I monetize nothing online; it's all volunteerism. This may also be TLCR. My goals are Love-centered; I push anti-consumerism; I want you to influence yourself; to seek within for original thoughts and not be a cultural automaton or a consumer bot; to master critical thinking and get outside the box: Car-free simple-living: Earth's Creator and I thank you!
⬆️ Living Car Free!
Being mentally conditioned by/to the current travel infrastructure of car centric nations, limits the creativity of those seemingly subjugated to them. As one man put it, the car culture was Trojan horsed in; before then, streets were primarily for people; that is, for all time past, and up to the mass production of the personal automobile, mostly in North America.
North America became a car-infested environmental wreck; the lifestyle of owning a car in this infestation is the most complex lifestyle ever lived by humans; it's an anti-simple lifestyle. But if it's all one has ever known, it will be normalized; and the self-justifications are exposed in personal greenwashing. Accusing some fictional Big Corp Monster forcing us all to burn non-renewable natural resources, may blameshift the cause/effect for a time, but cognitive dissonance is a bitch!
Driving since 75, I've been volitionally car-free since 2005: What a stress break it has been. This conservationist had read enough to make the conscious decision to surrender my thirty years of car driving, most of which was in LA & Orange County, CA., or the cross country trek back & forth to Kansas City, MO. where my genetic kin all resided; but I've been all over the continent.
I knew that aspect of my life was over, and good riddance to it! No longer could I be a threat to another in a ton of hurtling metal traveling at speeds the human body was not meant to travel. I could not live with myself if I caused the death or disablement of any living being, regardless of circumstances. The wise saying is true: We Are What We Do And No More! Humans too easily lie to self and then to others; words are meaningless, only actions matter.
So, I sold my last cargo van, learned how to use public transportation (rail & bus), and bought a Trek bike (gave away the junk one). Then I had to make decisions about where to live, based on why/how; centered on this new (but old) reality living. Since committing to it, this was no different than if one marries, making all life decisions based on/with their new life partner, and no longer just for themselves: Yes, it's Love manifest! Simple living is also peaceful. Be the change you hope to see in the world, and others within that same commitment orbit will intersect eventually.
So, how would I get those things I used to go get in my full sized van? Thankfully in 2005, all Big Box stores delivered, for a fee unless it was over a certain amount; a new large appliance was free, as was items from Furniture stores. No longer having any of the multiple expenses of car ownership, I had plenty of money left over. But what about groceries? Back in those days I'd bike or walk to Big Walmart, buy nearly a months worth, then call a cab to take it all home. Carrying a bag on my handlebars was easy for in between trips or take-out.
Then CV19 changed many things for most everyone; under its Protocols, City and Interstate Buses postponed service. Before, it was Intercity Bus and Rail, with Interstate Buses and Amtrak for longer hauls. But I'm one less person (or a car-free family?) creating demand for more Heavy Infrastructure, more cars, and gasoline, and all the other paraphernalia that comes with it all.
Being car free and no longer a material hauler, and not wanting to be Bus reliant, I got into online grocery shopping and home delivery of everything (W+ Spark) and Amazon Prime; there's others. Delivery networks are more efficient than everyone going one-at-a-time in a billion+ personal cars, to do/get everything. I'm local buying at the Farmer's Market when it's open. I eat out mostly at Taco Trucks and other locally owned spots. (Buy Local Coalition).
Now I only haul my body around, though I do have a cargo trailer for my e-scooter. I researched micro-mobility before buying in early 2021. I said NO to accepting sedentary living; I wanted to get around that did not involve the seat-to-seat lifestyle; ergo, a standing e-scooter!
Micro mobile devices, and the e-scooter for me, has been a godsend, extending my range, now up to the range limits of the e-scooter itself; I can stand for long periods, far better than sitting or bending forward to move; it's more natural. But e-bikes and other micromobility devices are awesome as well. If you're bored, here's some Ride Videos (and Here).
