A third of Americans don't drive. So why is our transportation so car-centric?
A third of Americans don't drive. So why is our transportation so car-centric?
Anna Zivarts explains how reimagining transportation could benefit non-drivers and the climate.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, approximately one-third of the nation’s residents don’t have driver’s licenses. In her 2024 book “When Driving is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency,” disability advocate Anna Zivarts argues that not only is America’s car-centric infrastructure harmful to the climate, it also fails to meet the everyday needs of many Americans.
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I drive as well, and I hate it every time. I drive because I "have too".
If there was quality rail, subway, tram, and regional bus service that was within a five minute walk I would choose it any day.
There something about being chauffeured around that so much more relaxing and stress free.
Unfortunately, the car centric argument always seems to be more public transit would take away from people desire to drive, but on the contrary it would make driving less stressful. Less cars "in your way" or on the road and local streets.
Commuting is all about avoiding crowds. I love driving, I just hate traffic. It's so mainstream so all the joy is gone.
Trains are amazing when it's not packed. You can look outside, have some drink, use your phone without getting motion sick.
Busses are pretty wild, not my favourite. If you see a bus in Belgium, do not play a dare with them. You will die.
E-bike is amazing if you have a road without cars. Which is what I do now. 28,7 km a day. Decent exercise too. The off road part is pretty fun. Bit of a game to be honest.
Honest question; how is an E-Bike decent exercise? I've never used one before.
It says I burn 450 calories a day for 28,7 km. So when I ordered the bike, I started going to work with a manual bike just to get used to it.
The difference is clear. My knees hurt for 2 weeks, my quads were lightly sore the whole time. When I arrived, my back would be wet from sweat.
But I would be a lot slower, I'd be taking a lot of breaks between pedalling. The hills would take a lot of energy, like it's a squatting set.
When doing cardio, it's important to be consistent.
The bike I'm using, never tried any other e-bike, is the R&M Multicharger2 GT Rohloff.
I'm always on the automatic mode. With the system that it has, it adjusts how much power it assists with.
The bike weighs like 30 kg.
Going up hill is very easy, it automatically shifts to a lot of assistance. Then it stops doing so.
Braking doesn't feel like a pain in the ass anymore, so it's a lot safer for pedestrians. On a manual bike you'd hate braking because getting started is a huge waste of energy. With this thing, you just shoot ahead quickly and then it stops assisting until you get in higher gears.
You can handle the bike quite well, as you can use your pedalling to adjust the speed. You can easily go at walking speed and you easily can go to max assisted speed or in-between.
It's a lot easier to choose your own speed than my wife's la souris scooter.
For the burning calories part, I asked yesterday le chat mistral why. It said that because it helps you stay at top speed for the whole ride, you take no breaks, it just keeps you consistently into the same burning mode.
I often go at 26 to 29 km per hour. It only assists to 25 km per hour. If it's a flat road, it will minimally assist. The bike is 30 kg, I'm 90 kg. It's still a good workout. When I get tired, I can keep pedalling, I just go to 25 km per hour at minimal assistance. Until I can go faster again.
With a manual bike I would have to really just lower the gears and rest up for a while, dramatically lowering my intensity and speed.
Hope this helps
OMG I'm such an idiot. I thought e-bike was like an e-scooter. Thank you so much for clearing that up!
Nah, like for an e-motorbike there's like 5 KW needed as battery and it lasts like 60 km. (The vehicle weighs like 120 kg) and goes usually like 75 km/h.
While my e-bike only has a 0,75 KW battery and lasts 90-100 km.
The pedalling lowers the amount of energy needed by quite a bit.
@k0e3 @Wanpieserino depends on the type, but in Europe it's only legally an ebike if the battery only assists pedalling - no throttle, no working if you're not pedalling - and cuts out after 15.5mph/25kph (anything more is a motorbike). So it takes the edge off hills, helps at junctions etc, but you're still going to have to work while on it. https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/fitness-and-training/electric-bike-fitness
Also it takes away that initial "ugh I can't be bothered, I'll drive" so you end up cycling more in general.
5 minutes is small even for many transit centric countries. Try 10.