You ever try taking your new mattress and bed frame on a train?
Always hated that argument for big cars. You buy a new bed/mattress/big furniture like once a year. Delivery is maybe 50 bucks. The extra cost of a car big enough to transport that stuff is in the thousands. Somehow everyone gets upset when confronted with delivery fees while being perfectly fine with dishing out cash for a car. Redo the fucking math.
I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification of the argument
I use my car to transport my bike, surfboard, skis, dog, lawnmower, buy furniture, buy lumber etc for projects, and more. It just can’t be beat in terms of convenience. For repairs around the house, gardening, etc, it’s a must-have.
A 1998 CR-V does all that and it cost me $2500. Bomb-proof b20b also, I love it. I don’t think you can beat that in terms of convenience.
I’m all for trains and buses (electric busses would be great!) but the utility wanes when lots of people bring stuff. I used to have a 45 minute bus commute, and the bus had racks for bikes. I’d bring my bike to do the 5 mile trip to and from bus stops at both ends. But lots of people wanted to do that, and you’d have to be early in line to get your bike on the bus, otherwise you had to wait for the next one. I can’t imagine people trying to bring 2x4s or potted plants on the bus! Or their pets, another issue altogether.
So you’ll buy an electric car for some 20k+ once that car breaks down to haul your frequent furniture and lumber purchases?
Because the discussion isn’t about ‘I have a car and won’t exchange it for a train’ but ‘moving transportation onto trains instead of electric cars would be a lot more beneficial as the future of transportation’
While I understand and agree with your sentiment, there are a lot of cases where delivery simply isn’t offered. Also, I’d appreciate a less agressive tone as we are intending to have civil discussion.
I agree that public transportation, infrastructure , and zoning laws need a massive overhaul to promote more walkable and pedestrian-friendly cities, but it’s not realistic to eliminate privately owned cars entirely. They will always exist, so it’s best to ensure these cars are as efficient as possible.
Funnily Ive got downvoted for bringing the same argument against replaceable phone batteries in another thread. Like, just pay a tech once every few years to do it for you.
How is it the same argument? A phone with a replaceable battery isn’t more expensive than one whitouth a replaceable battery.
That’s not a valid response to “spend more on trains (public trans, whatever)”. No one is suggesting that any one thing be all things – except car folk. Walk, bike, bus, subway, light rain, taxis, rentals cars, personal cars, personal trucks, commercial trucking, limousines, trains… all of it. Varied and specific to need. Diversity and choice.
No but I’ve never owned a vehicle that could handle a mattress and frame. I assume there’d still be delivery options. If it’s not new then there are U-Haul rentals and movers still. It’s not like most people need a vehicle that size. Yes I know some do and there are always edge cases but having a vehicle that size for moving something large once every X years shouldn’t be a deterrent to mass transit.
I forgot 100% of the population live in houses like that.
Yes trains would never work for anyone, anywhere.
80% of the population or more live in an area urban enough to receive deliveries of furniture.
![[meme] Trains are 100000x easier to electrify and automate than cars, so why does everyone keep talking about electric and driverless cars?(lemmy.world)](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/11c37658-7c32-4cc2-b12c-6ced348bd09d.png){kind=link}