America was built around the car, and so, that's what most people see and believe is the only place life occurs. That's why the conversation always centers on them; it seems difficult to live without a car, if all one knows of, are the business funnels called streets! But car streets are filled with dangers: More people die on streets than any official war zone on Earth, and by tens of thousands to one! Empirical data is linked at the site: Car Cult.
All well designed Metros have an Intermodal; some US Cities had one for decades (Amtrak and Greyhound): But poorly designed Metros have a hodgepodge of non-car transportation options. This is because they acquiesced to Big Oil, Big Car & Big Industry. Have you?
Fossil fuels are not eternal; it's easy to live fat now, consuming literally the rest of humanity–futures rightful share of it! Not truly caring how they leave Earth to progeny, they're shortsighted in all they do. Getting to/from poorly designed Metros without a car is hard; we who do not participate in the Car Cult must be selective in where we visit and live.
⬆️ Buying Micro Transport!
This would depend on the individual and their location on Earth, but there's a few things to consider: Will this replace a car? If not, then it's just a toy; you're a weekender; use whatever you like. If you're moneyed, all of these are cheap. However, if you're using it like I do; as your car, along with PT options, then it needs to be dependable, weather resistant, safe and long range. Research: Knowledge is power!
If this replaces a car and you'll commute to work with it, think of it like a motorcycle, and cycle riders in hard winter locales, typically have poor weather options, because it sucks going 30+ MPH in a hard rain. And ice? No way on any two wheels! Add a bitter wind chill and I assume you get the gist. With the best riding gloves hands still get cold (I double glove). But I ride year round; just monitor weather, pick the good days, or just live close to work, work from home, or PT 🧠.
It's better to get an e-scooter that has specs greater than your needs (speed & range), and here's why: Battery life is determined more by charge cycles, not (necessarily) how old they are or how many miles. Therefore, you do not want to have to charge it everyday if you can help it (plus, too time consuming).
I recommend an independent dashboard (no apps needed), with a thumb or twist throttle; I don't care for the LCD display/throttle one-piece units. Also, dual motors (better for take-off and hill climbing), dual shocks, all hydraulic brakes (no cables), and sine wave controllers. So get a unit with great range, even if you ride it infrequently. And without good shocks on both wheels, it can have hazardous results on rough terrain. A thumb or twist throttle is easier with thick gloves on.
Get one that goes faster than you're average intended speed (I'm 27 MPH): better to have speed and range, and not need it, than to need it and not have it! Most units have 3P range settings; slow, medium and fast. Leave it on medium or fast (depending on the unit); then, like every other motor vehicle, only accelerate to the speed you want: It's not peddle to the metal all the time; no one does that on any other vehicle.
P settings are more speed governors than energy savers; going slower you'll get longer range. By controlling speed with the throttle, riders will get similar range results. Then if you hit heavy car traffic, you got the muscle to pace the speed of that traffic. Buy e-scooters designed for personal use, not for the rental market; they're App dependent. A good PEV will have its own control dashboard.
Any scoot below a $1000 USD, beware! Heck, a Trek bike is $14,000. So a more complex device should be pricey, and if it's too cheap it's cheaply made. An expensive thing does not prove it's superior, but cheaper is always proof it's inferior: No one sets prices to lose $ or make less profits.
Here's the difference between buying from a shop or just a retailer: got my first e-scooter from Amazon. When it broke (because of a structural failure 🎥), Ninebot/Segway, who also sells regionally branded ODM products from their Beijing HQ, stalled, and it was past Amazon's month return. Buying from Amazon is fine if the Seller addresses issues there; see the Questions and Comments sections to see if they engage customers: If not I'd avoid them.
Afterward I bought an Emove Cruiser (2021) from Voro Motors LA. The advantage of having a shop, rather than a retailer (box resellers), is they unbox all direct-from-China units, run them through a check-list, then ship them to US customers (UPS/FedEx). If there's any issues they have a full LA shop 🎥. But, there's a higher price to pay for this, as opposed to buying direct via Alibaba or AliExpress or Made in China.
