of like the homeless, the only people who live on the street have burned literally every bridge possible that no one can stand having them around for even short periods of time. I can't count the number of people I've known who were technically homeless for a few months while they couch surfed till they figured their life out or got removed.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

They deliberately slow down traffic with road diets and then mock you for complaining about slow traffic moves:

If "the law of induced demand" really existed as the Redditor assumes, then traffic will disappear as lanes do, which is the same argument they made for the Cheonggyecheon.

Those “streetcar suburbs” were also surprisingly small - because people had to be able to walk to the stops in reasonable time.

It’s really hard to understand just how fucking big our cities are now.

In 1920 the population LA was like 500k. Today that’s the population of a small shithole.

The other thing about streetcar suburbs was that they filled the same purpose post-WWII suburbs did, a place on the edge of cities, if not outside of them, to be away from the problems of the big city. Montrose, a neighborhood near downtown Houston and very much the "inner city" by every stretch of the imagination began as such. Here's a bit from Wikipedia with the reference numbers and a paragraph about the Plaza Apartment Hotel deleted for readability reasons and some bolding for emphasis.

Montrose, named after the town of Montrose, Angus, Scotland, was originally envisioned as a planned community and streetcar suburb dating back to the early 20th century before the development of River Oaks. Developer J. W. Link and his Houston Land Corporation envisioned a "great residential addition" according to the neighborhood's original sales brochure. Link's planning details for the area included four wide boulevards with the best curbing and extensive landscaping. Link built his own home in Montrose, known as the Link-Lee Mansion, which is now part of the University of St. Thomas campus. A streetcar, the Montrose Line, ran through the neighborhood. Link wrote: "Houston has to grow. Montrose is going to lead the procession." It did, and the procession eventually continued far beyond the neighborhood. Montrose was first platted in 1911. In 1926, the, Houston's first apartment hotel, opened on Montrose Boulevard. The hotel was home to many of Houston's leaders, including Edgar Odell Lovett, the first president of Rice University. Modeled after the Ritz-Carlton in New York, the hotel cost over one million dollars to construct. Prior to 1936 deed restrictions meant that commercial uses were not available to sections of Montrose. When the deed restrictions lapsed commercial development increased.

The fallacy is that streetcar suburbs looked like what they do today, that is to say, not suburban at all with "mixed use". The modern Montrose is not at all what it used to look like. Houses were knocked down or converted to commercial use (bars and restaurants) as the area became a counter-culture/gay neighborhood which in turn was replaced with modern development when the yuppies moved in.

 

[Markass the Worst]

Crosspost from MATI thread: Gordon Ramsey got badly injured in a bike accident and sent out a message telling everyone to wear their helmet.

Didn't really seem to be a place to put this but Gordon Ramsey almost died in a bicycle accident this weekend. From what he shows he must have broken a few ribs. Grabbed the post from someone else on IG so it has a caption referring to their own situation on it.
Snapinsta.app_video_DA4DD9985324D425E9485B0B3A046AA5_video_dashinit.mp4

Watch for incoming seethe from r/fuckcars over how helmets are Bad, Ackshually and/or how Gordon must be a secret carbrain because of him dispensing conventional wisdom like this.

 

[quaawaa]

Gordon must be a secret carbrain because of him dispensing conventional wisdom like this.

It’s no secret that he loves cars:

Car collection​

Ramsay is a car enthusiast with a love for Ferrari. He maintains a sizeable car collection in the UK which includes the following:

• Ferrari LaFerrari painted in Grigio Ferro
• Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta painted in Bianco Italia
• Ferrari F12tdf painted in Bianco Italia
• Ferrari Monza SP2 painted in Nero Daytona
• Ferrari 488 Spider
• Ferrari 488 Pista
• Ferrari 812 Superfast
• Ferrari 575 Superamerica painted in Giallo Modena
• Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
• McLaren Senna in exposed carbon fibre and yellow accents
• McLaren 675LT Spider painted in Chicane Grey
• Porsche 918 Spyder painted in Sapphire Blue Metallic
• BAC Mono

Ramsay displayed his collection in a video posted to his YouTube channel filmed at Brands Hatch.

