Tram expensive. I'd rather make my city pay 10x more on road infrastructure and maintenance and then have to buy a car, gas and insurance myself to be able to move.

I’d appreciate it if the user who donwvoted this post could expand his opinion on this subject thus contributing to the conversation.

I didn't download this, but if I had, it would be because:
People already have cars and already need infrastructure, which is (in most cases) already in place, but requiring maintenance for safety reasons
It's only zero-sum if you can't afford both
Public transportation has a bad reputation in the US around safety, hygiene, etc. Not everywhere, some cities do a great job. Unclear where this meme is taking place.
I can cross state lines in my car, but not with a tram, making it less versatile - I can go anywhere I want, in fact.
I control the heating, air, music, occupancy, etc. of my car - Not so on public transportation.
I control my car's schedule to the minute. No interstitial travel to get to it, no waiting for it to arrive.
Some people use a car as a form of self expression. I don't, but there's plenty who do.
You may have to share a seat with someone. Plenty of folks don't want to do that.
Shit I just saw what community I'm in. Sorry, ya'll - I didn't realize. I'm new here. 9. They down-voted because this showed up on someone's feed that didn't subscribe specifically to a community that already hates cars.
- I am glad you brought on some very common talking points, I will gladly explain to you what is my (and presumably the community's) answer to them:
  This is true, a one-day zero-to-100% ban on cars is probably not feasible, as many nations have parts of their economies based on people being moved by cars (even though the pandemic and remote working showed us that A LOT of those people actually do a job that requires them to commute waaay less than we thought, but this is another story). This is somewhat of a silly point though: people also used to have slaves, hell, we used to run our entire economies on slaves. That did not stop us from seeing that was not a good thing and change that over time. Total ban of cars tomorrow? Sounds cool but not really achievable. Promoting public transit? Restricting car traffic in area where cars clearly don't belong? Making it an easier time for who wants to walk or use a bike? Hell yeah.
  Public transit is overall massively cheaper than cars, for everyone. Just think about it: the cost of a car society is the cost of car infrastructure (you pay it with your taxes) plus the cost of your car, your insurance, the gas (which is actually "cheap" in the US because it is subsidized with taxes so again, you pay that), the maintenance (these costs are unloaded directly on you). In London, which has one of the most expensive fares around the world, owning a car ends up costing on average double what you would pay to use transit daily. My city has a €250 (~$300)/year transit pass. Everything included, as many rides as you want, to wherever you want. I use it to commute daily and hang out. We happen to have a car in my family, but we have the priviledge of rarely having to use it.
  True, in fact we advocate for better public transit in the first place. As you said, there is an insanely vaste amount of places in the world that actually do transit great: most european cities have very good transit, but also a lot of US cities (NY, SF, Chicago, etc)
  No, you clearly can't cross state borders with a tram, because that would probably be called a train. In europe you can take high speed trains that go over 200mph and cross entire countries in way shorter times than taking a car (a lot to improve in the future, especially interoperability, dont get me wrong, its far from perfect). Same goes for Japan, and China (but their trains are also faster, and more interconnected as, obviously, it is one country). Transit allows you to go where lines have been built, and for most places around the world that is basically everywhere you could possibly ever want to go. Cars allow you to go where your state has built a road for you.
  It has been long since I've taken a service that didn't have heating/air conditioning. I do listen to my music when I commute, I can actually also read or browse feddit, watch a video or study, while the bus/tram driver drives for me. I will give you the point on occupancy, but hum, unless you hate people I don't see a problem in that. Edit: In several years of taking metros/buses/trams it only happened more or less 5 times to find an "annoying" person on my same ride. Meanwhile, I assure you that almost EVERY time you drive here you are granted: i) a honk for no reason ii) someone not resoecting the right of way. It is faaar more probable to go this close to a car crash than to find an "annoying" person on transit, at least from my experience.
  I also control my transit schedule to the minute. Despite my city's transit having one of the worst looking apps made by humans, I can actually check live-time where the bus or tram i need is and when it will be at the stop (and when its main lines i dont even need to because there is one every 5-7 minutes). You know what i hate instead? Getting stuck in traffic. That really has to be a pain for those 15 cars clogging the two car lanes (one is actually blocked by illegally parked cars), while me and other 50 homies fly by them on the bus-only lane. Also, on the same commute, I had to always add an additional 30 minutes ahead of leaving to account for traffic, making the gains against a bus virtually nothing. But of course you can only make this point if your city is well-served by transit lines.
  I don't either, I don't think anyone cares about those few people, this community is really about the other 99,9% of motorists.
  I don't get what you mean with "share". I have not in my entire life in any country of this world seen a seat for two people. What? You mean to seats next to each other? Because that's... Two seats. There is not really much sharing in it. Need further explaination.
  This community is called fuck cars but is really actually about wanting cities designed for people rather than cars (which is how human settlements have been made for basically thousands of years except the last decades). Well shit i made a wot but thats my take, to put it shortly
- Point 9 makes sense.
- Number 9 is my favorite.
  I wonder if there's a middle ground most would like. Where I live our suburbs have a train pass by them so we can ride to the city after a bike ride or short car trip. It seems ideal, actually.
  It amazed me how I had a blind spot for the elderly and disabled (saw a few blind), who might find our car-centric transport either prohibitively expensive or exclusionary.
- yeah, point 8 hits the nail on the head.
  lots of people just dont like to share.
  gluttony is one of the well known 7 virtues. /s
- It’s too late. You have already put the noose around your neck.
I prefer content, articles, advocacy, and discussion to memes.
Perhaps we can splinter off fuckcarmemes?
Looks like it's undownvoted, so probably a misclick. When the up and down votes are that close together, it is surprisingly easy. I mass downvoted a bunch of stuff earlier today before I caught myself and corrected it.
All of those mistaken downvotes were actually upvotes.
- I like swiping to upvote in Voyager/Wefwef, but I do end up downvoting by accident from time to time, before I fix it.
Perhaps the post aligns with the downvoter's opinion but they simply deem it a bad/uninteresting post.
puts extinguished torch down

