this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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Which would be a generally good idea if 99% of the country didn't require a car to do anything.
While i see the issue, there are also definitely habbits that can be changed. I lived in California for a few months and while i mostly cycled, other people in the house drove their car to the store to get breakfast, every single morning
Now i am not pushing cycling on everyone but maybe make breakfast at home or combine the trip? Small changes? I am also not directly accusing you of anything, my european mind was just baffled by such habbits
Living in southern California messes with my head! Perfect weather for cycling and just being outside yet almost everyone just chooses to drive, even on trips 1/2 a mile away.
Though maybe my head has been warped from visiting Europe multiple times but the American car brain cannot comprehend walking somewhere close. It takes more time looking for parking than actually just walking there, it drives me wild!
Anyway I have stopped riding my bike a lot because the routes I take have no bike infrastructure and the drivers here have tried to kill me a few to many times. I usually just resort to Public transportation which disappoints me almost on a daily bases, mostly because I've been to Europe and seen what functional systems look like.
Do you actually walk everywhere where you live, because parts of the city aren't even designed for walking. There are some areas where there's no sidewalks for example. And that doesn't even cover bad public transportation.
It is very different than in European countries.
Yea I unfortunately do. It's very annoying being forced to take the long way because there is no sidewalks. The local council member keeps saying nothing can be done since sidewalks must be installed by the property owner. When I point out that we can remove parking to make a path for pedestrians and maybe bikes, I get ghosted.
Sometimes the sidewalk just ends and I'm forced to unprotected cross 6/7 lane road to get to the other side for a sidewalk. I know my routes now and stopped exploring.
So I 100% agree with you, I feel like a second class citizen. Luckily I still can walk, I feel bad for anyone who is older or in a wheelchair. This city forces them to drive somewhere and if you can't you're stuck.
Doing so would expose the lie at the heart of the neoliberal proposition — that if we gave up our dignity as workers, we would regain it ten times over as consumers.
If you have to do gig work on top of your two conventional jobs, but you still have to be frugal? Well, then it starts to seem like maybe workers sold their rights away for nothing.
The 99% doesn’t want to believe that. But more than that, the 1% really doesn’t want the 99% to believe that.
You’re not wrong. But you’re also not going to see Americans change their thinking on that anytime soon.
Growing up the nearest grocery store was 8 miles away down a highway with no bike lane and no sidewalks if you wanted to walk it. Cyclists get run over fairly often in the area. It's 98 degrees most of the summer. Better pedal fast if you want anything frozen to make it back home. Also there was no public transit option.
Nearest restaurants were a bit further, but you could make it to a gas station in 3 miles.
I live mostly in Germany now and it seems the vast majority of people can access a grocery store, a bakery, and a restaurant/café in a 20 minute walk at most. The few that cannot are at most 20 minutes away from a bus or train stop that will get them to a store.
American infrastructure is nonexistent. We only build it for cars
It's ironic that the country built on freedom forces you to own and drive a car if you want to participate in society. I remember getting my driver's license at 16 and feeling the freedom to finally go anywhere. That rose colored view faded away quickly when I was forced to sit in traffic 5/6 days a week going to school then work and it just never ends. I have no alternative, that's it until we die just sit in traffic with everyone. It's fucking dehumanizing, at least to me it is.
Right, and then you realize “I should have always had that freedom to go anywhere, but there was nothing in walking distance of my childhood home except for other people’s homes and my school.” And I was lucky to have school in walking distance.
I think it's so much worse these days. I read and heard a few nightmare stories of parents getting in trouble for allowing their 10yr old kids outside WITHOUT SUPERVISION. Like that blows my mind, but I might be in the minority to think young kids should be able to survive outside unsupervised?
Yeah it’s bad. I walked to school much younger than that unsupervised, and so did most of my classmates back then…
Yeah, coming from the fucking party that sabotages public transportation on every step and even blocks things like EVs, and renewables.
And during this crisis they also came up with genius idea to remove fuel efficiency restrictions, because every American right now would want their car to use more fuel. /s
or a generator