Currently, all e-scooters are made in China, with hundreds of ODM-OEM factories that most buy from to name brand. However, the largest market for these is still Asia. But the growing Western market is spurring greater interest in their design. They're still garage toys for most Westerners. They are analogous to what the bikes and the bike trail systems are, in a car culture; it's for entertainment purposes, with cars the centerpiece transportation.
However, as more rely on them for their main transportation option, the quality, longevity, and range, must increase. Then us full-timers will have to contend with car brain, again but also in the bike-space, and more trail rage from Karen's & Ken's! Considered 3-year devices, if one replaced batteries and controllers, alongside parts that wear like brake pads & tires 🎥, one could get more years out of a good one, even on a 300-day annual use cycle.
⬆️ Security & Theft!
Manual and powered portable bolt cutters make quick and quiet work of light chains and cables and thin locks; a U-lock is better but some are expensive; if it's locked to a rack that's easier to cut than the lock that's where it's made; off goes the scooter, expensive lock and all. Many bike racks are thin alloy tubes and easy to cut 🎥.
If you live where it cannot be kept indoors, it's best not to buy anything too pricey. Leaving a high priced e-scooter (or bike) outside overnight is not wise. But if that's the scenario, you'll want something more sure proof; a GPS tracker inside the battery compartment. It has to be always on because these are often not turned on when stolen; they're lifted into a vehicle, and a good GPS tracker sends an alert to a phone when such movement takes place.
I have a cheap U-lock; I'm not going to be far from it, and, I park it in my downtown loft apartment foyer. Even this cheap U-lock cannot be cut with a cheap portable bolt cutter; so, they'd have to take a grinder to it, and that would take a lot of time and loud enough to be heard. Thieves see this thick lock and move on. There are two kinds of thieves; pros (geared up planners), and addicts or homeless who look for quick easy steals to pawn.
Most anything can be cut with a grinder, but that's a loud 5 minutes of cutting noises. Thus, the overnight thieves are the geared up pros with a variety of cutting tools, in vans cutting and manually loading them up. They do not ride them, and may not turn them on for some time. Thus, the GPS tracker must be direct wired so it's always on. Air Tags (and others) most thieves already know about; they get busted off almost right away, even revealing their presence to a thieves phone. This must be discrete for it to work.
Here's a video of a GPS installed inside the compartment, and with no stickers warning that it's in there, you'll have police on them in hours. They're thieves, not technicians, because if they were techs they'd be earning big bucks doing that! I think it's vital that all of us arm ourselves with the ability to track and recover our units, otherwise thieves continue undeterred and unpunished. That, or plan for increasing future thefts.
⬆️ Where To Ride!
One hazard zone to limit riding in is inside a 20 yard dome of car traffic (esp. downwind). Cars not only expel carcinogens from tail pipes, but also from microplastics, tire and brake pad shedding, rust and so on, all along roads. This is why disease is greater for those in housing by arterial roads. As cars speed by they kick up dust particles: PM. A mask is recommended if cycling these corridors outside an enclosed vehicle. I frequent off-road trails and residential roads with little traffic and low speeds: Or I mask!
Riding them safely just requires a bit of common sense, and a fair understanding of the physics (or Law) of motion or inertia and gravity. Since I played outside always as a kid, I learned it, real world style, whereas nowadays learning is mostly virtual or two dimensional (screens). One can witness this fact, and repeatedly, by watching Fail Army and others. That's why I prefer those that like Skater Parks 🎥: Active kids are the best!
Do not challenge the right-of-way, with any vehicle; ever! Protect yourself at all cost. When you cross paths with a dominator (and you will and often) let them be the gods of their space. Personally, I have no ego at stake concerning this life; if another believes they have to exert their power over the space we are simultaneously in, they can have it; I'll yield it to them.
