The problem with cars and why I hate them

Cars are noisy and dangerous

Have ever been annoyed by someone's car alarm going off? This certainly isn't a pleasant experience. It's not just the noise they make but that they are dangerous and you just can't trust other drivers because they may be on their phone or distracted by something else and hit you. Car accidents aren't that uncommon. A personal experience I had was especially when I was on my bicycle and want to turn left, I have to get in the street in order to cross so I usually position myself in the middle of the lane and point my whole arm to the left indicating a left turn, but it seems most people don't know what that is? Because when they see this they try to pass you as you are turning which is very dangerous but they don't seem to even care or understand.

People who drive them in general have zero patience

This is my experience where I live and I am sure it's not that different elsewhere. Most of the time when I am walking or cycling (I don't own a car and don't want to) they don't even stop at the stop signs but only slow down. Sometimes the really get in the habit of doing that so much that they might nearly hit you on a stop sign. Or have you ever experienced walking in the parking lot to go get some groceries and have a car follow you very closely? Or people speeding up in a parking lot being a danger to others? You could say it's not really a problem with cars but people who drive them, but you can't just fix this behaviour people have except by having a police officer around at all time and there isn't one most of the time. Because the only time people will behave properly is when there is a police officer around.

Cars really create a boring and unpleasant environment

Have you ever been to some fast food restaurant after a certain time only for them to only have their drive thru open and them telling you that they can't serve you because you don't have a car? I had that exact experience many times. Most cities and suburbs are designed with the car in mind, and not for cyclists or pedestrians which only adds more to the problem. How many times do you see road construction? There always is some, the roads degrade very fast so they require a lot of maintenance to stay in good condition so they often undergo repairs. There is also another problem where everyone has to go to that one store, the parking lot is basically either the same size or larger than the store itself, it has no trees and all you have around you is cement and asphalt and on a hot day walking in one of those really feels like a desert and combined with impatient drivers and road rage it's easy to see how cars don't create a pleasant environment.

Cars contribute to climate change

Cars are a contributor to climate change. While electric cars might be better than non-electric cars overtime, because initially they are more damaging to the environment, they are not really a real solution. Car fumes are also a problem and degrade air quality.

The solution to cars

I am not for completely banning cars but more for not having to depend on them and not for designing cities around cars. It would be better if cities where built around public transport like bus and train and be walkable and have more cycling roads for cyclists. We don't have to get rid of all roads but it should be made easier to go to some place by walking or cycling than by car. A good way to apply that could be to have roads that go around the city and some streets but not everywhere so people who drive would have to driver longer distance to go somewhere and wait longer than they would have if they walked, biked or took the bus there. I often hear excuses about people who are handicapped that they need a car to go around but cars aren't really designed for handicapped people and there is a certain point where it may actually be dangerous for them to drive those cars. Rather there should be adapted transport to help them get to where they need to go and more services available to them. With all the money being spent on car infrastructure we could really have all those things and have better and probably even cheaper public transport system and more stores around leading to better quality of life. Rather than have everyone live far away and needing their car to drive to the grocery store or any store they need to buy stuff from. It would also help local business more as there would be more around because people won't need to drive very far to go to the one everyone goes to. This would probably also help to have more competition rather than one big store that drives all the local competitors out of business.

Conclusion

This is mostly my personal opinion and mostly based on my experience so it might not be the same for everyone but the main point of that article is mostly to say that cars aren't really ideal and there could be much better alternatives and that there could be other ways we design our cities so people have more freedom to choose their preferred way of transport. Cars are also pretty expensive so can't be afforded by everyone and you have gas to pay for and everything. But having cities car dependent forces everyone to buy and drive a car to make a living so there should be changes so it is no longer a necessity.