What's wrong with cars?

Here are the reasons why cars are bad with their supporting text.

Note

I haven’t found a good place for these resources yet. In the mean time, I’ll put them here.

Resources

A picture that encompasses why cars are bad

Let’s Ban Cars! (Seriously) - YouTube - BritMonkey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSSNlM3Au1A

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/rmbfji/lets_ban_cars_seriously_it_was_posted_hundreds_of/

This is a kinda memey video but deliver all the points well. Cars take up so much space, cause death, cause pollution. There are also actions taken by other countries to try and ban cars.

Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston) - YouTube - Not Just Bikes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxykI30fS54

He talked about how he first noticed how about car dependency is.

At 9:26, if you are too poor to drive, then good luck.

At 14:03, Houston is home to the Katy Freeway, the widest free way in United States. They spent $2.2 billion to widen the highway but traffic got worse. Instead of building better infrastructure for alternative modes of transportation, they doubled down to widen the lanes. This would take away 4 religious buildings, 2 schools, 168 homes, 1067 multifamily units and 331 businesses that employ 25,000 people.

Treat Cars Like Cigs - Slog - The Stranger

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/12/27/64401887/what-would-an-honest-car-commercial-look-like

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/rqfri1/treat_cars_like_cigs/

A lot of good points about why cars are bad. But the point of the article is to not bash on people who opposes decrease car infrastructure. We should reduce the amount of ads instead.

The Pandemic Might Have Redesigned Cities Forever | WIRED

https://www.wired.com/story/the-pandemic-might-have-redesigned-cities-forever

This is also an article that lists out what’s wrong with cars. It also included a section about how other cities are moving away from car-centric infrastructure. A lot of links in this article. I’m sure all of them are good. I just haven’t had the time to review them.

The Death of a Car City

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/1/3/death-of-a-car-city

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/rvb2dt/the_death_of_a_car_city/

This is a good one. It goes through the 5 stages of grief. The first part is the most important part: the roads are bankrupting us.

Transportation For America More highways, more driving, more emissions: Explaining “induced demand” - Transportation For America

https://t4america.org/2021/10/20/say-hello-to-induced-demand/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=f9575ab2-a2d1-4ec8-ae29-039b89c9baca

This is a better article explaining induced demand.

Cost benefit of cycling and driving : fuckcars

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/rw4r80/cost_benefit_of_cycling_and_driving/

This is the picture showing that national economy gains 26 cents per km when people cycle but national economy loses 89 cents per km when people drive.

But since it’s just a picture, there’s no source for it yet so it’s not a really reliable source to use in a email or something.

Passenger capacity on a 3.5m wide city lane : fuckcars

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/rxbfeu/passenger_capacity_on_a_35m_wide_city_lane/

An infographic on how much each mode of transportation carry people with suburban rail being the first and cars being the last.

Chart of the Day: Vehicle Weight vs Road Damage Levels | streets.mn

https://streets.mn/2016/07/07/chart-of-the-day-vehicle-weight-vs-road-damage-levels/#:%7E:text=A%20bicyclist%20would%20have%20to,tenth%20of%20a%20ha'penny

From the image, cars do much more damage than a bicycle. Remember this image. It is referenced a lot when it comes to talking about road infrastructure.

It would take 17,059 trips by bike to equal the damage caused by an average car

The Free Rider Myth - Who Really Pays for the Roads? | Momentum Mag

https://momentummag.com/free-rider-myth/

Cars only pay half of the road costs. Transportation budget is funded by everyone, regardless if you drive or not. They come from property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, etc.

One damning quote:

People who ride bicycles also pay taxes, which means they often pay more into the road system than they cost it. By one estimate, a carfree cyclist would overpay by an average of $250 a year – a few dollars more than the amount the average driver underpays.

These people who rides bicycles are overpaying for roads that they barely damage.

The cheap, green, low-tech solution for the world’s megacities | Financial Times

An eloquently put article on how cities should be built on bicycles.