This is not out of respect of course, but because they are dangerous fear-driven humans, looking for a kill they can justify to a Court Judge (they'll play the victim in any collision case). But I will not be their target; these pre-murderers will have to find another. With my luck I'd suffer tetraplegia, not death!
I also do not ride in severe weather, and I always wear helmets. We all know (now) what happens to NFL players running on the ground in $2K helmets; they can still suffer from TBI. It's even more important to wear a good riding helmet; they're cool because they display to all that the rider is wise enough to wear one, plus it's a good example for the young.
Always gear up for a crash then ride extra safely! I'm in riding gloves, good shoes and fully dressed for riding; a small crash can really skin up the body. If I need to brake suddenly, I squeeze only the back brakes, and also lean back and squat some to shift my weight to that wheel, but also to reduce the tendency to tip over via forward momentum. I also know well, the extreme dangers of cars, so I avoid certain roadways with painted in-street bike lanes, unless car traffic is slow and/or sparse.
I stay on max 35 MPH posted side roads, with or without painted bike gutters, but there are plenty of bike trails, roads with wide pedestrian ways to ride on safely, and pedestrian overpasses and under stroad pedestrian cross-under. I get everything delivered to my door, so I'm not packing anything riding; I am no longer a hauler! And I can still walk, with a grocer blocks away; and there's always rideshares in emergencies or rare situations. (More pics of the City and my ride at ImgBB).
As I'm getting older, I am thinking of going where winters are less harsh; somewhere at least South of the arctic dip! The problem with winters is not the cold as much as it is the surface riding conditions: Ice! I do not even go out now when it's too slick, or there's too much snow, which is always plowed into the painted bike lane or gutter :-( And the dedicated bike trails are not plowed regularly like streets are.
While researching e-scooters, I read from a reputable scooter blog page: Some e-scooters today can go very far, actually further than you need them to. After all, who needs to travel 90 miles (144 km) on an electric scooter between charges? The answer to this car dependent and/or sedentary person's thinking? Me! Born in 58 Me! I'm 180# and live in the flat plains of Polk County, Iowa! I regularly make 30 mile round trips, but wouldn't yet risk a 50 mile RT.
Still, the only way for anyone to take e-scooters seriously, beyond being garage toys, is when their range can be substantially increased; I'm talking a worst case scenario of 100 miles in range; like 100 to 150 miles range, at 27 MPH average speed, and if not included, have affordable attachable seat options, which I personally do not use because I sit enough elsewhere.
Imagine buying a car that requires the user to get gas every day or two. Yea, that car would not be taken seriously, and few would buy it, except some who might, only if the price was cheap enough (like, brand new for $4000); they'd use it as a local range vehicle. EV range anxiety must be understood in context; it is relative to usage and ones locale.
⬆️ The Possible Future Of Electric Scooters!
What e-scooter designers are currently designing (at least) for the western market, is a type of self-sabotage; they're so focused on speed for the emotional thrill of it, that they're sentencing these devices to the realm of a dangerous toy; now they're being outright banned. Range and dependability, enforced by longer warranties, should be the design target. I'd keep the top speed at 45 MPH, with a worst case range of 100 miles. Why?
Because designers are focusing on making ever faster standing e-scooters, they will eventually be classified as motor vehicles, or mopeds, and require all the same things that they require: An operators license, insurance, tags, registration, more taxes, the ever possible tickets, and so on. They will no longer be the same as a bicycle. Then they will lose their appeal. One might as well just buy a street legal electric motorcycle or an E-car!
E-bikes too, will eventually suffer the same fate if they get faster, but at least they have larger diameter wheels; hitting a deep pothole (on a road or trail pavement) with a 10" diameter wheel going 50 miles per hour, rarely results in a positive outcome. At best it will only damage the tire and/or rim of larger wheeled vehicles.
