I know the demographics around here, so I know everyone’s just going to put “nothing lol”, but please understand what I’m asking first.

I’m physically incapable of driving a car. I stand to gain immeasurably from a world that didn’t assume everyone owned one. Having loved-ones with respiratory issues aggravated by car exhaust has made me very aware of the health issues surrounding the burning of fossil fuels, and having to navigate sidewalkless suburban stroads on a regular basis and juggle poorly funded public transit has made it very clear to me that pedestrians are second class citizens. I could go on and on about the mess cars have made of urban planning, and the number of jobs I couldn’t take because they required driving, but I digress.

In short, I hate cars just as much as the rest of you. But I’m also conscious that a lot of other people feel differently. What does widespread car ownership enable that would be difficult or impossible otherwise?

As an American I’m familiar with the cultural aura that surrounds the automobile. One of the early episodes of Mythbusters explained this pretty well while digging into the folklore surrounding a particular car-related urban legend. Cars represent freedom and self determination, two qualities highly prized in American society. You can go where you want when you want, without relying on schedules and routes mandated by public transit[1].

Looking at more tangible things, I suppose hauling a bunch of stuff from point A to point B would be hard without a car.

But what else am I missing?

  1. Ignoring the fact you can only go where there are roads, and someone has to build and maintain those roads. ↩︎

  • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
    2·
    2 hours ago

    Bruh you seem really stuck on this idea of “dormant physical athleticism” whatever that means.

    Let me break this down for you, the human body has muscles, these are like motors for moving bits of flesh and bone around. Like motors, the amount of physical energy they output changes based on the energy that gets input. Since humans don’t really have control of the chemical energy flow to these muscles, the way you can change that is by pushing these muscles to their limits, and as you keep doing that these limits start increasing.

    Its really quite awesome, because unlike most things in life, your muscle gain directly correlates to the amount of work you put in. Its one of the few things you can directly control!

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
      11·
      1 hour ago

      “Whatever that means”, and then you discuss exactly what that means, so you know exactly what that means. You’re playing games. This is the point that I shoud peace out, but I’m a sucker for explaining things. One last time.

      Ok let’s start with your 2 miles round trip. Meaning 1 mile one way. That’s nothing. My high schol was 3.5 miles, one way. My college was 11.6 miles, one way. My work was 9 miles, one way. And you have to do this twice a day. Five times a week, maybe more. After work stuff 2-3 times a week was another 3 miles. Means the distance back home was 12 miles. And that’s not even what I would call long, that’s normal suburb to downtown.

      And you were freaking out about 1 mile? And you’re now bragging about 2.5 miles after years of training? (5 miles sounds total, so that’s 2.5 miles one way).

      Do you see the issue?

      I’m saying the average adult can not do that on a normal bike. On a regular basis. Come hell or high water. When you’re kinda sick but not ready to call in sick. All those day to day conditions.

      And that’s just distance. Now consider time. You don’t have the ability to go through a leisurely slow pace. This is life, you gottta get to work and get back home in a timely matter. Such is life. You gotta maintain a fairly high speed.

      So no the average adult is not capable of that. Limits are not infinite. People max out allllllllllll the time. Doesn’t matter how much I train I will never be able to do an Ironman (can’t wait for you to misinterpret that one), because there are limits to what the body the average adult can do.

      Ok I’m out.