• Tinks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    8 hours ago

    Public transit absolutely could work in America, but we would need to change how we design our cities as well as how we live. Many Americans live in sprawling suburbs where public transit is just not realistic. In places that are densely populated public transit does exist and functions well. The issue is that we build sprawling cities with massive suburbs filled with single family dwellings each with their own yard and space. We do the same thing with stores by having hugely sprawling shopping areas (most of which is separated by massive parking lots). It’s a chicken and egg problem. You won’t convince people to give up cars until they can realistically walk or use public transit to get where they need to go efficiently, but you also can’t make things efficient and compact while there is a huge demand for car storage. And beyond that, I think culturally most Americans don’t want to live in densely populated areas. Americans culturally put a high value on personal space and that extends to dwellings. Sure there are definitely people who want to live in an urban center, but the “American dream” is a house with a white picket fence and a dog, and until culturally the desire for that changes, America will be a car-centric society as a whole.

  • CallMeAnAI@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    16 hours ago

    It’s amazing how folks will latch on to, “I took a small sample, from the dumbest people I could find, and asked them questions on something they can’t experience.”

  • Visstix@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    17 hours ago

    I’m not gonna make fun of american public transport as the netherlands just completely locked up for a few days cause of snow.

    • agentsnep@slrpnk.netEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      I agree as I live in the Netherlands too. But tbh I’ve also lived in america and you dutch people have nothing to complain about relative to Americans.

    • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
      8·
      13 hours ago

      I mean, there’s plenty of car infrastructure that just completely breaks down under snow pressure as well, so I wouldn’t feel bad about this

    • mjr@infosec.pubEnglish
      3·
      16 hours ago

      Maybe, but at least there is enough public transport to lock up. There’s not enough in most of the USA to be noticeable.

  • Diurnambule@jlai.luEnglish
    12·
    8 hours ago

    Ina town near where I live they bought fully electric bus for the 2.5x the price of a thermal one. You may think okey that expensive because it is well though. But no battery isn’t heated so in winter the buses hold a quarter of a day with the heater, the cold etc. And now they break a mirror and they have to be carried to the garage for recalibrating because they refuse to start. On thermal bus they send a technician with a replacement mirror and one hour later bis is good to go. They got scammed hard.