r/fuckcars 17d ago

Meta We're Looking to Expand our Mod Team!

8 Upvotes

We're looking for new moderators in all time zones. No previous moderation experience is necessary, but helpful. Patience and an ability to communicate are the most paramount.

Apply to be a Moderator here.


r/fuckcars Jan 06 '22

Please read this if you're new to this sub Welcome to /r/Fuckcars

4.9k Upvotes

Updated: April 6, 2022

Welcome to /r/fuckcars. It's safe to say that we're strongly dissatisfied with cars and car-dominated urban design. If that's you, then we share in your frustration. Some, or perhaps many of us, still have cars but abhor our dependence on them for many reasons.

There are nuances to the /r/fuckcars discussion that you should be aware of, generally:

In any case, please observe the community rules and keep the discussion on-topic.

The Problem - What's the problem with cars?

please help by finding quality sources

This is the fundamental question of this sub, isn't it?

  • Pollution -- Cars are responsible for a significant amount of global and local pollution (microplastic waste, brake dust, embodiment emissions, tailpipe emissions, and noise pollution). Electric cars eliminate tailpipe emissions, but the other pollution-related problems largely remain.
  • Infrastructure (Costs. An Unsustainable Pattern of Development) -- Cars create an unwanted economic burden on their communities. The infrastructure for cars is expensive to maintain and the maintenance burden for local communities is expected to increase with the adoption of more electric and (someday) fully self-driving cars. This is partly due to the increased weight of the vehicles and also the increased traffic of autonomous vehicles.
  • Infrastructure (Land Usage & Induced Demand) -- Cities allocate a vast amount of space to cars. This is space that could be used more effectively for other things such as parks, schools, businesses, homes, and so on. We miss out on these things and are forced to pile on additional sprawl when we build vast parking lots and widen roads and highways. This creates part of what is called induced demand. This effect means that the more capacity for cars we add, the more cars we'll get, and then the more capacity we'll need to add.
  • Independence and Community Access -- Cars are not accessible to everyone. Simply put, many people either can't drive or don't want to drive. Car-centric city planning is an obstacle for these groups, to name a few: children and teenagers, parents who must chauffeur children to and from all forms of childhood activities, people who can't afford a car, and many other people who are unable to drive. Imagine the challenge of giving up your car in the late stages of your life. In car-centric areas, you face a great loss of independence.
  • Safety -- Cars are dangerous to both occupants and non-occupants, but especially the non-occupants. As time goes on cars admittedly become better at protecting the people inside them, but they remain hazardous to the people not inside them. For people walking, riding, or otherwise trying to exercise some form of car-free liberty cars are a constant threat. In car-centric areas, streets and roads are optimized to move cars fast and efficiently rather than protect other road users and pedestrians.
  • Social Isolation -- A combination of the issues above produces the additional effect of social isolation. There are fewer opportunities for serendipitous interactions with other members of the public. Although there may be many people sharing the road with you (a public space), there are some obvious limitations to the quality of interaction one can have through metal, glass, and plastic boxes.

👋 Local Action - How to Fix Your City

IMPORTANT: This is a solvable problem. Progress can happen and does happen. It comes incrementally and with the help of voices just like yours. Don't limit yourself to memes and Reddit -- although, raising awareness online does help.

Check out this perspective from a City Council Member: Here's How to Fix Your City

(more)

A Not-So-Quick Note for Car Hobbyists and Passionate Drivers

This can be a contentious issue at times. The sub's name is /r/fuckcars, which can cause some feelings of conflict and alienation for people who see the problems of too many cars while still being passionate about them. I'll quote the community summary.

Discussion about the harmful effects of car dominance on communities, environment, safety, and public health. Aspiration towards more sustainable and effective alternatives like mass transit and improved pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

Your voice is still welcome here. Consider the benefits of getting bored, stressed, unskilled, or inattentive drivers off the road. That improves your safety and reduces congestion. Additionally, check out these posts from others on this sub:

Discord

There is an unofficial Discord server aggregating related discussions from the low-car/no-car/fuckcars community. Although it is endorsed by the /r/fuckcars mods, please keep in mind that it's not an official /r/fuckcars community Discord server.

Join Link: https://discord.gg/2QDyupzBRW

Helpful Resources

If you've just joined this sub and want to learn more about the issues behind car-centric urban design there are a great number of resources you can access. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please feel free to add your more helpful resources in the comments.

👉 Moved to the wiki

Shameless Plugs for Community Building

happy to add more links related to community building here

👉 Contribute to the Safety Data Thread

Change Logging

April 7, 2022 - Fix markdown for compatibility. Thank you /u/konsyr

April 6, 2022 - Reorder sections (Thank you, /u/Monseiur_Triporteur and /u/PilferingTeeth). Add plug for data/supporting info request. Link to Strong Towns growth example.

April 3, 2022 - Add note for car hobbyists

April 2, 2022 - Add nuance notes and redirect readers to resources area of the wiki.

March 28th, 2022 - Grammatical pass, more changes to follow.

February 9th, 2022 - Adding links that redirect readers from this post into community-maintained wiki resources, thank /u/javasgifted and /u/Monsiuer_Triporteur

January 20th, 2022 - Added the Goodreads list and seeded the FAQ section. Thank you /u/javasgifted, and /u/kzy192

January 9th, 2022 - I'm updating this onboarding message with feedback from the mods and the community. Thank you, all, for keeping the discussion civil and contributing additional resources.