Additionally, bicycle groups are now vocally opposing e-scooters on designated "bike" trails, simply because they go too fast, imposing a risk to walkers, kids, and those bicycling. And candidly, in my locale, it's a handful of boys who are blazing these bike trials at 40+ miles per hour. It freaks everyone out; even me when I'm cycling there, so I get it! The thrill of high speeds will be the reason why they'll require governing.
However, I do not want to lose my current access to these designated trails on my e-scooter, because they are my main roads. By choice, I do not own a car. I made this decision in 2005, for the environment and for safety reasons; I sold my last vehicle then and have not owned one since; State ID's going forward. From that point forward, all my life choices centered around not owning and operating a car.
To own a car is to need a car is to use a car. That's the train of thought in car dependency. Here's how the train goes: Spending enormous amounts of money, buying, maintaining, insuring, repairing, protecting, and being concerned over the ownership of this car device, it makes no sense after all this, to then walk or bus or bike or micro-mobile, to places I can just drive to. After all, it's faster, (seemingly) safer, and more convenient to do so!
Any logical thinker can see how this is self-inducing. Cars changed so much since I started driving in 1974, when we paid for cars outright (I never knew anyone who took out a car loan before Y2K); there was no mandatory insurance, gas was cheap, and cars were easy to fix by the owner. Most importantly, there were not nearly as many drivers on the roads; I never once had a wreck. But I broke free of my addiction to oil consumption (in 05) for safety and environmental reasons.
Today's investment in them is huge, so it's understandable why people say "to hell with it" and just drive everywhere always. However, the environmental issues are compounding. This is why money economics will be the end of us; it monetizes virtually everything, and that is fully unsustainable. And most people judge all things only in dollar increments.
In the USA, car is king, whereas, bikes are more for exercise and leisure. Therefore, micro-mobile devices are not needed, and are even a nuisance on bike designated zones; trails as well as on the car street's painted bike lanes. When I ride my e-scooter on the streets people yell out to get off the road, and when I'm on the bike trails they yell out to get off the trail and onto the roads.
I'm hopeful that by being the change I want to see in the world, others will follow that example. I cycle for short distances, but an e-scooter is a range extending mobility assistant for many. If rural I'd have a Fat Tire Scooter. Living with many potholes the 15" wheeled Dualtron City is a great option. Another in the electric bike world are Etrikes; some of the Etrikes are designed to be used by the wheel chair dependent.
Building a waterproof battery powered scooter or bike, is such a no brainier that if someone told me there were no waterproof units at all, I would not initially believe that. It is so hard to believe still (circa 2023) that I thought I'd demonstrate how it can (and will) be done, in the hopes of those who actually design them will read this. Scooters (and all such devices) should be as waterproof as electric or gas motorcycles already are.
Without too many details, it would have a waterproof battery box; the access door would have a rubber O-ring, typical of many other such applications. All the ports that connect the inside of the box to the outside components, would be waterproof plugs like on submersible equipment; the external components would be analogous to waterproof action cameras.
Unlike how the monkey see monkey do copycats mimic current bad designs, in my design, there would be no wrapped wire harnesses running through drilled holes into the box that are then basically caulk sealed; that design gets an "F" from this Designer. All the components needed already exist; they'd just have to be slightly redesigned for e-scooter application.
⬆️ The Future Of You!
Born in 1958, I might not be around when the ecological crap hits the big fan a few decades from now. So why did I make this decision? For future generations; for you; to be a model to the youth around me. And yet, most of them merely find my lifestyle choices humorous; an outlier; a curiosity; cars rule! Still, the truly concerned will take the important time to read and understand why, at a philosophical and resource-rich site titled Car Cult. It's a hard slap across the face so be warned!
For any electric scooter (or Ebike) to be taken seriously, especially as a replacement to a car, two things must take priority; range is number one, and the second is the durability and dependability of the device itself. Once these are built with serious intention, that reality will reflect itself in the factory warranties, just like it happened with the automobile industry.
