• ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Outdoorsy stuff is the top reason I see for cars to exist. The Jeep is a car that makes sense to me. Though for most people (those who aren’t camping every week) they should be a public service, where at the edge of the city you can take a car for your drive through bumfuck nowhere. But trains are better between cities, and cars basically shouldn’t exist within cities at all.

    • pumpchilienthusiast [comrade/them, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I would rather take my bike to the park on a train, it would make places like Yellowstone and Yosemite much more pleasant to get the damn cars out of there.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If we’re talking long distance travel cars do have a certain “freedom” to them in that you can set your own itinerary and carry a lot of your own crap with you.

      That's because our country doesn't have trains/buses running on any sort of useful schedule. And also because air travel feels like you're paying a small fortune to get squeezed through an industrialized anus for a few hours.

      Road trips suck. They're uncomfortable, exhausting, boring as shit, and incredibly time consuming. They are only marginally better than plane trips and pale beside any sort of bus or train in an actual fucking country.

      I’d trade this all for good high speed rail but I do sorta get the appeal of having a personal car.

      No. You're wrong.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I just have some positive memories

          Ah, well, there's your problem. You need to be more curmudgeonly and bitter.

          Rail is pretty much superior in every way in terms of travel but there are a handful of advantages to piloting your own craft around.

          Yeah, I get that. Of course, in theory you've got rail stops that run right out to the edge of the Grand Canyon or rental garages at the more inaccessible terminals so you can just drop $50 and drive around for the day. But in America we're not allowed to have nice things.

          Again I’d give up my car for decent rail any day.

          I'd settle for some decent bus service. Can't even get that much.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I mean trucks do have by virtue of being trucks more carrying capacity than public transportation or a bike or whatever, but the whole freedom part you're describing here is basically because the entire country is bent over backwards to accomodate this stuff with infrastructure. That road trip'd be a lot more shit if you had to barrel down your 2015 Honda Accord over gravel roads.