Cheers. Stay safe out there.


r/fuckcars 8h ago

Positive Post Juan Carlos Muñoz, the Minister of Transportation of Chile, takes the subway and buses daily on his commute. When the people in charge take public transport, you truly see changes.

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3.6k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 15h ago

Positive Post Wildflowers are the next evolution in grassy trams

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7.0k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 4h ago

Satire Attention Patriots

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728 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 7h ago

Carbrain Danish exchange student in USA arrested for walking home after drinking two beers

1.4k Upvotes

Wouldn't let me crosspost. I came across this submission in a certain legal subreddit and thought you would all "enjoy" this.

Apparent it's a crime in Iowa to walk home after having consumed alcohol. It's his first time in the US and he's there as an exchange student. On the night before going back to Denmark, he was invited to a bar to get a couple of "farewell beers" with some of his fellow students. After having two beers in the bar, he decided to just walk the 600 yards as he couldn't get an Uber. College police stopped him as he was walking home. They asked him if he had consumed any alcohol, to which he said yes..."two beers". He was immediately arrested, and spent the night in the local (20 minutes away from where he studied) jail. He was released the next day, but told to meet in court some days (weeks?) later...he would receive anything ranging from a $200 fine to 30 days in jail. He didn't want to miss his flight back to Denmark, so he did not show up in court... So.. My question is: will him not showing up in court in Iowa prevent him from entering the USA in the future?

We aren't joking when we say drunk driving is basically encouraged in the US, especially in the more rural areas where the simple act of walking is considered to be suspicious.


r/fuckcars 8h ago

Meme They need to be updated to brush off water?

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1.5k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 14h ago

Arrogance of space The illusion of distance

3.2k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 4h ago

This is why I hate cars Almost all of this could be done on public transit (not oc)

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525 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 8h ago

Meme Avg driver iq

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916 Upvotes

Got it from r/englishlearning


r/fuckcars 9h ago

Rant cARs ArE GoOd FOr BUsinESs

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503 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 12h ago

Before/After The Taiwan government demolished sidewalks because of vehicle accidents.Kinmen Bridge.

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780 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 8h ago

Positive Post Are we posting grassy tramways?

243 Upvotes

My only photo/video of a pleasant ride from the airport into Edinburgh this past May.


r/fuckcars 18h ago

Positive Post Sydney showing the world how it's done!

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1.5k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 8h ago

Infrastructure gore La is a wasted opportunity

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238 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1h ago

Question/Discussion Proof that it's not cities that are loud, cars are.

• Upvotes

This is one of the busiest streets in my local city, empty due to it being Christmas day morning(I work nights, hence being out at this time).


r/fuckcars 12h ago

Rant Shouldn’t the fact that cities are more expensive be enough to justify that walkability is desirable?

266 Upvotes

Think of the most expensive and desirable housing in America, and the first places that come to mind are places like manhattan and San Francisco, especially in the more walkable areas

I’ve noticed even within my city (Boston) that if something is close to a square with transit, the price skyrockets. Comparatively, go not even 1 mile away, and the price drops like a rock. I see some places at 800k near transit and a comparable place not even going for half of that a little outside of transit

The least expensive places are generally very car dependent. Somewhere like Houston is quite affordable per square foot compared to Boston. I was even looking in Southern California and found some decent stuff if you give up any semblance of walkability

What that tells me is that the demand for these places is significantly lower than supply. People WANT walkability


r/fuckcars 2h ago

Question/Discussion Felt like this belongs here

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33 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 15h ago

Meme Comic by argentinian cartoonist Quino

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333 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 9h ago

Meme I had a concept of getting rid of 3 streast to make into green space because this city has an average of 1 car per minute go into a road so no point in having thees roads and the parking lots never get used, and someone had the most 200iq comment in reddit history

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103 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 12h ago

Meme Part of my ongoing efforts to rebrand urbanist ideas as patriotic and pro-freedom (which they unironically are)

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159 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 10h ago

Before/After redesigned streets into parks for Jackson Mississippi

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95 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 12h ago

Rant New York City refuses to enforce its own laws governing large trucks

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149 Upvotes

Extra large trucks are putting extreme weight on our bridges. New York City refuses to enforce the laws regarding the weight and truck dimensions. It puts a strain on our infrastructure and causes the city to constantly repave streets more than it otherwise would need to.


r/fuckcars 7h ago

Satire Popular vlogger in my country (BucharestBikeTraffic) dressed as Santa Claus and stopped drivers going on the bike lane

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43 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 3h ago

Infrastructure porn Will the Parramatta Tram go back in time if it hits 88kph?

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16 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 12h ago

Infrastructure gore How Indian Cities Failed Public Transport | A Quint Deep Dive

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79 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 3h ago

Question/Discussion Does the USA have lower speed limits around schools for pick up and drop off times?

11 Upvotes

Does the USA have lower speed limits around schools during pick up and drop off times?

E.g. in places like Australia the roads around schools are limited to approx 20mph. In the morning and afternoon.

Is this common in the USA and if not. Why not?