You think governments ever want to give up that sweet, sweet revenue from drivers? Come on. How do you think they subsidize all the public transportation boondoggles?
Especially in NJ where substantial percentages of those boondoggles are skimmed off the top and shared with politicians.
When EVs were just toys for the rich it didn’t matter. Now that some normies drive them too, no way they’re going to lose all that revenue. Anyone who thought this would last doesn’t understand how government works.
We are getting off topic so I will leave it here: what drivers pay in gas taxes, registration, etc doesn’t nearly pay for road work and expansion. Every form of transportation is heavily publicly subsidized.
Agreed all transportation gets some subsidies. But public transportation gets more, and used by waaaaay fewer people.
Feds spend $70b annually on transit vs $50B on roads. Not even close. And when you account for how few people use transit vs drive it’s a massive subsidy for transit users, paid for by drivers.
Which was my original point. They need this tax revenue from drivers to keep the boondoggle transit systems operating. Without drivers funding it, no subway system would exist in America. EVs will be taxed as much as ICE cars to keep the scam going.
Not really. It “sucks” because nobody but the poor wants to take the bus or be crammed inside a subway car with 100 people. The reason Europeans take it is because it’s incredibly expensive to own and operate cars. Plus cities have made it next to impossible to park anywhere inside urban cores.
They force people to use it. Give them a fair choice and nobody would choose transit over driving.
In the “big” city closest to me they spent a fortune on new buses and redoing bus stations. Made a big deal out of it, how it would cut down on car use blah blah blah. In the end the buses are empty and one more boondoggle crated with tax payer dollars.
See also bike lanes which nobody uses.
All else being equal private transportation is always the option taken by those who can afford it. Nobody wants to wait for a bus in winter or the dead of summer. Have fun carrying groceries on a bus, lol. It’s all so absurd.
I’ve lived in Sydney. I had a car while I was there. I lived in the suburb. I still use public transport for some places. Obviously going to the CBD is easier with public transport, however I also prefer to use their public transport for going to beach (no mess in the car, no parking issues) n hiking (no need to go back where I park the car) as well.
Public transport is much cheaper per passenger per mile - if built to any non-US standard. I lived in London, took the tube and the bus regularly, like any person. I’ve also lived in NY for two years, had no problem getting groceries and cooking.
I have a feeling he has never spent significant time in Northeastern central cities. The idea of all 11 million daily trips on the NYC subway happening by car is absurd.
I’ll also note the link I posted above shows state and local spending of $205 billion a year on roads for cars. And of course, owning a car is expensive, which is why this site exists.
You hauling a weeks worth of groceries on streets of NY for a family of 5, two of which play football and eat 2x normal human? Or you talking buying groceries during bachelor life?
Guess what? People in New York and London also have families and play sports too
The difference is that cities designed to transport people, not cars, first and foremost have grocery stores which can cater to both pedestrian and vehicle based visitors. My local supermarket in London was located underneath a neighboring apartment, with separate garage entrances for both public access and private parking, and free EV charging for shoppers.
Your lifestyle also changes when cities are properly designed - we purchased smaller quantities of high quality food 2-3x/week, rather than a massive Costco haul every week. You can really tell the difference w/ the quality and flavor of tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, butter of a JIT supply chain. When grocery store is just a 5 min walk away, you’re less concerned about massive hauls.
So yeah, not every place needs or expects to haul a week’s grocery at once.
“Properly designed” is some nonsense. Any city that fits your example is a city that was booming long before your average person could have a car or even before cars existed. How do you design for something that doesn’t exist yet?
Of course NY and London are very walkable, that was the only option for the millions of people that lived there before the 1900s.
So that is a no. I have family in NY and CT. They still work in NY, but moved out to have a family. They grew out of the 24/7 city life as they got older.
Most cities before the 1900s were designed exactly like NY and London. If you look at a different London - London, Ontario, Canada, you’ll see that many of the pedestrianization was bulldozed in favor of prioritizing cars over people. London Ontario used to look like London UK before all the auto plants were set up. Similar stories happened across America, in Pittsburgh, Detroit, any city which had a very large auto lobby.
I know these historical facts are a hard sell to a car crowd, but you can skim through this video and see the changes cities have made, both from pedestrian-focused transport to car-focused transport and vice versa starting around the 7:30 mark.
We can design streets to accommodate more pedestrians or more cars. Clearly this forum prefers driving over walkable cities, but it’s certainly not the only option there is. Many post-Soviet countries like Poland, Lithuania, Romania have gotten rid of car-centric concrete megastructures in favor of walkable streets similar to Western Europe. Best example would be Wroclaw.
I think it makes no sense to design cities the way US/canada do - 1-2 hour round trip commutes in traffic, then get home and hit the gym, instead of walking/biking to and from work, seeing friends, socializing etc and taking Ozempic/Wegovy on the side - but maybe I’m the weird one.
Edit: bonus photo of before and after in Łódź, Poland
Not sure if you guys have tried any ride sharing services, but EV car sharing services are a perfect compliment to city living. If you take a visit, try Revel in NY or Zipcar flex in London, they are one-way rentals with essentially park anywhere you like rules. Never gonna take off in the US, but it’s great.
