dublinben

You can't assume that the number of cars is a constant though. As point A and point B become farther apart, car usage goes up. When they become closer together, car usage scales down.

Severance is much better than either of those.

Even as a driver, if you think about the second-order effects of getting more (other) people out of their cars, it becomes obvious that it would improve traffic for you. An enlightened self-interested driver would want to increase investment in alternatives to driving, since that is the only proven solution for congestion.

As a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k

This is an artificial hill covered in artificial trees illuminated by artificial lights, sealed in glass so they can maintain an artificially habitable atmosphere.

In other countries, you can just read outside on a real hill, under real trees, in the light of the real sun, breathing in non-polluted air.

Despite what is going on with this rent price collusion situation, the problem that high priced cities face is far too few vacant apartments not too many. The vacancy rate in some places is as low as 1-2%, which is much lower than it should be.

I can attest to my cheap old plug-in alarm clock keeping time better than my cheap Casio watch.

How can Apple products be status items when over 60% of smartphones in the US are iPhones? Is Coca-Cola a status item? Is it possible that they're just good products that deliver good value to the majority of people who buy them? Is a $1300 Galaxy S24 Ultra not a status item?

Every residential street should be paved with bricks or other paving stones, instead of asphalt. It's safer, because people drive more slowly. The maintenance costs are also lower.

Gentrification and displacement are distinct concepts, even if they are usually conflated in colloquial usage. Obviously nobody wants to be forced out of 'their neighborhood' if rent is raised, but this isn't an inevitable consequence of improved conditions. This Vox article does a great job explaining possible policies to mitigate this harm, like building more housing, stronger tenant protections, and upzoning wealthy segregated neighborhoods.[0] As you say, existing residents of a neighborhood should be able to enjoy the benefits of increased investment and improved conditions in their neighborhood.

[0] https://www.vox.com/22629826/gentrification-definition-housi...

Unlike an interrogation, the author could have stopped this ordeal at any time by turning off or simply not answering her phone.

Now imagine how someone less fortunate than yourself, who can’t drive because they’re too young, or too old, or too poor, or too disabled is supposed to survive in a society built around the assumption that everyone drives.

This isn’t actually true.

Cars are expensive, so poor people usually rely more on public transit like busses, which get stuck in traffic behind cars. Driving more is positively correlated with higher income.

Lower income people disproportionately suffer the consequences of the current car-centric system like air pollution, noise pollution, traffic violence, etc.

> it's always just universally presumed that making a good quality, reliable, easy to service and maintain vehicle is a solved problem

You’ve just described a bicycle.

Real criminals ride bicycles.

I've been listening to podcasts since the 2000s, and have never owned an iPod. I used one app or another to download them, and listened on various non-Apple portable music players.

Work. We stayed friends after moving on to other jobs, and eventually started dating several years later.

Every successful relationship I've had started out as friends. Any relationship where we weren't friends first was less successful. I've repeated this experiment enough times to be confident in my results.

Is this license information on your website somewhere? I'm not seeing it on any of the pages for your pictures.

The technology to massively reduce carbon dioxide emissions has existed for a long time.

Coal power plants could have been replaced with natural gas much sooner. We could have actually spent the last 50 years building nuclear power plants instead of trying to get rid of them.

In transportation, all we had to do was unwind the disastrous expansion of the automobile and return to superior technologies that preceded it, like trains, trolleys, busses, and bicycles.

Buildings could have been made more insulated and efficient using the exact same tools we've had for generations.

The demographics don’t look good for the beef industry.

https://www.wired.com/story/beef-consumption-boomers/

Offsetting income tax would be a massive handout to the rich, who have been and continue to be the greatest contributors to carbon emissions.

Instead, it should be paired with a dividend which makes it revenue neutral for the median household. Lower income families, who are more impacted by but less responsible for climate change, would be paid a benefit.

I swear by the Seirus Masque for both skiing and cycling.[0] The neoprene fits tightly to your face, but lets your nose exhale freely, which minimizes glasses fogging. They’ve got a hundred variations now for different levels of comfort and warmth.

https://www.seirus.com/products/original-masque

This is so normal for Americans that you'll see people in this thread vehemently defending this hellscape against any criticism, since they can't imagine an alternative. A resident of London who doesn't own a car is a prisoner in their own home, in the mind of the average American.

There's no such thing as a "cheap" car when you compare it to the cost of walking or cycling. You could buy a new pair of shoes and a bike every month for the cost of just insuring and fueling an average car.

Car-centric design is a tax on all of us. It's just less burdensome for some than it is for others.

Car-centric design reduces freedom, because it requires an expensive car in order to go anywhere. Nothing says freedom like a $900/month car payment in order to get to work and buy groceries![0]

Bulk stores like Costco are only necessary because people live in such sprawling communities. In places where you live a short walk from a grocery store, you can practice just-in-time logistics, and buy whatever you need as soon as you need it.

It's a lot cheaper, both in economic and environmental terms, to build cities where people don't need to drive for their daily needs.

[0] https://newsroom.aaa.com/2022/08/annual-cost-of-new-car-owne...

This should have all that and more: https://github.com/yaelwrites/Big-Ass-Data-Broker-Opt-Out-Li...

Beyond that, it’s not even clear that it’s possible to make money doing this. The major players all lose money, and they have years of traction built up.

This might be interesting from a technical perspective, but it’s unlikely that there’s a viable business model here.

There's nothing inherently incompatible with living an a walkable community and participating in hobbies like woodworking. For example, after just a few minutes of searching, here's the first listing I found of a condo in a building that includes an expansive workshop among other amenities. (See photo 52.) This is in a location with a 92 walk and bike score, and a 78 transit score.[0] If that's not to your liking, here's another with a modest woodworking shop.[1] It seems like practically every luxury tower in the city has workshops among their fitness centers, pools, roof terraces, etc.[2][3] Minneapolis too cold? How about Seattle?[4]

[0] https://www.redfin.com/MN/Minneapolis/1235-Yale-Pl-55403/uni...

[1] https://www.redfin.com/MN/Minneapolis/1920-S-1st-St-55454/un...

[2] https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/222-2nd-St...

[3] https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/100-3rd-Av...

[4] https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1420-E-Pine-St-UNIT-E310-...

Don’t knock insects until you’ve tried them.

You're certainly setting a floor for your monthly housing costs, but there's all sorts of maintenance costs that crop up, unexpected repairs, and ever-increasing property taxes. I don't know any homeowners who would describe their housing costs as "fixed" and stress-free.

Nobody should be driving in near-whiteout conditions, human or AI.