Title. Genuine question. Intended for people owning cars. That’s all.

Edit: Thank you to everyone pointing out that my comments are rude and that I was being an asshole. I lost sight of the intention of this post. I will stop replying in the same manner.

Edit 2: imma downvote those comments I guess cuz there’s no karma fuck reddit

  • MrZee@lemm.eeEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    Maybe on the more developed end of “rural”. But rural tends to be sparse and require long distance travel. An electric bike would be better than nothing, but it is not a substitute for a car for a lot of rural areas. If you are going 30+ minutes to get to the grocery store, it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer on an e-bike, and you’re not going to have cargo capacity to do a large grocery trip, so you’re going to need to go there much more frequently. And hopefully the roads are safe for biking. And let’s hope the weather is conducive to being able to do hour long bike rides year round.

    • Rocinante@lemmy.oneEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, in rural areas a reliable form of fast transportation is very important if the distance from a hospital is far. Being able to just do with an ebike or regular bike is more a luxury during times of health, but if an emergency happens you have to hope you or someone around you has an actual car.

    • anonymous@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      011·
      1 year ago

      I see where your coming from, but those problems aren’t nearly as prominent as you think they are. Weather can be compensated by casual gear. Cargo bikes can haul practically anything. Getting an electric bike also helps. There are lots of bikes out there, so you can get one optimized for you.

      • MrZee@lemm.eeEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        You also just said

        Nope. I am 15, nice observation. I have lived far away from things before, where driving is the only option. We all agreed we needed to move ASAP, so we weren’t driving half an hour to school every day. So glad I’m riding my bike to school now. Public transport is relevant here, but I’m biking.

        So, the issues aren’t prominent as long as you move out of a rural area?

        • anonymous@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yes, if you live in a poorly mapped out city with car dependent infrastructure, then you’re going to need a car, sorry for the confusion.

          • MrZee@lemm.eeEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Side comment: I just looked at your profile and saw your most recent comment regarding you realizing you came in with a close mindset and now realize that. Good on you! You’re young and learning. I totally get the general “cars bad” mindset. I wish that at least US cities and major suburbs were designed to be livable without cars. Some are, or at least some areas are, of course, but cars and car infrastructure almost always comes first.

            Getting away from needing cars would be awesome and it should become a bigger goal in the US. I don’t disagree with you at all there.

            Keep in mind that the US is BIG and, from an area perspective, a vast majority is rural. Out there, cars really are a necessity. Maybe there are long term solutions to reduce the dependence on cars in rural areas, but I have a hard time imagining what they are. Keep in mind that rural means that there simply isn’t the population density to support public transit because, pretty much by definition, rural areas don’t have centralized locations for people to be picked up at; small numbers of people are going long distances to a variety of places.

            That said, cities and big towns are the “low hanging fruit” for reducing car reliance with by far the largest return on investment.