Tax dollar usage is the main excuse why people in my state have been protesting the rail. I guess sitting in traffic for 2 hours to and from work is preferred.

I think its because they don't see how it will benefit them specifically.
- Yeah. A common argument against bike lanes in my city is that "nobody bikes", and people don't understand that nobody bikes because we have to bike alongside their murder boxes.
Many people don't even understand that life without car is not only possible but it is of far superior quality.
But hey at least they got their Kuck bro funded politics keeping them satisfied

Considering being a massive fan of cars, I'm so glad I live in Scotland. You can walk pretty much anywhere, Very cheap trams for some cities, fantastic bus service and the North Coast 500. People and cars can co-exist but the way some places seem to be doing it is not exactly brilliant.

Scotland sounds nice. How is the bike infrastructure?
- Some people argue that there's too many bikes lanes, so I'd say it's quite good haha! There's also some amazing mountain bike trails in Scotland so there's something for everyone, bikewise.

Legit Chicago. No work on the CTA that desperately needs a new line (or several), but just spent $800m ($300m over budget) on the Jane Byrne Interchange and immediately started work on Kennedy for another $150m (will end up being at least $300m). I can't help but imagine if they took that billion and spent it on the CTA instead

Oh, hell yeah, fuck cars came to lemmy, that's my jam🍌🚗

Is the scraggly beard guy supposed to be a protagonist or a douche? I can never tell with these comics because he looks exactly like I'd imagine a typical basement dweller generously fancy themselves.

To be honest I have seen him taking so many different stances in many scenarios that he could be both the protagonist and the main villain of any meme

Yeah but I am way more comfortable in my car, it goes exactly where I want it and I have complete control over the accessibility soooooooo

Bigger roads just leads to more people driving and more traffic, whereas more people using public transport leaves more space for those who insist on travelling with their living room to move unhindered.
This is very common points that come up on this topic, and they are reasonable really, but let me disagree for the following reasons:
I am way more comfortable in my car
This one is obviously very personal, so agreeing or disagreeing makes no sense. We can agree however that when you drive you have to only focus on the road; some people sure enjoy staring at the asphalt or at the ass of the car in front of them while they drive in traffic. Meanwhile on transport one can read, watch a video or even browse feddit posts while a professional driver is paid to do the annoying repetitive part for you. Also when you get on transit the air is already conditioned, meanwhile when you get in your car you left in the parking lot under the sun you enjoy your ass and hands burning while your face freezes to the ac at the max power trying to cool down your box of plastic that turned into a oven.
it goes exactly where I want it and I have complete control over the accessibility
Yeah, meanwhile the transit company of my city calls me every morning and tells me the exact places I am allowed to go today. I definitely don't take whatever line i need to take to go wherever i need or want to be. Jokes aside, if you have bad/non existent public transport in your area your point is understandable. That is literally what we advocate for though, more public transport where there isn't. Cherry on top, I actually have a car and a licence, I just almost never need to use it, because my city has decent (far from perfect, but) transit.
induced demand.. Wait until everyone does the same thing as you are.

This shit is cringe as fuck. Looks like it was made by a naive 16 year old.

We are not in high school anymore Kevin... saying something is "cringe" doesn't make you sound cool nor invalidates the other person's argument, lmao.
Comment like yours give me hope. This proves that Lemmy has grown beyond techies and has spread among "regulars".
- lol do you think techies hate cars?