Cars were the worst invention in human history and I cannot be moved off that opinion - ThreadSky

katelynburns.com • 16 days ago

Cars were the worst invention in human history and I cannot be moved off that opinion

After one year of the Bradford clean air / low emission zone, GP visits for breathing and heart problems were down by a quarter.

My latest for @theguardian.com.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Comments

korra365.bsky.social•16 days ago

Motor vehicles, firearms & WMDs.

princesslaura.bsky.social•15 days ago

I disagree but only because nuclear weaponry exists.

honestcanadian.bsky.social•16 days ago

authorhillin.bsky.social•15 days ago

I would say cars that require combustible gasses were the worst. And if we can get rid of lithium batteries and go to aluminum-ion or salene-ion, all the better.

phillip-rees.bsky.social•16 days ago

When I was a kid I resolved never to drive. I've stuck with it for half a century so far. No regrets.

laurasteph.bsky.social•15 days ago

Oh wow very interesting

thekateblack.bsky.social•15 days ago

When I was doing some research, I found this photo of streetcar track construction in NYC in the 1880s! We could’ve had trolleys still.

iknowthezarbi.bsky.social•16 days ago

You’ll find few more committed than I on this topic; reaching my 60s never having learned to drive (or aspired to), and at best a reluctant passenger. I blame having the Ladybird book ‘Man and his Car’ as a kid, which made so much sense to me then and frankly still holds up.

sundance.bikesky.social•15 days ago

I will die on this hill by your side. There is nothing worse

omermiri8.bsky.social•16 days ago

With all due respect to your opinion, Cars may have environmental and health drawbacks, but they have also greatly contributed to human progress and made life easier. Perhaps the solution is not to eliminate them but to develop them to be more environmentally friendly.

cara.remix.io•16 days ago

Environmental issues are only a tiny fraction of the problems they create (and electric cars still pollute, wheels are synthetic rubber and create massive particulate matter problems even w/o emissions).

cara.remix.io•16 days ago

So many people die and are injured by cars and they often create debt that keep people in poverty. The social isolation they also cause is notable and striking but shouldn't be a surprise for anyone who's studied the racist motivations around suburban designs (see Robert Moses for example).

cara.remix.io•16 days ago

There's just so many more problems than solutions. It won't be as simple as self driving electric cars. The solutions that actually work already exist but the auto industry has strong lobbies to block these things making it feel impossible to achieve a massive reduction in automobile use.

pyperkub.bsky.social•16 days ago

Horses (the primary form of faster transportation before cars were invented) were also deadly, misused, polluted, caused disease, etc.

pyperkub.bsky.social•16 days ago

And yes, I do ride my bike for 25-40 miles/week.

cara.remix.io•16 days ago

Yes. I’m not really interested in this particular strawman argument.

foxonsilverfur.bsky.social•16 days ago

7 decades of developing land for the car stunted transit, metro, trams, rail, cycling, and has done irreversible damage to the layout of thousands of towns and cities to "make things easier".

And that's before you count bullldozing poor/POC neighborhoods for those highways through redlining.

maddog5.bsky.social•16 days ago

Nothing is even close.

lizzymatheson.bsky.social•16 days ago

Very poorly applied invention, definitely. There's nothing wrong with individually-owned transport but it never had to be a commuting vehicle.

bobtheangryone.bsky.social•16 days ago

I'd say petroleum powered cars. Most of the early cars were electric and electricity came mostly from hydroelectric. They were much better than horse 🐎 transport.

fiski70.bsky.social•16 days ago

And definitely better for the horses.

carfreeroutes.bsky.social•15 days ago

🙃👍🏿👍🏽👍

vegasbrad.bsky.social•16 days ago

Gas cars. Gas cars.

strangekabuki.bsky.social•16 days ago

I’m a big WEC/F1 fan and a fan of classic cars. but I have to agree and think the time has come to relegate them to race tracks and museums. But it will be tough with the current infrastructure build out.

alixdragon.bsky.social•16 days ago

Yes I often think that if cars didn’t already exist and if someone proposed bringing in a system of personal vehicles travelling at high speed in opposite directions separated only by a line on the road they’d be laughed and booed offstage. So obviously batsh!t… 🤔

taterdash.bsky.social•16 days ago

They kill us! They choke us! They crush our bodies. They separate us. They alienate us.

whetstone.bsky.social•16 days ago

it was eye-opening when i learned that amish people don’t reject *all* technology, just technologies that alienate community members. so milking machines yes: more time for family to be together & work on community projects; cars: no, they let people live too far from each other to be in community

whetstone.bsky.social•16 days ago

not that the amish are a paragon, but it made me want to keep on top of the decisions they make on new tech as it comes out

charonsferry.bsky.social•16 days ago

Feel like pure shit just want her back

dabaum.bsky.social•16 days ago

i've been trying to get people to go back to horses for years. YEARS.

iamjoseph.bsky.social•16 days ago

I request a wagon pulled by goats. If it's good enough for Thor it's good enough for me

katelynburns.com•16 days ago

Trains!!!

astercaster.bsky.social•16 days ago

Bradford even has two train stations...and no public transport between them! The pedestrianisation has made getting between stations so incredibly safer and easier in lots of ways.

dabaum.bsky.social•16 days ago

those would be awesome for long distances! but just for a few miles....

I may or may not like horses. and ponies.

katelynburns.com•16 days ago

Trolleys!

dabaum.bsky.social•16 days ago

...ok I forgot about those tbh. although they kinda scare me, but that's just my anxiety, I'd get over it. (anxiety big 4 legged creatures that you ride on are cool, engines that move are weird and creepy)

andrewhickey.500songs.com•16 days ago

In Britain you *can* go just a few miles on a train. I live three miles from the city centre, and about four miles from a town in the other direction, and if I want to go to either I take the train from the station between the two.

andrewhickey.500songs.com•16 days ago

The reason that's not done in the US is because most of the cities there grew up after the invention of the car, and are designed *for* cars, and so lower density and sprawling. Again, cars, bad idea.

katelynburns.com•16 days ago

This actually isn't true. The cities were here before the cars and were destroyed to accommodate cars

andrewhickey.500songs.com•16 days ago

If cars hadn't been invented, then urban infrastructure in the US would have grown very differently.

allisonwinters.bsky.social•15 days ago

I'm a big fan of public transportation and wish my town had buses/subway. Cars are fine, but a car payment, plus insurance, plus gas, plus upkeep... it adds up. I would have so much more money if I had a buss pass instead.

chinajohn.bsky.social•16 days ago

If you cannot be moved from an opinion you don't follow evidence and are no more than an extremist nut job, equivalent to religions.

I have many opinions, but not a single one is NOT open to change given sufficient evidence.

andrblues.bsky.social•16 days ago

sadly I have to say they are not number one because the movie Cars (2006) would not exist without actual cars

kerri9494.bsky.social•14 days ago

It's not the cars. It's the roads. Cars are great for getting to rural places. But cars in/between cities? Madness.

semajmaharg.bsky.social•16 days ago

Since the London Mayor introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone, my asthma inhaler usage has gone down so much I don’t know what to do with the backlog of inhalers! But I’m sure it’s just a coincidence

funt.im•16 days ago

Can we put “the stock market” as joint first place?

morkmorkerson.bsky.social•16 days ago

The stock market is good actually.

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