Bicycles should be the future. Not cars.
A radical thought. Imagine re-shaping the world so that everyone can ride a bicycle or tricycle for their daily travels and errands. Longer trips can be done by public transit.
The fewer cars on the road, the safer are the non car drivers.
Or to quote jwz:
How it started: "Robot cars will be safer than humans!"
How it's going: "To make them barely work at all you must re-design all public spaces, and strap radio transmitters to anything you don't want killed."
Related links
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/cop26-climate-change-emissions-bikes-1.6235582
- https://www.danielbowen.com/2012/09/19/road-space-photo/
- https://www.vox.com/a/new-economy-future/cars-cities-technologies
- https://humantransit.org/2012/09/the-photo-that-explains-almost-everything.html
- https://metropolisjapan.com/why-tokyo-works/
I'm assuming electric bikes/trikes are included in the set of bicycles/tricycles. I include tricycles because lots of people aren't ok with riding a bicycle. I'm also including electric unicycles and scooters in this set of possibilities.
I haven't owned a car for years. Every time I think about owning a car, the costs, the space, the hassle aren't worth it. Yes, I live in a city, so I don't really need a car to get around. If I do, there are car shares and taxis. Most of the time, buses and subways get me everywhere. When the distance to the destination is far between the subway/bus stop, I can ride a bike. Or, you know, walk.
I can complain all day about the San Francisco transit options. However, they are much better than not having them and they're pretty reliable. Better coordination between services would be great. I look forward to the world's most expensive subway stop opening within walking distance of home. Vancouver and Stockholm have amazing public transit by comparison (subway, buses, ferries). Kuala Lumpur transit, once you figure it out, is pretty great as well. All three of them have cleanliness unmatched by San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.
The suburbs shouldn't exist anymore, but they do, so we cannot ignore them. There's a lot of focus on bringing city-style transit to the suburbs. There's a reason for that, because buses and trains are vastly more efficient than building more roads for more single-driver cars. However, a middle-ground could be more car sharing options, like Zipcar, Getaround, and the like. I really wish there were more electric car options, but less cars is less cars. There are even luxury car shares available if you desire.
I've lived car free since 2016. The first year was difficult, but like any habit, once you change it, everything feels natural over time. It's funny to think how I went from owning multiple cars, racing them, hauling them around, to zero in the span of 10 years. My love of motorcycles should fit in here, as they are still vastly more fuel efficient than any cars, but motorcycles are clearly not for everyone.
I managed to avoid talking about The Netherlands or Victoria, British Columbia in this entire post. Everyone mentions them. There is a reason for this which is so obvious it is not worth re-hashing again. Riding in both locales is amazing.
The massive transit/infrastructure bill is a great win for electric car manufacturers, with very sloppy seconds thirds fourths err, twentieths given to ebikes.