Gutmensch in German usually refers to people who try to appear good and make decisions they feel are good without questioning if the side effects are harmful. Also they expect others to do the same without regard for their ability to do so (e.g. I manage to avoid plastic bags, so you must too. Which is at least somewhat reasonable. But I manage to live without a car so you must too is difficult for some part of the rural population.)
We need cars because the railways were deemed not profitable. We need cars because investment in busses is often very limited (depending on where you live). We need cars because village markets are dying and we then have to go to the supermarket the town over.
We need cars because of the capitalist atomisation of society.
And even then, the vast majority of our trips are very short (< 40’ round trip’). The car we need the most is a very small, kinda lowtech electric one. But those don’t exist as much…
In our 750 people village, I think we’d need about 1 car for every 3 to 5 families and 3 trucks.
TL;DR: Rural people need cars. But we don’t need big ones for most of our usage. We need better public transportation. Personal car ownership is dumb and wasteful.
I also live in rural France, and agree. People with giant SUVs are becoming a huge problem where I live. Every day I see countless older people whose kids no longer live with them driving these gas-guzzling monstrosities to the supermarket. Often they have the same amount of seats as a sedan, yet they take up waaay more space in the parking lot. Just why? I don’t get it.
Because bigger car = bigger margins for the manufacturer. I guess it’s a status symbol too?
Also some environmental legislations have amendments for bigger vehicles. It seems that it was easier to make bigger cars than to make explosion motors more efficient (which is technically true).
Gutmensch in German usually refers to people who try to appear good and make decisions they feel are good without questioning if the side effects are harmful. Also they expect others to do the same without regard for their ability to do so (e.g. I manage to avoid plastic bags, so you must too. Which is at least somewhat reasonable. But I manage to live without a car so you must too is difficult for some part of the rural population.)
I live in buttfuck nowhere - France.
We need cars because the railways were deemed not profitable. We need cars because investment in busses is often very limited (depending on where you live). We need cars because village markets are dying and we then have to go to the supermarket the town over.
We need cars because of the capitalist atomisation of society.
And even then, the vast majority of our trips are very short (< 40’ round trip’). The car we need the most is a very small, kinda lowtech electric one. But those don’t exist as much…
In our 750 people village, I think we’d need about 1 car for every 3 to 5 families and 3 trucks.
TL;DR: Rural people need cars. But we don’t need big ones for most of our usage. We need better public transportation. Personal car ownership is dumb and wasteful.
I also live in rural France, and agree. People with giant SUVs are becoming a huge problem where I live. Every day I see countless older people whose kids no longer live with them driving these gas-guzzling monstrosities to the supermarket. Often they have the same amount of seats as a sedan, yet they take up waaay more space in the parking lot. Just why? I don’t get it.
Because bigger car = bigger margins for the manufacturer. I guess it’s a status symbol too?
Also some environmental legislations have amendments for bigger vehicles. It seems that it was easier to make bigger cars than to make explosion motors more efficient (which is technically true).
I find all of that pretty dumb.