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posted by takyon on Tuesday February 13 2018, @11:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the right-tool-for-the-job dept.

An article over at Motherboard covers the growing inequities in the US resulting from the cultivation of individualized transport options.

Carsharing, ridesharing, ride-hailing, public transit, and cycling—"all of those things are needed to replace personal cars," said [Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar].

It's a nice idea, but to actually kill car ownership, we're first going to need to have some very uncomfortable conversations about class and equity in the United States. Public transit used to be the great equalizer, but affordable private rides have become the new favorite of the middle class. When richer people give their money to private ride-hailing or carsharing companies, public transit loses money—and that's not good for cities, societies, or the environment.

[...] This dependence on ride-hailing is having the adverse effect of increasing traffic congestion, which in turn makes bus service slower and more frustrating. Besides, until cities change dramatically—i.e. more parks, fewer parking lots, less sprawl, better accommodations for active and public transit—decreased rates of car ownership likely won't benefit the environment if we're still travelling the same distances in cars.

Those living in countries that still have good or remnants of good mass transit will have different insights. It is unlikely that without good, reliable, vast public transit networks, there will be social and economic equity, assuming that is a goal. While public transit can suck, especially in the US, it is sometimes necessary to take one for the team and vote with your wallet. Unfortunately the situation is often framed as a false dilemma, that there can only be private cars or only mass transit, but not both coexisting and used for different ends at different times by the same people.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Unixnut on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:00AM (2 children)

    by Unixnut (5779) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:00AM (#637509)

    > Try getting on to the Tube at Bank station in London on any weekday. It is very full, and you will probably have to queue, but it is full of incredibly wealthy bankers in £3,000 suits because the Tube is the best way of getting around.

    That's because the government deliberately crippled the alternatives to the point where they have no choice. Those wealthy bankers don't ride the tube out of some solidarity with the poor, or because they like it, it is because they have no choice. Only the very very top can even consider commuting by car (you know you "made it" in a London financial firm when they provide you with a parking space in the city as a perk).

    So yes, if you coerce people, you will find many will do it. I don't see your point, unless it is to say more people should be coerced into doing what they wouldn't do normally?

    > Buses full of sick people is also a symptom of a broken health system. Civilised countries provide proper taxpayer funded healthcare.

    I don't know, the NHS is held up to the world as the poster child of "taxpayer funded healthcare done right", to the point where its adherents will defend it and its funding with a level of fanaticism comparable to religious extremists.

    Despite this, it's still so damn bad that if you actually want healthcare in the UK, you need to pay extra for private insurance on top of the NHS costs (unless you want to experience a third world level health service)

    Also, the London underground and Buses in general are still full of sick people, and still make excellent breeding grounds for all kinds of bacteria and viruses. This, I don't think is a solvable problem (unless you shrink wrap everyone in public transport and give them their own air filters). Shoving a bunch of strangers tightly together in a tin can will provide ample breeding grounds for all kind of nasty. You need just one carrier to spread illness rapidly in the system.

    > Even better, visit Berlin and ride their underground. Because they're Germans it runs on time and is really clean and fast, which doesn't mean they don't complain about it. They also speak better English than you or me.

    The more I hear about it, the more it sounds the Germans got it right. From public transport, to healthcare, to unemployment support, to privacy protections. One of these days I will probably go visit, and if it is as good as I've heard, I might just stay there.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by NewNic on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:45PM (1 child)

    by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:45PM (#637745) Journal

    Despite this, it's still so damn bad that if you actually want healthcare in the UK, you need to pay extra for private insurance on top of the NHS costs (unless you want to experience a third world level health service)

    Having lived in several countries, I can tell you that the service people get from the NHS is excellent. Yes, you might have to wait for a hip replacement, but my relatives have received excellent care for cancer, without any wait times, and, for my parents, excellent and compassionate care at the ends of their lives.

    On the other hand, in the USA, the care we have received has often been poor, designed to increase billing rather than really serve our healthcare needs.

    --
    lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
    • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday February 15 2018, @10:45AM

      by Unixnut (5779) on Thursday February 15 2018, @10:45AM (#638176)

      > Having lived in several countries, I can tell you that the service people get from the NHS is excellent. Yes, you might have to wait for a hip replacement, but my relatives have received excellent care for cancer, without any wait times, and, for my parents, excellent and compassionate care at the ends of their lives.

      Having also lived in several countries (3 to be exact), I can tell you the NHS service was not only awfully poor, but actually resulted in my having permanent health problems. Saying that, I've never experienced the USA healthcare, which is apparently so crap it makes the NHS look good, while being a lot more expensive.

      I originally wrote a full detail of my experiences with the NHS, and how they actually caused me permanent health damage due to their incompetence, mistakes and unaccountability, but I felt it too personal to post on a public forum. My apologies.

      Fundamentally in my experience, the NHS is:

      - Unaccountable (I can't get any redress for their mistakes, so they don't really bother to make sure what they do is right)
      - Uncaring (Just a number in their quotas, half the times they just didn't even bother giving me a proper examination)
      - Expensive (the above wasn't free, I actually had to pay for everything, in addition to my monthly taxes to the NHS)
      - Incompetent (Three times I needed medical help, three times I ended up worse for wear)

      Now thankfully I never had cancer, so I don't know how the NHS is when dealing with cancer, but a public health service should be able to take care of a wide ranging amount of health issues of the population, not hyper specialise in one or another area. The goal is to provide for a generally healthy and productive populace.

      If the NHS really was good, nobody would bother paying extra to get private health insurance here, nor would they bother flying to other countries to get treatment. However as many people do both, it shows the NHS is lacking.

      Not to even get me started on the exodus of medical staff and doctors due to the awful working conditions and poor pay, so many in the medical profession have either gone fully private, or left the country.

      That is not to say we should do the US healthcare system, just something more like the French/German public healthcare systems, which seem to manage to give a far higher overall standard of healthcare, without as many problems as the NHS has (and without as much waste).