r/fuckcars

The public response to our mayor showcasing a sidewalk improvement project one block away from a dense residential and commercial center that's also a transit hub, which sees lots of pedestrians, is overwhelmingly people saying things along the lines of:

>Can we please stop with the moron bump outs and just teach the entitled people how to cross a street. Start with your children by teaching them to wait and make sure the car is stopping, don’t just step off the curb!

Or we could.... value those "entitled" kids lives over getting to the next red light a few seconds faster?

Hey guys, I'm just here to rant. This ain't that special.

For context, I’m 25 and currently in the process of getting my driver’s license. A lot of people hear that and immediately wonder, “How does that even happen?” The short version is: life. And I don't exactly think it's all that crazy.

My home life growing up wasn’t great, and I basically got pushed out at 18. I had my permit at the time, but I was in college surviving mostly off financial aid and whatever money I could scrape together. It was paycheck to paycheck, constantly. I couldn't afford lessons. I was hyper independent out of HS and probably could have found a friend, I didn't. I kick myself in the butt over that but I can't change it. Even if I passed back then, I wouldn't be able to afford a car note, or a car outright. Or insurance. Or gas. Or maintainable. I forgot about getting a car, managed, and got through school.

After graduating, I wasn't able to save money much due to breaking my leg, which set me back a few thousand dollars. It wrecked me financially for a while and honestly took a toll mentally too. I spent the next couple years barely staying afloat.

Now, awesome news: things are finally more stable. I have a decent job, I can actually save money, and I’m in the middle of taking driving lessons. They're going great. I’m finally getting it done.

Issue: People are now finding out I don't drive and I've been getting hella judged. And out of fear of being judged I have been beating around the bush. It's been stressing me out and eating me up.

Want to make it clear, I've never lied on applications or interviews about driving. Job is not at risk. Every job I've had it's just never been asked and never come up because a lot of my work in the past was remote. Even the one I'm at now.

People just kind of assumed I had a car and a license because most adults do. Maybe I've given people the impression? I've been in a car and driven before so it's not like I shy away from all car conversations. At the same time, it's embarrassing and not something I actively bring up, either. Idk.

But today, it came out that I don't drive to work. That I walk. That's it. Not that I'm licenseless. Not that I'm carless. That I walk to work. I got hella judged. And I'm embarrassed. And I'm worried now it's gonna come out that I'm licenseless at some point. I'm not really a good liar. Even if it was only a fib and justified, I don't think I can keep it secret like that if people pry. And then if they find out...

What's infuriating is that I'm only a little over a mile from work, so even if I had a car, I’d probably still walk a decent amount of the time. But somehow my coworkers have turned “this guy walks to work” into the most shocking thing imaginable. I stg I could get raided by the feds and raise less eyebrows.

Meanwhile, I’ve never missed work, I show up on time, and I’m actively fixing the situation. I’m not doing anything wrong. Anyway, hopefully I’ll have my license within the next month. And at this point I almost don’t even want to drive to work afterward purely out of spite.

Like wtf Florida. Do better. She should never be allowed to drive again.

During a work meeting the topic of commute times came up. Co-worker A complained about their 50 min commute. Co-worker B stated how nice it must be to live in a 15 min city. Co-worker A responded with “ew”.

Just saw this in my Post & Courier newsletter.

https://preview.redd.it/vk8fvh3xfr2h1.png?width=674&format=png&auto=webp&s=568e28164605e9787cb69f5755cfe54a45a45dfd

Just imagine if the article read this way instead:

>Mount Pleasant Police seized a total of 12 pickup trucks and SUVs from a parking lot on Coleman Boulevard after receiving reports of two people driving recklessly through the Old Village, roughly a block from the school that morning.

This bill is freaking me the f*ck out. The Transportation and Infrastructure committee just approved this bill, which is a 5 year surface transportation investment bill. They're talking about removing advance appropriations, which is going to affect rail the most. It's going to reprioritise funding from pilot programs like Reconnecting Communities grant, which was about rehabilitating urban communities segregated by highways. Instead there's $750 million proposed for a Truck Parking program. Ultimately this whole bill reads like a wishlist for highway contractors.

I'm pretty sure that most congressional representatives aren't expecting any constituents to call or say anything about this as Trump awards billions of taxpayer dollars to J6ers, and a myriad of other equally urgent issues that need voters to actively participate in their government. But this one is my hyper-fixation and I'm hoping it's yours too.

Please call your representative and tell them this bill needs more inclusion of funding for transit, passenger rail, and micro-mobility pathways.

https://www.cabt.org/

Coalition Against Bigger Trucks needs advocates and support to push back against the big US truck lobby that is pushing for lower trucking standards and increased truck weight limits on highways that are incredibly dangerous killing thousands of innocent people and destroying public property for corporate profit and greed.

There is an opportunity here to take action to oppose these death traps.