For most of my life, all automobile warranties were 1 year, sometimes with 2 years on the main power train only. With quality improvements, some automakers have a factory 5 year warranty, as opposed to an insurance addendum which can be bought for almost anything nowadays. That is because they build them better, and can confidently offer it.
A factory warranty is the open testimony of a manufactures confidence in their products; every company will claim their brand is the best, so that's expected. But a 1 year warranty on anything is humorous, but it is also telling; it's the manufacturer accepting that they make low quality items and thus cannot afford to put their money where their mouth is.
And once the Automobile Industry and Big Oil begins to feel threatened by more efficient and safe forms of Micro Mobility, they will, once again, covertly invest heavily in exposing their flaws (including those mentioned herein) as viable replacements to their resource gluttonous SUV and trucks and other urban tanks: And I'd wager the $ value of those Industries on that!
Smaller lighter vehicles would not need all the carbon centered and expensive Heavy Infrastructure. But the explanation for why it will not happen is simple; those in the micromobility industry (in the West mostly, and at least so far), are more interested in short term profits than being agents of change, as a long-term solution to the current ravages of the car culture.
Everyone who has read and understood the page dedicated to the Car Cult, knows that those ravages go far beyond the billions of IC engines, from the smallest to the largest, globally billowing countless megatons of carcinogens from refined fossil fuels, poisoning the biosphere. Obviously we cannot all be homeless, but we can all be carless; just refer to literally all your ancestors extant prior to 1940!
⬆️ The Copter Conundrum!My ride is a two seat ultralight helicopter. As a licensed pilot, this unit cost $160K which is about the same as my favorite car. My office building only has parking for 6 ultralights. As more are getting licensed and buying units, parking them is now becoming problematic. If I were forced to drive it's a two-hour one-way car commute; that's unacceptable! Therefore, we're petitioning our City to build more heliport parking, by adding heliports to all capable top floor parking structures and high rise buildings; with public funding this should be feasible, just as with cars. We cannot return to cars; it takes too long!
This conversation is a real Executive exchange (modified for effect). The point of it? That everything is relative! It shows how options shape our mentality. Most of us cannot afford a personal copter, and so we never even consider living a two-hour {+} one-way car commute from a job. However, if your ride only takes a half hour then living far away is a non-issue (e.g. Urban Air Mobility).
And it's the same thing with cars versus micro-mobile. If all you have is a micro-mobile device (bikes too), then you shape your lifestyle around that, and without even pondering such exceptions mentioned herein. Since you cannot own or operate a copter (or a car), such an item is not even in your calculations, nor your mentality. And it is the mindset at focus herein. If you do not (or will not) own a car, you will shape how you live accordingly; relatively.
The social media responses to this whining Executive (pilot) was not friendly. He got hammered for thinking that he was privileged; special; exclusive; exceptional; supreme; in a word, entitled! But to him, he is just an Executive with a copter; he compares his copter with coworkers; the typical "mine's better than yours" immaturity! It happens with all consumer products. The value of those products is relative to ones resources.
And I'm sure this Executive feels mildly bad for all us lowly people, who must commute in street traffic, to and fro. But hey, that's just Capitalistic Way: Too bad for you if you are not in its fast lane. After all, only high quality people reach the pinnacles of privilege. The quantity of USD is the only true barometer of self-worth to the capitalistic. Everyone's created equal my ass!
The moral of the (copter) story should be obvious by now. Anything can be justified; any lifestyle, or any purchases within it. Everything is a matter of perspective; everything is a matter of opportunity. We all navigate with what we have and/or can obtain. And we reject all else, openly or quietly.
The envious have a completely different take on this, than does an environmentally conscious person who would not burn gasoline into the biosphere, no matter how much money they possess or gains made from doing so; who would not put another car on the Heavy Infrastructure regardless of how many others do it; we who cannot justify risking life over any point A to B trip.
