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This summer, my car wasn't worth repairing anymore and I decided to try living without one for a while.
And well, as it turns out...
...does actually work wonders. I just had to be forced to do it consistently.
Except I completely missed another factor:
Christmas Eve rolled around, my dad picked me up from the train station. It was just a ten minute drive home, but of course, some asshat had to tailgate us. My dad pretty much just routinely became angry.Which I get. That shit used to stress me out, too.
But well, used to. I had not experienced that level of stress for multiple months. I felt like some monk, checking in on what the normal people were dealing with.And man, I did not like what I saw...
Love this, great job! The lower stress level since I take the train for longer journeys and the bike for shorter ones is increasing the quality of life so much.
And then I have to drive a car every three weeks... Insane what some people habe to deal with every day. I feel so sorry for them.
Absolutely. If you can bike, it's amazing. We went mostly car free for our last 6 months in the US. It was both wonderful and horrible. There are so many places it's just not safe to go on a bike, but not being in a car reduces your stress levels so much it's hard to imagine.
i live in finland, we have bike lanes everywhere. it's often shorter and faster to use an e-bike if you own one, especially during rush hour. but the new problem is that dumb people have bikes too! i get even angrier on a bike than behind a wheel.
We are trying to add more bike lanes to city centers in places in Canada at the cost of existing car lanes.
I use to bike everywhere as a young teen in my rural area but once I had access to a car those days were left behind me.
The issue is many people commute daily in from the suburbs over a hour away (up to 120kms or like up to the distance of Hanko to Helsinki) by highway, other roads, and biking these long distances isn't as feasible for those that live outside the city cores which so many do. In the East many drive up to 2 hours each way due to traffic conditions.
It's a huge challenge to rework the suburbian sprawl to the affordable housing in the outlying areas.
In North America we don't think anything of driving 4 hours for a road trip on a weekend. I think that could mean going through a few countries in Europe and often we haven't even left a state or province after 8 hours of driving.
In the west the transit system has vast distances its trying to cover for a lot less people than in the east. It's overloaded often and there's not enough of it in many places. It's a tricky issue with not enough population condensed into a smaller area.
The suggestion of 15 minute cities is viewed as evil oversight by government by some of the car culture people in the rural areas. While it would make more sense to have people living closer to their higher paying jobs many just can't get use to this type of thinking outside of the city cores which many left decades ago for the promise of safety in suburbia.
During covid it was proven working from home is a pretty good option for many so that is a partial solution, however many companies have called these workers back to the offices and the congestion has returned.
Then there is the issue of the homeless in many of the city cores and the rampant bike theft.
For me I do wonder coming from a wet most of the time in winter Vancouver how those that commute by bike in the rain stay dry?
i value my time so much i could never accept a job from 120 km away, or really anything over 20 km or 20 mins by car. and biking in the rain ain't that bad, you can get all kinds of waterproof clothing. personally i find it easier to just get wet and let it dry off in school or work. it's a horrible thought but you get used to it pretty easily, though i wouldn't do that if i had to commute for longer than 15 mins.
That's awesome! I wish I could do that. I quit a fairly well paying job because I can't stand driving in this overpopulated shit hole I live in adding 3+hours to my day and now I'm a factory schmuck so I have to drive some distance just to get to work anyway.
Tried learning some forms of development so I could try to work remotely as that seems to be the only way to really dump your car, but my dumbass brain finds no interest in anything development related... I'm not sure if I hate my brain or driving more lol
If people tailgate me like assholes i just slow down more and have a lil giggle.
I used to do that, but then my mom was in the ER and I kinda wanted to get there quickly and someone decided to play that game with me. I just get out of the way now.
Yes we never really know what someone else is up to. Often they can be straight up A-holes, but there are those in emergency situations.
When driving especially my truck and camper many were confused why I pulled over so often to let vehicles by on 2 lane roads. I slowed down in passing sections to manage traffic behind me safely to pass. They were expecting people to hold them up as it is everyone else for themselves especially when passing lanes come and the slow pokes only speed up for those. The worst are those that ride in the passing lane without moving over and get into the I'm going to show them and block them in.
I loved driving down in the states with several lanes to the highway with lanes for every speed. I could pick a lane and not hold up people that wanted to go faster than the 80 miles/hr in Texas. 80 m/hr is pretty fast for a loaded truck and camper so I was relieved I didn't need to hold up people in these situations especially people like me in my Volvo 850 T5 that have places to go!
Just go around... Tailgaters are trash, if anyone is creating a dangerous situation by following that close, i couldn't care if their entire family is in the ER. Putting other people in danger is not okay.
Sure, lemme just pass you on the right and then cut you off to get back over while you delude yourself into thinking you're not creating the unsafe situation by refusing to follow the god damned law and fucking yield. Asshole.
I assume you're saying just go around on the left, because you're driving slow in the middle lane. Correct?
I mean, I've also done that at times, but it just happens so often around here. You basically can't drive more than a few minutes on a road without having someone tailgating you...