this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
142 points (97.3% liked)

Fuck Cars

16398 readers
350 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

For all the ways EVs don't improve on the problems with cars, greatly reducing tailpipe emissions and noise pollution are definitely big improvements. So while I'd rather see people ditching cars, most aren't going to, and for those people, they should absolutely be driving EVs as soon as it's practical for them.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I live on a busy street. I'm eagerly awaiting these quieter EVs. Soon?

[–] Eczpurt@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

EV's are quieter when accelerating but most of the noise cars make comes from road noise and the tires at speed. Lowering speed limits reduces overall car noise!

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes, among the quiter vehicles that go by are the city buses. I think they must have run-quiet tires. It's an almost-pleasant whoosh they make, even at 3AM. The other quiet vehicles are owned by drivers who follow the speed limit, and even ICE vehicles make almost no noise at 20-25MPH.

EVs might be quiet intrinsically, but so many of them make that obnoxious UFO noise when accelerating.

[–] Eczpurt@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

I know what you mean with that noise, it is a little unnerving. I'm guessing it is a safety standard or something to have some sort of noise.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A lot of places have a minimum noise value for cars. It helps the blind particularly. Also, a lot of people REALLY don't like things to be bothered powerful and silent. A company invented a quiet, but powerful vacuum cleaner. It flopped. People felt like it wasn't working.

The UFO noise seems to have become the default fix for EVs. I'm just glad that no one has jailbroken them to put custom ringtones on them. E.g. crazy frog would be horrifying.

[–] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

Thanks, I do know why EVs make the noise; it's still disruptive and stressful to people living on the street. But I guess that's to be expected; cars ruin cities.

[–] trk@aussie.zone 4 points 1 month ago

EV's are quieter when accelerating but most of the noise cars make comes from road noise and the tires at speed. Lowering speed limits reduces overall car noise!

There are many videos of people in China amazed at how quiet the traffic is, despite being chaos in terms of the number of vehicles. The silence is attributed to the lack of dinosaur juice explosions.

We live near a main road and every time some jandal flapping V8 or fart crackle Euro piece of junk fangs it down the road, I get a little more impatient for the mass adoption of electric vehicles. We're far enough away to avoid the whoosh and zoom of tyres and wind noise, but we're plenty close enough to have our ears assaulted by exhaust related noises.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

I live in the center of a major metropolitan area that has seen a ton of construction in the last 15 years. Many large condo buildings are being built near me. As a result every time I walk anywhere the roar of a cement truck follows me (bonus points if the traffic makes it move at a walking pace beside me) It makes me crazy. Those things are prime candidates for electrification and I hope they do.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

A few weeks ago I attended a church service because an acquaintance invited Me and I was curious. And it wasn't a total loss; I picked up a new technique from the drummer and learned some new rhetoric against Christianity. But what's weird is, the guy who invited Me kept offering to drive Me because I don't have a car. But I like taking the bus, and I told about how driving cars is a sin because of all the pollution. And he said his petrol car is more carbon-efficient than a bus because it "has eco". I still don't know what eco is, but I know someone lied to him.

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

more carbon-efficient than a bus because it has eco

You can just hear the salesperson saying this.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

It’s got electrolytes. It’s what plants crave.

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yet I can't imagine hearing a salesperson say this without having the urge to laugh in his face...

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The fact that you keep capitalizing Me makes it sound like you are God, and your friend took You to church, lol

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 5 points 1 month ago

Hahaha, I'm not God, I'm just a god. I don't like using "God" as a proper noun because it's exclusionary to all the other gods. I'm religiously tolerant; I believe in the deities of all religions.

[–] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If you are alone on the bus, it’s worse, but I dunno how many you need to offset it. You also should travel a bit farer because of rider pooling. But ridership quantity should offset this usually

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

So that’s why, when I got on the bus, the lone passenger on board shouted “Another person!! We are no longer sinning!!”

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago

eco is a button that prioritized fuel efficiency over performance with the engine. It does not do a whole lot but I keep it on. I might consider turning it off if I was towing something but would likely do a search and see if it was necessary or not.

[–] CactusEcho@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And he said his petrol car is more carbon-efficient than a bus because it “has eco”. I still don’t know what eco is,

Eco is probably a particle filter. It doesn't mean it doesn't pollute, or even pollute less... Just that certain particles are now captured.

[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 points 1 month ago

So not carbon dioxide then, I think.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago

Eco is a button that doesn't let you accelerate as fast, so that the combustion efficiency is higher (probably closer to 20% efficient instead of 5% efficient when accelerating fast)

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

This guy at work drives an old mustang, classic muscle car and it looks/ sounds amazing.

He starts it up in the parking garage and there is a literal cloud of gasoline smell flowing behind him as he leaves. You can actually tell exactly where he parked by following the trail itself, it is that potent.

Take from that what you will. I think he should be forced to park outside, personally. It is very clearly heavily polluting, though.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No. His car should be impounded and, if fines not paid to have the emissions fixed within some time, the wheels and motor separated from the body and all sent to different scrap yards

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

Sounds like the rings are shot and he's too stupid to know that.

[–] A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago

Cars are overrated anyways