this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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Fuck Cars

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346
Urban Microcars (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Society's got priorities wrong.

  • most car travels are 1 person or sometimes 2 person

  • the majority of car travels are quite short, less than 40km.

  • many car travels are just to get some groceries or drop of a little package or just say "hi" to someone, carrying nothing but themselves.

  • cars are fucking expensive, to buy and to maintain

  • accidents become way worse with heavier vehicles

Microcar is a valid answer to all of these, while still being sheltered from weather.

How are urban places (i'm in Belgium) with almost permanent super heavy road traffic congestion, bad climate statistics, high polution values, very limited available space left, no self-sustaining energy production and high traffic accident statistics still pooring in billions and billions in subsidies year after year into "regular" big heavy SUV-like vehicles instead of these? It's beyond my comprehension. The only real valid reason i somewhat get is the collective scare of being in a crash and not wanting to be in the smaller vehicle. We could save the climate, we choose not to.

  • MICROLINO: 17.990 €
  • OPEL ROCKS: 8.699 €
  • CITROEN AMI: 7.790 €
  • RENAULT TWIZY: 13.000 €
  • FIAT TOPOLINO: 9.890 €

A lot of people here casually spend more on a sunday racing bike every few years for fucks sake.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You're right, these are very good arguments. I'm just too biased towards bikes, so I become overly critical of microcars. The two are complementary modes of transport, for sure. Still, a compulsory driving license for microcars should be standard around the world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

They do have a license requirement, it's just not a full drivers license. At least for anyone born after 1987. Before that, these vehicles were meant to save rural widows from starvation so they really had no requirement except for insurance. Here is more info!

https://www.connexionfrance.com/practical/explainer-what-are-the-rules-on-licence-free-cars-in-france/267381

I know what you mean though, anything that looks like a car based solution always looks like a trap to encourage more car dependence.