More than one car?

It seems human beings have become obsessed with cars. Theyll sit in traffic jams for hours to get somewhere they could have walked or cycled to in 10 minutes. Theyll cover more and more of our precious green land with hideous concrete just so they can fill up even more roads with their cars, their partners cars and their teenage childrens cars.

As some of you may already know-I despise cars.

I realise that we are not ready to completely get rid of cars(I dont know why were not ready, but were not)...But my real disgust lies with these people who own more than one car. These families who have a car per person. This there is just no excuse for...or certainly not enough excuses to go around almost every single family in a developed country. One person in the family could work quite far from home(although why they dont just move nearer to their workplaces i dont know) but two or three? Theres even a couple on my street who get in their cars at the same time, drive to the same place together and then come back!

I think this situation is both disgusting and ridiculous. As our governments are too greedy to allow environmentally-friendly fuels to be more easily available, and as we know our land is rapidly being smothered in grey, making it ugly and depressing, shouldnt we be trying to use the car as little as possible?

There are people who say "Oh but we cant, the public transport is so poor"...to them i say that if we all stopped excessively relying on the car, the government would HAVE to improve public transport, as so many people would be using it. Anyway, i certainly know that in Britain public transport is easy to use...and even cheap in comparison to the costs of running a car. Im sure the situation is the same in all developed countries.

What i really want to know is-how can these people live with themselves without stopping and thinking-Is this just greed? How much damage am i doing the world?

I urge anyone who is part of a household owning more than one car to seriously think whether or not they really need to...If you have no concern for the environment then if only for the purposes of saving money...
Thanks

Love-MaxiXx

 

i do need it. thanks.

 

I s'pose it might depend on where ya live, but it's not often biking's gonna save many people time over driving when they've gotta get somewhere. I never really have to centend with traffic jams when I drive. Autos will, much more often than not, get ya to where ya need to be faster than a bike.

Within a household, not everyone's schedule is always gonna to fit everyone else's so perfectly that one auto would be practical in gettin' everyone to where they're goin' and on time. And then there can also be a need for different vehicles for various tasks, like simple commuting and heavy haulin'.

 

Oh how I wish that were true...

Most of the U.S. has no public transport. There are only a few cities in the entire US that has public transport that could be considered decent.

 

And it's not like there's gonna be a public transit network all across the land to include those that don't live amongst concentrated populations.

 

i'm out in the boonies. my husband uses his truck for his mapping job. ihave a three year old and a blood pressure condition during this pregnancy. i honestly know that i consume far less fuel than your average public transport user, since i'm pretty damned efficient in my usage, and don't really get to go anywhere very often. and to be fully honest, i don't think the idea of dragging my kids to the bus stop in the weather to sit and wait to go to the grocery store or some junk seems all that worthwhile. totally inefficient use of time. but since i DO want to minimize my impact, i tend to plan this shit out pretty efficiently. it does seem to me that if you're travelling alone to a place, the bus is fine. i'm a big fan of the bus. you get all kinds of shit done while someone else is driving. where's the harm in that?

 

I have a free bus pass thanks to mmy employer so that is pretty pimp...I used to live in teh middle of nowhere with the nearest town being a population of 8, and the nearest city being Grand Forks ND, at 40 miles away...so sometimes cars are necessary...

 

Dragging your kids out "in the weather"?...Is it not safe for children to feel the weather nowadays?
If there WAS some extreme weather, i can guarantee this situation wouldnt be helped by you leaping into your car and choking out more toxic fumes into the atmosphere.

Its great that you are efficient and wish to minimize your impact. Im sure this is a lot more than most people do. I just feel there is still a lot more we could be doing. Buying your children umbrellas and walking them in a little rain, for example.

Xx

 

Thats pretty terrible. I didnt realise. Infact thats more than terrible, its disgusting

Love-Maxi.Xx

 

Yeah. We here in Austin, TX have been fighting for years to get a good public transport system here. Best we have is the bus, which only rund every half hour to hour (usually too early or late). And the majority of routes don't extend that far past the college campus here, so don't expect to get more than 10 miles tops with it - and expect it to take an hour or two to get those 10 miles. We've had a hard time getting a good publiv transport system, but people don't want the raise in taxes. They prefer to drive 1 person per SUV into work in rush hour traffic and paying $3.00 a gallon for gas....you'd think they'd take the tax hike to save on gas and car insurance.

 

a three year old and an infant? sorry, totally uninterested.

 

Driving suits me just fine, too.

 

In actual fact i wasnt just aiming this thread at Americans, but now you come to mention it, there are a lot of things it seems about the "American mentality" which are wrong. As we grow and develop, sometimes our mentality has to change to fit in with what we now know is right. 4 cars is hideously wrong.

I didnt realise that America's public transport system was so poor, but now that i do it seems you guys really need to make a big fuss about this. Youre being seriously deprived. A public transport system is a right in a developed country. Not everyone wishes to place yet another metal monster out in the roads and contribute to the ugliness, the pollution, the destruction of natural land and the death rate of human beings and animals, which is rising anually due to the number killed by cars.

Sometimes we need to stop and think and not just go along with something because it is the general "mentality"

 

Thats a shame. It just seems to me there shouldnt really be much competition here. Buy a pram/pushchair and a few umbrellas and take some nice, healthy exercise every day, or dont, and contribute to the decline of this planet.
My mother was a single parent with three very small children, one being me. She never could drive, and weve always lived in a country area a good few miles from town...yet all three of us got through school, and infact got to many other places, as we developed a love of exercise. It can be done.

 

Oh well thats all ok then. It SUITS you. Silly me...

Will it suit your children, or your childrens children, or anyone of future generations just as well do you think?

 

i'm still not buying in. i'm sorry if you're offended. i have to plan out my trips to the sotre meticulousloy around our pay schedule. that means a buncha groceries on one day. much ot the time my man is outta town, in his vehicle. i went without a vehicle for 3 years and it was utterly ridiculous how limited i was in the things i needed to do. we've all been very active people, we're very outdoorsy. but there's some things you just need a car and trunkspace for.

 

Yes. Vehicles are swell. Your supposed disdain of 'em is absurd. I s'pose some people just need a cause to belabor, even if they have to really reach for one.

 

we have a jeep for just that purpose, as well.

 

RE: There are people who say "Oh but we cant, the public transport is so poor"...to them i say that if we all stopped excessively relying on the car, the government would HAVE to improve public transport,

No they wouldn't.

 

I didnt have to reach far. Ive nearly been run over by cars on several occasions. I know people who have family members who were killed by cars. I see cars every day, and i see ugliness. I breathe in their fumes. I walk on grey and not green. My life is packed full of them. Every driveway on this street minus mine has at least 2 cars parked on it...

Also if you do not yet know of the damage car fumes and cars themselves cause to our planet i would suggest you research this. How is protesting something that is harming our planet and harming our bodies and souls absurd?


P.s-you never answered my question. Do you ever think about the future?