Car expenses are unsustainable. 7 year car loans are becoming more popular, which is basically longer than the useful life of many low-quality cars. Combine that with high rents and stagnant wages and something has to give.
I'm not sure AVs will be a cure all and allow everyone a personal, on-demand taxi, though. Car companies aren't going to sit still as their market share is reduced by more than half.
Reminds me of James Howard Kuntsler's "The Long Emergency." Because the financial reckoning isn't immediate, people keep on keeping on without a long view of what's inevitable.
And yet here we are, dreaming up conspiracies about 15 minute cities!
I've had my share of vehicles and where we now live living without a vehicle really would not be practical. It's a 10km bike ride into town, which I'm still perfectly capable of, but doing grocery shopping on a regular bike is not a great solution. Getting rid of a car and replacing it with a cargo bike is worth considering, but when we get below about -5°C even that loses its allure!
My bigger concern is that sometime in the next decade, we'll be wanting to move to a smaller property and at that time we will be looking for a place that has a grocery shop within that 15 minute walk. There are no developments from the past couple of decades that have anything within range and that is a problem.
Hopefully every municipality will read this, and get it
Car expenses are unsustainable. 7 year car loans are becoming more popular, which is basically longer than the useful life of many low-quality cars. Combine that with high rents and stagnant wages and something has to give.
I'm not sure AVs will be a cure all and allow everyone a personal, on-demand taxi, though. Car companies aren't going to sit still as their market share is reduced by more than half.
Reminds me of James Howard Kuntsler's "The Long Emergency." Because the financial reckoning isn't immediate, people keep on keeping on without a long view of what's inevitable.
Great points and a solid comparison to Midas. Really helpful!
And yet here we are, dreaming up conspiracies about 15 minute cities!
I've had my share of vehicles and where we now live living without a vehicle really would not be practical. It's a 10km bike ride into town, which I'm still perfectly capable of, but doing grocery shopping on a regular bike is not a great solution. Getting rid of a car and replacing it with a cargo bike is worth considering, but when we get below about -5°C even that loses its allure!
My bigger concern is that sometime in the next decade, we'll be wanting to move to a smaller property and at that time we will be looking for a place that has a grocery shop within that 15 minute walk. There are no developments from the past couple of decades that have anything within range and that is a problem.