this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
415 points (95.8% liked)

News

23409 readers
4218 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used to ride 25 kms (16 miles, give or take?) to and from work, every day. These distances aren't extreme eitherloads of kids would (and do) drive that to school every day as well.

The thing that makes that possible is safe and comfortable bike lanes. More than 30 kms? use busses. If you have a good public transportation system, these busses will have direct connections and drive every 15-30 minutes during school hours.

I know, this sounds insane in the US but that is because car manufacturers have brainwashed US citizens with the nonsense that this is how it must be. Your cities are godawful, all of them, because every city is Designed for cars, not for humans. If you get into a city designed for humans you'll be amazed. I know because every American is amazed by how beautiful cities can be when they see them.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How long did it take to bike 16 miles?

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I did it every time in around 45 minutes. First week was heavy and slower, then I got used to it. I had windy days which cost me either more or less time, depending on of I had the wind in my back or not. I had rainy days where I could get wet, or if I had a poncho, get a bit wet. But it was always doable and a great exercise.

Imagine this, my mother when she was 65 would regularly go ride with my sister. They literally said (and did) that for less than a 100kms (say, 60 miles) they wouldn't even change into their special biking clothes as that wouldn't be worth it. On many occasions they would do well over 60 miles in a day, just driving "slowly" in their bikes for fun to see the landscape and all. Super healthy for body and mind.

This is what happens when you have a country designed for people instead of cars.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So it's about half as slow as a car. When I was in my last years of college my school was 20 miles in one direction from home and then I worked in another town ~15 miles from there and then another 20 miles back home. If I had been trying to manage that on a bike/public transport it would have been much harder to schedule that and there'd have been no time for anything besides traveling and work/school. It was rough even going by car but that was the only place I could find in the field I wanted to get into that would hire me without having finished my degree.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, it won't work for everyone but bikes and public transportation typically works well for most people if only they'd try it. Cycling is very healthy and much better for the environment and frankly, car dependent cities as we have them now simply are unsustainable

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it won't work for everyone then we can't ban driving for everyone.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nobody is saying that cars should be completely banned. Cycling should be encouraged. Governments should sponsor buying bikes, build loads of GOOD cycling infrastructure (look at the Netherlands for examples for gods sake, cycling infrastructure in the Americas is a dangerous joke), make owning and using a car more expensive, make it easier to arrive to destinations by bike than by car. Invest heavily in public transportation.

The US could have had all that the Netherlands has now but it doesn't. It has huge and ugly cities that can only be used by car owners. If you don't own a car you're a second class citizen. You will mill out on good jobs. All that is insane to me. I never NEEDED a car. I can have one, but bikes are easier 100% of the time in sub 15 mile radius.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, minimum driving age should be 18 and even then require adult supervision.

Requiring an adult to be with them is functionally a ban for college students or young people trying to work.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess that's a point but not the one you think it is. I think it's telling of the abysmal state of public transportation and cycling infrastructure that a car is required to almost survive at this point, or at the least to be a functional member of society... It shouldn't be like that

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It shouldn't be but it is so that has to be fixed before you argue to raise the minimum age for driving.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

That's true enough