My city has metro lines that run every 3 to 5 minutes all day every day, and riding the metro affords me the freedom to do something, anything besides keeping my eyes on the road. I agree that adhering to the schedule of a train that comes every hour (or half-hour) sucks, but it doesn’t have to be that way. My city is also building an automated light metro that will run every 2.5 minutes.
If we talked more about building quality trains places, and building good bike infrastructure for micromobility like bikes and e-scooters, train + micromobility would feel far more free than being caged in traffic. In my city, that’s how it currently is for me. Metro + my electric scooter makes me feel crazy free within the city. Only thing I wish is they would build even more trains, including to the nearby mountains so I could easily go hiking and camping, too.
Scooters and bikes are not viable when it’s literally freezing outside, especially with bad weather conditions. Unless there is transportation literally right out of my door, I would sooner keep my eyes on the road and drive myself. Trains and buses don’t stop at the gas station on my way into work to grab my drink for the day, and if they do, they aren’t waiting for me. If I need to run some errands, like go to the doctor or run to the hardware store, that is significantly less convenient with public transportation. I just got 4 bags of softener salt the other day that totaled 160 lbs. Not a chance I would try to lug that on a bike or carry it on and off a bus or train. I’m not saying I wouldn’t use it sometimes, and have in cities like Minneapolis and New York, but I was visiting and either didn’t have a car or wasn’t in condition to drive so worked around it. Again, they can coexist , but fighting electric vehicles of all things is a dumb fight.
![[meme] Trains are 100000x easier to electrify and automate than cars, so why does everyone keep talking about electric and driverless cars?](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/11c37658-7c32-4cc2-b12c-6ced348bd09d.png){kind=link}
My city has metro lines that run every 3 to 5 minutes all day every day, and riding the metro affords me the freedom to do something, anything besides keeping my eyes on the road. I agree that adhering to the schedule of a train that comes every hour (or half-hour) sucks, but it doesn’t have to be that way. My city is also building an automated light metro that will run every 2.5 minutes.
If we talked more about building quality trains places, and building good bike infrastructure for micromobility like bikes and e-scooters, train + micromobility would feel far more free than being caged in traffic. In my city, that’s how it currently is for me. Metro + my electric scooter makes me feel crazy free within the city. Only thing I wish is they would build even more trains, including to the nearby mountains so I could easily go hiking and camping, too.
Scooters and bikes are not viable when it’s literally freezing outside, especially with bad weather conditions. Unless there is transportation literally right out of my door, I would sooner keep my eyes on the road and drive myself. Trains and buses don’t stop at the gas station on my way into work to grab my drink for the day, and if they do, they aren’t waiting for me. If I need to run some errands, like go to the doctor or run to the hardware store, that is significantly less convenient with public transportation. I just got 4 bags of softener salt the other day that totaled 160 lbs. Not a chance I would try to lug that on a bike or carry it on and off a bus or train. I’m not saying I wouldn’t use it sometimes, and have in cities like Minneapolis and New York, but I was visiting and either didn’t have a car or wasn’t in condition to drive so worked around it. Again, they can coexist , but fighting electric vehicles of all things is a dumb fight.
Bikes work just fine when it is freezing.
Source: Have biked in sub zero often.
Btw it is possible to plan cities so you are not car dependent:
If I need to run some errands: I walk
If I need to go to the doctor: I walk
Hardware store: I walk
Do I need 80kgs of crap at home? Seldomly, but if I need it I put it in my bike trailer.