Obviously, there would not be a need for the many billions of miles of Heavy Infrastructure, if all there were to support, such a now global network, were a few million vehicles globally upon them. And so, numbers "is" the game. If everyone stopped buying cars and started buying personal copters, the entire infrastructure budget would shift a lot: It would have to! Demand drives supply!
But then, that would only change the way people kill each other, while merely going from point A to B. I often wonder where people were going after they just mangled a human body (too often children) with their cars. I'm curious if they thought this collateral damage was acceptable. Then they get into another one and go as if nothing serious happened. They drive cars to the funerals of people who died in cars! That confirms my suspicions; that's sinister indeed!
⬆️ Paradigm Shift, Again!
The greatest advantage of moving away from huge machines, involves the stunningly massive Heavy Infrastructure needed to support them all. From roads and bridges, to parking lots and structures, and the concrete and asphalt that is now choking the surface of Earth; this is causing a host of secondary problems that now outnumber the initial car cult catastrophe.
Heavy Infrastructure is a resource intensive maintenance leviathan, long after it's built: e.g. Humans should never need to move snow. Without oil subsidies artificially creating cheap transport options, it would be too expensive to bring in slave labor products from overseas. The lower cost and higher quality things made locally, would then be much more appealing. Tariffs are not needed, just end the subsidizing of all Big Biz!
Heavy Infrastructure is the need for a system that supports vehicles over a 1/2 ton (453 kg) net weight: In the US, it is designed for supporting vehicles in the 40 ton range. So Heavy Infrastructure differs greatly from Light (LI), based upon what uses it: A sidewalk or bike trail system are examples of Light Infrastructure. So is MagLev and other Elevated Railways. They do not interfere too much with the natural world, allowed to traverse underneath. Older railroad ecology needs to be modernized.
The current issue with an E-car is range and charge time based on
current battery tech (with sodium-ion battery tech currently the most promising). But the major problem with an E-car, will not go away once battery issues have been resolved. Heavy Infrastructure is the major issue. The US Interstate System was built when it was cheap to do so; labor, materials, and land acquisition. But it was still a 1/2 trillion in today's USD; and that's just the US Interstate System.
Circa 2015, there are 4.09 million miles of navigable roadways in all 50 states; 47,432 miles of that is the US Interstate. To rebuild it alone will cost five-fold that! Since it was all politically peddled by Big Car and Big Oil, they were only interested in making untold wealth on the ubiquity of the personal automobile. That success spoiled people. Now everything is gauged on this fully unsustainable paradigm.
The need for a multi-trillion dollar Heavy Infrastructure system, is insane. "Freedom" (unfortunately) has degraded into: I do what the hell I want, where and whenever I want, and to hell with the consequences to others! Such exhibitions of this mental anomaly, must first be acknowledged, and then dealt with accordingly. Unfortunately there are still no laws against stupidity or evil. The Car Cult already kills 2 million humans globally each year (WHO; 1.3 of that are just crashes); that's expected to go up as the War of Cars escalates.
Car dependency is like any other dependency, in that dependents will continue to make excuses for it, no matter how much reason opposing it is applied (follow US Politics for more:-). All this must/will be rejected, and for the same reason a debate about the ideas of flat earth are, when posting on a flat earth site; all reason would be rejected by flat earth folk.
Without humility, once a person has convinced themselves, and the concrete of pride has dried, it's too hard to be freed from that pride bondage. If a person can only see what's in front of them, then sure, no problem will be solved by the same mentality that created it! One has to think outside-the-box, or find contentment within its confinement.
Unfortunately, too many humans like to be victims (e.g. I'm a victim of city design or infrastructure); being a victim comes with many social and cultural perks. Since the entire human species lived well on Earth without cars -- from the beginning of our species existence all the way until the 1930s in the USA and the 1970s in the rest of the westernized Earth -- this alone is sufficient evidence (though that's surely not all) that humans can live without cars today, and all the way into the 25th century if our species wills it. Therefore, all human dependency, no matter what it is, centers on the volition to remain dependent, versus confession and change.
