

Dude, Where's Our Car ? - rams
http://shareable.net/blog/dude-wheres-our-car

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Tichy
Personally I hate cars and consider it a luxury to be able to get by without
one. Living in the suburbs and going everywhere by car sounds like hell to me.

I think in the future it will seem odd that we give so much space to the
ugliness and pollution caused by cars. Just as it seems odd to us that people
just used to dump their shit on the streets.

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robryan
Really depends where you live, in some places it's not really practical to get
around everywhere you need to go without a car, either that or it takes a
large amount of time longer. For example my girlfriends would take about 2
hours to get to with a combination of trains and a walk yet takes me about 20
minutes to drive.

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kscaldef
How long does it take to bike? I find that often the issue is the infrequency
or inconvenience of public transit routes, not that there's any inherent
obstacle to traveling without a car.

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durin42
Bikes aren't always a viable replacement - my parents travel with large (up to
100 pounds) instruments. Also, bikes are frequently a poor idea in inclement
weather, making them non-ideal for things like transit to work if you've got a
reasonable distance to travel. If I ride my bike to work, it's 15 miles - I
won't bother in the rain. It'd be slower than any of my public transit
options, and considerably less safe.

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kscaldef
You'd be surprised how much weight you can transport on a bike with
appropriate gearing and a trailer. I'm not sure what your public transit
options are, but unless I've got a straight-shot light-rail route to where I'm
going or it's really hilly, biking is almost always faster than public transit
for me.

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kulkarnic
I wonder if people are missing the bigger point here- this isn't just about
selling your car, it's about understanding your real needs and living within
them.

Few people have the courage to do this. Fewer still will resist going back to
their old over-indulgent ways (spring water et al) once times are good again.

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mbubb
I agree there is a virtue to living within ones means. Having as small a
'footprint' as possible - carbon or otherwise.

I probably first entertained this idea after reading translations of Buddhist
texts or things like Merton's "Saying of the Desert Fathers". But for much of
my life this was a fuzzy idea like most liberal thoughts something to declaim
with out really applying. In my mind it took the form of a clean aesthetic -
clean, Zen-inspired, Danish modernist work and living spaces. (Which couldnt
be farther from the current reality of a 1000sq' apartment with my wife and
two boys.)

When I first became conscious of GNU/FSF and Open Source this became a bit
more concrete. Before I was able to get Linux working on whatever hardware I
could find, it was interesting to me because of its economical and simple
design which lent itself to self-reliance and control.

I've tried in little ways to wean myself of a certain style of spending/
consumption. Less Starbucks, double edged safety razors instead of plastic,
public transit and walking instead of car - but I am far from an example to
anyone.

But the idea that "less is better than more" would almost seem anti-American
up until the past few years. To me it always felt right. So many of our
illnesses in the US are ones of over consumption - petroleum, hydrogenated
oils, corn syrup, etc. It is hard for me to say if this is merely a aesthetic
choice or also an ethical one. It seems to me that it is but I have a hard
time formulating a convincing argument. I am not sure myself.

The impact of less and less consumption could hit the service industry and
further reduce jobs. If we really lived within our means what would result?

On a tangent I saw a fun movie last night with James Cogburn and Rod Steiger -
"Duck, You Sucker!" also called "Fist full of Dynamite" in Italian. Sergio
Leone direction and Morricone score. Much of it corny and implausible but fun
nevertheless. Steiger plays a semi-literate Mexican peasant who at one point
blurts out "revolutions are started by those who read and the ones who dont
read suffer through them..."

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gorenflo
I'm torn on the whole car thing. On one hand, I'm a born suburbanite who grew
up with a car and have had one nearly my entire adult life. One the other
hand, they are expensive and complicated and getting more so by the minute. I
really don't want all that electronic baloney on my car. A car that relies on
software - hmm. Not so sure about that. I'm looking for similar mobility and
convenience offered by a car with less complication and expense. I wish
carsharing was more widely available.

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kscaldef
motorcycle / scooter? Or just a bike with panniers?

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gorenflo
yeah, bike. should use it more.

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mcantelon
Cycling culture is on the rise. Go to a place like Tokyo and you'll see men in
suits biking, women in high heels biking, etc. There are massive bike parking
lots and a wide array of bicycle magazines catering to different lifestyles.

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rdl
I still don't understand the hyperfocus on cost savings without looking to
increasing income.

For a startup, saving costs allows you more time to try to develop product-
market fit and thus increase income. In the long run I'd far prefer a $10m
revenue, $1m costs business to a $100k revenue, $10k costs business, assuming
I have the same percentage ownership.

Same thing with life -- if I can make much more money by living in a place
like SF or NYC, it's more tempting than living in the midwest and making much
less. iPods still cost the same in NYC and rural Iowa.

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Mz
There's a recession on. For many people, cutting costs is _immediately_ do-
able but making more money (ie getting another job after you lost yours) is
proving not to be. You have to survive until that new job comes around.

