@eldang @GwenfarsGarden @Satsuma :redesign-urban-life*: is still explicitly an urban perspective tho? and understanding that the cities ALREADY tend to drive politics in a way which leaves rural areas underresourced i don’t think it’s hard to understand why people would be concerned about this
@Lady @eldang @GwenfarsGarden i think the general assumption is that the cost benefit analysis for rural areas re: cars is substantially different from urban and therefore require a different set of tactics.
@Lady @eldang @GwenfarsGarden Car infrastructure is unequivocally a net negative in most of the places I’ve lived (all but one of which are urban) & the intentional destruction of billions of dollars of public transit infrastructure (in the 60’s & 70’s) to make room for cars has had a serious impact on my quality of life as a person who cannot drive due to disability
@Lady @eldang @GwenfarsGarden further, i dont think the timing there is coincidental — our trolleys and trains were gutted simultaneous to the white flight to the suburbs — both direct results of racists being uncomfortable with integration. The local prioritization of a car system over public transit continues to perpetuate race and class based inequality and urgently needs to be remedied.
The ecological effects are of course also devastating
@Satsuma @eldang @GwenfarsGarden right, but there is a way of saying that which does not throw rural people under the bus, and it’s “improve and incentivize public transit”. which is what OP is saying.
if you are living in rural texas, without a car you do not have access to HRT, gender‐affirmation surgery, specialized medical care of any kind, or abortions. period. we do not have at our disposal any technology which could change that, and are not likely to anytime in the near future.
those are, i hope, things you agree people should have access to, and i would hope you would understand why people saying a plain, unqualified “no cars” might make individuals in that sort of a situation rather defensive.
i don’t know how anyone could read a continuation of that sort of language, understanding the above, as indicating anything other than “i don’t care about those people or how they feel”.
i also hate cars ftr
@Lady except in order to put some of that infrastructure back we *will* have to destroy car based infrastructure in cities. There is no room for bike lanes without taking away car lanes & parking lots must give way to train stations. I am not advocating for the destruction of all car based infrastructure but I am actively advocating for the destruction of large swaths of the local system