The automobile devotees will try to pass the buck via blame-shifting. Rather than giving up the car addiction, they react to that internal guilt and its cognitive dissonance, by simple diversion; that the blame goes to governments or the corporations, just like it was with tobacco, or any other addictive and/or harmful thing on Earth. It's someone else that must be blamed but me; I'm the victim here!
That is the scapegoat, but since most people are also addicts and victims, there's plenty of support for Victimism. I often found it bizarre how people believe they have to buy some material thing, or buy into something such as social media. That is, until one understands how self-justification works in the human brain; the power of pride and its protection, can spin out of control and be very irrational.
Therefore, the entire debate surrounding the topic of the Car Cult, is almost never about just quitting cars; just like it is with all addictions, it will always center on self-justification and rationalization first. I like to offer a little ditty about the gun-owning parents:
Paranoid and fearful, they keep a loaded handgun in the drawer of their bedside table. They have 7 children; one of them shot themselves accidentally and died; they grieved, had a funeral, but then reloaded the gun and put in back in the drawer. Then a month later another child shot herself and died; they had a funeral, reloaded the gun and put it back into the drawer. Then a few months pass and a third child shot himself and died. They repeated the process.
Now, whenever I tell this ditty, everyone (I mean everyone) immediately says something to the effect: get rid of the gun; it's not saving lives, it is killing those the parents were trying to protect with it to begin with! Like it is with guns, start selling hand grenades and watch the death toll skyrocket! Logic says: If you can't buy them you can't use them! It's called logical or reasonable Regulation, and true leaders would have abolished the US 2nd Amendment long ago.
All this is Truth! But then, I'll tell them a similar ditty, only this time, I use a metal weapon that kills more than guns by thousands to one: the Car! Parents will bury their young that died by car; they will drive by car to the funeral and the grave, and then on their way back home, they gas it up, park it, and continue on with it, still as a clear and present danger, especially to teens!
Well, but that's different! We must have a car to exist! And that is exactly what the automobile devotees must and will say; and that is precisely the intended messages, embedded in the millions of commercials targeting the masses of addiction-driven consumer drones, as mindless automatons and consumer machines. I believe the e-book titled Car Cult lays it all out in graphic detail; but I also get why someone would want to avoid such exposure.
Then I ask if they believe no humans survived before the mass production of the automobile, and yet more justifications come out. But as with all dead-end self-justifications that seek to rationalize the irrational, they just get more bizarre sounding, the deeper down that rabbit hole one goes. It's just like with modern right/left politics (I'm apolitical)! But rational solutions abound for those with an open heart and (only then) an open mind.
Streets are for people; it's time we give them back! We should also ban personal cars on the US Interstate system and modify those corridors to build a fleet of passenger elevated systems that are powered by a perpetual solar array, all along those corridors. Replace the current mega heavy diesel powered generators with a "direct from source" system, utilizing much lighter train cars, and shorter runs of train cars, and more of them more frequently. Also, separate passenger from freight to eliminate all those risks.
Personal Electric Vehicles (PEV's) have speed and range limits. But the ridiculously spoiled humans would have to be forced to adapt to a more peaceful lifestyle; the slow movement. That, or we just continue on this path until Earth can no longer sustain mammals. Obviously, at peak oil, if there's not a better plan in place, humans will not be able to produce a fraction of current food production. Guess what happens then? Without grocers or restaurants, where will you drive to?
Ponder a designed living that's car free; and ideas proposed at Strong Towns & Smart Cities Dive & GHSA. Plan out how you're going to live, minus a personal car: That will determine where you work and how/where you live. Show your progeny via lifestyle choices, how much you care for their future on Earth. See the controversial and compelling Car Cult U-Tube Series.
