30/01/25

"Why don't you drive?"

I will expand upon this entry and update. Currently, I do not have the spoons to write at the length required.

Read Maia’s blog post, anarchism starts in the now: hope for a better future. At work, writing a diary between calls was rather frustrating, but it keeps my brain more active than scrolling a phone.

Have a lot queued on “Watch Later”, current events paired with alternate self-improvement, and web development, or rather, strategic under development. De-evolution of tech alongside literal life-death cycles of physical mediums (DVD/CD) within my lifetime. When educating myself on current events, I understand being able to distract myself from conflict is a privilege.

Topics that interested me this week:

Adobe, streaming and subscription based services, and why they (can) fail.
The integration of AI and “removing the middleman regarding labour/intelligence”
Anti-Car: Environmental infrastructure, and architecture that favors products not people.
How advertising has changed over the decades.
The “scroll films” of Netflix, what does it mean when they are the most viewed on the platform?
Aesthetics and overconsumption: why trends, often in conjunction with brands, love the “core” (featuring their Tumblr beginnings).

Car-free movement

Since my site is public, I type with hesitancy about not wanting to drive. I work in the automobile industry, a common question at my workplace is, “Why don’t you (want to) drive?”. I covered this question on the podcast, but there are a multitude of reasons. The most acceptable answer for most people is that I’m disabled, but cars can be modified to be much more accessible, which is a good thing for those that want to drive. I have nothing against people wanting to drive, or those that do (that would be silly), I don’t need to list the argument for driving a car. Travelling long distances for work commitments, needing transportation for emergencies, family, or accessibility etc. You’ve been told those already. For me, there are many issues within our infrastructure at large that are given the blanket solution of vehicles to “solve” them, leaving those problems untouched as a result.

Due to most knowing about the environmental impact of vehicles, I will not harp on about that here. I was confused about why using public transport seems to be an indicator of wealth, but seeing how cars are used as a status symbol based on make/model (I could rant about this too) need I say more? Whenever a conversation about my decision to be car-free floats into conversation I’m perceived as a hippie.

Urban planning is becoming increasingly car centric. Over 76.67 million passenger cars were sold globally in 2023, including both electric and non-electric vehicles. This represented an approximate growth of 5.2% compared to 2022 when 72.86 million passenger cars were sold (source). It should be convenient for you to use paths to get a coffee or groceries. These paths themselves are not always accessible for wheelchair users, with potholes, signs and poles blocking space, lack of ramps and rails, enough width/space to turn and safe areas to cross streets. Depending on location, some areas such as older buildings or rural sites were not made with this in mind due to historical factors. From what I gather in the US, cities are becoming unwalkable, favouring vehicles instead (Dangerous by Design 2024 - Smart Growth America). Who is funding this and why are these choices being made? Who’s being benefited?

(Side note: Places to sit outdoors like park benches are being made with anti homeless architecture, also known as hostile or defensive architecture.)

Public transport is underfunded, understaffed and underutilized. In my town for example, a 5-10 minute drive into the town centre will take roughly three times as long by bus (28 minutes), but can take 40-45 if the traffic is high. Understandably buses take stops and specific routes to pick up passengers but that is if the bus even turns up to your stop. To test this theory, I woke up and left the house two hours before a work shift to plan my future journeys to work. After walking half an hour to the bus stop I needed, two buses didn't turn up, meaning I’d spent over an hour on a commute without reaching my destination. It takes roughly 40 minutes to one hour on public transport and 50 minutes to an hour to walk to my work location, but only ten minutes in a car. On the flipside, public transport can be incredibly beautiful, clean and efficient, if only the first sentence of this paragraph was not true (where I am).

Here's my hot take. I think we need to take, "You can be productive on the bus and not when you're driving!” out of the public transit argument playbook because I don't WANT to be productive 24/7. - rotpunks

The joyous aspect of public transport brings you the clarity of sitting and witnessing. Simply observing, focusing on breath or scenery and unwinding makes the mundane act of moving from A-to-B a meditative experience. I was hesitant in writing this, even thinking that someone would find it strange, but those who read that sentence with resistance or hesitancy probably haven’t engaged with the practice in the first place. Ideally, I’d be out, all dolled up before the sun rises, dew point, poised in the freeze frame of deep blue early morning for a train that whisks me off to see a glorious sunrise. Comfortable seats preferred, almond croissant and tea optional.

I highly recommend (especially if you work with me), checking out the FAQ on Reddit, as it sums up my additional reasoning, alongside sources for the impact of cars and possible solutions: Reddit.

Companies, have and will lie about their fuel emissions: Volkswagen: The scandal explained - BBC News
Tesla even have a Wiki page dedicated to their crashes: List of Tesla Autopilot crashes - Wikipedia