Image transcript:

Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes) sitting at a lemonade stand, smiling, with a sign that reads, “Trains and micromobility are inevitably the future of urban transportation, whether society wants it or not. CHANGE MY MIND.”

    • Scrof@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Yeah that’s a bold assumption. My bet is on “it’s going to get progressively worse and never better”. I have yet to be proven wrong. Since the day I was born everything’s been enshittening with only inconsequential cosmetic improvements (lol technology, what a joke).

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        My plan is to work from home, be completely self sufficient with minimal transport and do all I can do online.

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Eh, I guess? Partially. I have stores nearby that I can go walking, and WFH so yeah internet reliant, but I’m a programmer so that’s already a given anyway.

            I did say self sufficient with minimal transport though.

            • Blooper@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I live mostly this way. I have an electric car but I live in a very dense urban area and don’t drive much. Looking to get myself an ebike or scooter to use as my main mode of transportation.

            • Agent_of_Kayos@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Yeah…being a programmer, it doesn’t matter if WFH structure falls because around the same time most technology might fall. We just gotta hope that it’s multi-decades away at this point

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Internet infrastructure is best infrastructure humanity made. To be fair, this is only infrastructure entire humanity made.

    • Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.worldOPM
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      1 year ago

      If nothing else, car dependency is fiscally unsustainable. We might go kicking and screaming towards the solution, but eventually people will have no choice but to abandon the financial suicide that is making your city car dependent.

      • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        True, and I wish my city would realize it harder, sooner. On the other hand, I just read an article the other day that claims that the collapse of civilization has begun. A lot of societies throughout history perseverated with maladaptive habits after the local environment changed, and thus collapsed. A lot of them didn’t, though, and I hope that we’ll wise up in time.

        • Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.worldOPM
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          1 year ago

          !collapse@lemmy.ml

          But yeah, honestly, I’m worried myself that our society is starting to unravel if we don’t get our act together. Unmitigated climate catastrophe may well prove to be the greatest disaster in human history, if you count all the wars, famines, genocide it may cause. I sincerely hope it doesn’t turn out so dire, but so far humanity is stubbornly refusing to do anywhere near enough to stop it. Whether that’s civilization-ending or merely really frickin bad remains to be seen, but it’s also worthwhile noting that collapse doesn’t always mean post-apocalyptic; for farmers in ancient Rome around its collapse, life probably didn’t seem all that different day-to-day.

          • Dharma Curious@startrek.website
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            1 year ago

            I’ve thought about that, too. How very rural people way back when may not have known or cared what empire they belonged to. I read years ago about a region France that routinely got double taxed because no one was really sure if they were French or German, and it was just easier to pay your taxes to both collectors than fight it. A society like that, yeah, they may not care so much about the empires collapse. But us? Even in the most rural areas of any ‘western’ country, the difference would likely be huge. No sanitation department, no internet, no electricity. And because, especially in the US, we have never developed a sense of personal responsibility to our communities or any kind of solidarity, we are unlikely to weather that particularly well. There’ll be no spontaneous eruption of communal gatherings and a sense of building a better community. They’ll be bastards hoarding shit and people shooting each other because there’s no one to stop it. :(

            • uis@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              That’s wierd. In country where internet was created(on tax money btw) not everyone gets internet.

          • AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            There’s no getting our act together. We’ve already passed the point of no return. Now we can only try to mitigate how bad it could get.

            I don’t think we will take any serious steps toward that, either… I’m worried we’ll pull the Clathrate trigger in my lifetime

        • Agent_of_Kayos@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          A percentage of people will, like they always do. My pessimistic view is that we just need to see how bad it gets before the pendulum starts swinging back the other way

      • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Let me remind you that there are rural areas where people life in farms and need to drive to the factory they work in, there’s no shuttle bus, no train no nothing, and while isolated factories exist this will still be the case. They can’t really arrange a bus that goes to pick up their employees, since the roundabout would make it more gax expensive and some people live in places where a bus can’t even dream to get in.

        I wish things improved, and that this became a reality for cities, there’s already cities in holland where getting the car in is prohibited, you need to leave it outside the city, but making car dependency fiscally unsustainable is punishing people that can’t have the privilege to work on other stuff. Imagine electrical technitians, they can’t take a bus/train/tram with machinery, even in a city. I’m all in for improvement and punishment for whim driving, but it needs to be regulated well not to fuck again poor people, because factory workers of rural areas aren’t partcularly rich.

        For reference, I live in a mountain area, Europe.

        • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          OP mentioned Urban in their post, City in their comment, why do you need to come in with the “but muh rural” argument?

          • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Because apparently I can’t read.

            Again, for reference, I don’t even own a car, I WFH and life in a town where public transport is excellent, but most of my family members live in the situation I described. Anyway, even though this post is about urban areas, there are plenty comments talking about cars as a whole, and usually policies done to fix car usage, things like gas prices and such, affect everyone, not only urbanites like me.

            • Agent_of_Kayos@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              In a perfect world/scenario…which would never happen…

              If urban centers immediately dropped their reliance on cars and individual transport systems, then there would be more gas to go to rural centers where individual transportation makes more sense (going to the store) or is mandatory (farm and other industrial equipment) making prices drop for rural gas and urban center be more self sufficient and environmentally friendly.

              …one can dream

              • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Urban centers dropping their car reliance isn’t achieved by making it expensive for everyone, but by banning it’s use and increasing the public transport support.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Depends on society. Here in Europe we build more and more railways even though we already have shitloads (compared to US).

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        But build very slowly. Compare to USSR where shitloads of railways were made in 70 years.

        Although “better less, but better”

        • Aux@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well, USSR was a different beast. You can’t build that fast in a democratic society.

          • uis@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            After around 1919 and before Stalin USSR was democratic. And from 80-ies to the end. And democracy ended about 1996. Then shooting parlament from tanks, then Eltsin names his successor, then his successor wins, then removal of gubernator elections in 2002-2003, and everything else.

            And in comparasion USSR was more democratic than empire except Stalin time. Stalin time managed to be even worse.

              • uis@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                You want to say that Russian Empire that was monarchy had more democracy? THAT is delusion.

                Or you want to say Stalin was good? That is delusion too.