Said video:

He’s also good friends with Jeremy Clarkson, the most carbrained person to ever live:

 

[Yamamura]

Crosspost from MATI thread: Gordon Ramsey got badly injured in a bike accident and sent out a message telling everyone to wear their helmet.

Watch for incoming seethe from r/fuckcars over how helmets are Bad, Ackshually and/or how Gordon must be a secret carbrain because of him dispensing conventional wisdom like this.

I looked up the picture of the aftermath. I can see why he's so adamant about wearing a helmet. At the very least if someone is going to not wear a helmet, I hope they just keep that to themselves. Encouraging others to not wear a helmet is probably just malicious.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I looked up the picture of the aftermath. I can see why he's so adamant about wearing a helmet. At the very least if someone is going to not wear a helmet, I hope they just keep that to themselves. Encouraging others to not wear a helmet is probably just malicious.

You're forgetting one thing--victimhood. Helmets mean catastrophes become inconveniences, and that's not good. They want the high numbers of cars hitting bikes and bike deaths, that's what sells the philosophy.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

And deep down these faggots desire the sweet embrace of death.

 

[BulkForceFive]

If you make your city undrivable I simply won't visit it.

This is what kills downtowns faster and dead-er than all the fentanyl bums and gay crosswalks you can stuff them with. Nobody wants to slog their way through twenty minutes of bump-and-grind traffic to get to Ye Olde Specialty Shoppe to find out all three street parking spots are taken. The only public lots are either always full or absolute rapists on price and there's nowhere secure to leave your vehicle further out to take transit inwards- oh, and unless there's a subway, you're still stuck in traffic, just on a stinky bus.

Glad Gordon's okay but I'm kinda jealous of that car collection. TWO LaFerraris? C'mon man, save some for the rest of us.

 

[The Jewel of the Nile]

Lmao 50%
Either he's blind, plain stupid or just loves some good ol' manipulation

The difference is much more obvious than this dude would like to admit- top picture shows actual residents on their way to work, the bottom is mainly tourists on their way to do nothing.

As an Euro who took some local trains (more and less fancy ones) I can assure you that food served on trains is usually just reheated and overpriced slop- and the worst part is that the whole train car stinks for so long after someone decides to order something like this; obviously you can't open windows on high speed trains.

I can be on the other side of my country with the majority of my possessions in around 7-8 hours- sitting comfortably in a comfy chair with AC blasting the way I like it. I wonder how much would such trip take with their muh cargo bike

Car propaganda or common sense that they're desperately lacking? Also I thought '20s were heckin wholesome streetcar times in their book

So walkable there's almost no space for actual pedestrians lmao

 

[quaawaa]

The difference is much more obvious than this dude would like to admit- top picture shows actual residents on their way to work, the bottom is mainly tourists on their way to do nothing

Top picture was taken during the covid lockdowns when the only option was the drive-thru.

 

[Lobster Cult High Priest]

People talk about unaffordability but even with batshit prices that exist today, it’s not impossible if you work at it and are willing to make sacrifices.

Sure, you can’t buy a condo in NY on McDonald’s wages, but fuck that. Outside of some bughives, $200k houses exist if not the best of the best. That’s affordable by various reasonable calculations on a salary of $70k a year or lower - and $70k isn’t insanely high anymore.

You could swing $200k in $40k a year if you scrimped and saved.

The problem is that the entire “new generation” of homowners don’t save- they spend all they have every paycheck and if they get a raise they move closer to bugman central and pay more rent instead of moving further away and saving more. You know, like you could do if you owned a car …

It’s way easier to just bitch and complain and refuse to do anything to improve your own situation.

Then you have Canada where 200k gets you nothing (maybe a trailer from the 70s that you still have to pay $800/month in lot fees) not to mention god luck qualifying for that mortgage since banks don’t like mobile homes.

When people realize that home ownership is out of reach they instead spend their money on smaller frivolities like going out for dinner more often or the girls that buy designer fashion.