cars and events

[amw]

ohnotheydidnt dropped a great wank post today: US Swifties can't comprehend the concept of public transport in Melbourne. But, probably because it was posted when America was awake and the rest of the world was still asleep, there is a bunch of bizarro comments like how people would rather sit in the comfort of their own car for two hours waiting to get out of

Comments

[fflo]

It truly is bizarre, when you think about it EVEN A LITTLE, how bad we are at moving people around. I remember someone telling me that I shouldn't use AAA for my roadside assistance cuzza how they lobby for all things cars, and being ashamed that I hadn't thought of that. Money and profit drive everything in the US, and there's a lot of existing money and power in cars. Even in gas-powered cars--- Trump is out there arguing against electric vehicles, and not being held in nearly enough contempt for that (either).

I was on an Amtrak train to NYC some years back and we were sitting outside Cleveland, not moving, for a long time. Train personnel said that we'd arrived late enough that we now had to make way for freight trains, as they get the right of way. Supposedly the law says the exact opposite: that passenger trains should get to go first. But in practice the opposite is true. As I remember it, we arrived in NY over 8 hours late (coming from Toledo).

When I was a kid, the interstates and the option of wandering all over by car and the tourist stuff and the motels and the "quaint" 2-lane highways (an option when you have more time) all seemed so romantic. Or some word like that. Something warm and attractive. It also seemed like it'd been built just for the fun of regular people being able to travel more. Then I found out that it was "defense" and the military wanting to be able to move things around the country quickly that drove the spending & building. Maybe that was how Eisenhower first reckoned the power of the military-industrial complex.

Don't wanna stop typing without saying HUZZAH for being off the nicotine sticks. Yeah, pollution is no doubt just as bad, but both together are surely considerably worse than just one. And you've done something nice for yourself. Plus I hear that it (may take 10 years but it) only takes 10 years for a smoker's lungs to clear up and look just as pink and virginal as a non-smoker's.

[amw]

The anti-EV lobby is just pure, unflinchingly corrupt nonsense. Like, here is a personal vehicle that accelerates faster, handles better, doesn't disturb the peace, doesn't belch out toxic fumes, can be "refueled" in your own garage, in every single respect is better than an internal combustion vehicle and you still have people complaining that on their one Thanksgiving trip each year they might have to stop halfway through the day for an hour to recharge. Like, come on. If there wasn't a political lobby behind it, Americans would love EVs! And, in fact, they do love EVs! But then you get these headlines like "EV adoption trailing off" when actually it's like the growth of the growth rate - a second derivative - that is decreasing. I can only hope that ordinary people see through the nonsense and continue jumping on the EV train. I still think private cars suck, but if you're going to drive an antisocial vehicle, might as well drive one that doesn't give other people cancer or heart disease.