Comments

2
I suggest we all become Amish as well.
3
Hi, so I actually live in the Netherlands - I moved here from Seattle a while back, actually.

You should not imagine that the Dutch have given up the car. 90% of households here have at least one, and traffic is formidable. My native Dutch friends and coworkers overwhelmingly commute and run errands by car, which I still find a bit crazy. Even though gas is the equivalent of $8/gallon, people love cars here and love to drive.

What they have done, though, is eliminate the city as automotive junction. It's impossible to drive through the center of most Dutch cities, but bikes can pass straight through over the shortest path. There are motorways into dutch cities but not *through* them. (Vancouver BC is kinda like that, but its core isn't actually closed to private cars in the same way.)

The other thing they've done, and I think this is possibly the more important thing, is to give priority to vulnerable road users by law. Rather than applying a moralistic "who was right?" fault-finding calculus to collisions between cars and bikes or pedestrians, by law the car driver is financially responsible (and insured) for any collision with a more vulnerable road user. It doesn't matter if the bike was riding the wrong way up the street without lights. This logic is consequence-driven, not fault-driven, and leads to very conscientious drivers (it helps that most drivers here have also been cyclists before.)
4
we just bought a new car last weekend! had to get rid of the old subaru. we put 170,000 miles on it, and i'm sure we'll put at least as many on the new one. got fuel to burn, got roads to drive....
5
That must be why global car ownership is growing faster than at any point in the history of the world.
6
Boy, you use the word "must" an awful lot when telling others what it should do, especially considering how often it's been pointed out that you're a "do as I say, not as I do" kinda guy.
7
*what they should do / telling society what it should do
8
@4 What did you get? I bought a BRZ this past summer.
9
For those of you who have anonymous comments turned off, @3 is one of the rare good ones. You should read it.
10
Seattle should never have re-opened Westlake center between 4th and 5th to cars. I was saddened on that day. It was a step backwards.

Thanks @3 for the insight!
11
#8, we bought a 2014 outback. nothing too fancy, but a huge step up from our old 03 (even though it had the 3.0 h6). i was really hoping to make it to 200,000 miles with that car, but the transmission was starting to go.
12

Elio?

The car will cost just $6, 800 when it goes on sale and despite the low price, will offer 3 airbags. Elio is reportedly aiming for a 5-star safety rating for the vehicle.
The Elio will be powered by a 1.0 liter, three-cylinder, 70 horsepower engine capable of delivering up to 84 mpg. A figure of around 49 mpg in the city is expected when the Elio receives its official rating from the EPA.


http://gmauthority.com/blog/2014/02/ultr…
13
@11 Nice, best of luck getting it past 200k! I'm hoping for similar with mine.
14
The consensus from people I know with Subarus are that they are cheap, underpowered pieces of shit that are unpleasant to drive.
15
@3, fantastic (hidden) comment. @9, thanks for the tip.
16
#14, i wonder what kind of subarus those people have? they certainly can be underpowered, but our old outback had a 3 liter 6 cylinder and it was a joy to drive. the new one has a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder and doesn't quite have the kick from the start, but it's still pretty good on the highway. and it is TIGHT on the road...i get home and i want to keep driving.
17
See what happens when you have a country like The Netherlands where over 80% of the people are Dutch and all the other ethnic groups are under 3%. A bicyclist Utopia.

It also helps bicycling be their main mode of transportation when they have over 1,000 people per square mile in a country that's half the size of Maine. Rhode island and New Jersey are the only US states with such a population density.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S…

18
I think you'd be a nice road trip companion, Charles

cars r so tight
19
@14 A BRZ is underpowered if you want to take it to the track, but it's an absolute joy to drive. 200hp in a 2700lb car is plenty for normal driving conditions.

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