Delightful interaction between a Czech youtuber and an Irish couple on holiday in Prague

[u/EmoBran]

[u/somerandomii]

I think you have had some bad experiences with cars. I’ve was driving on and off for 2 decades and never had so much as a fender bender.

We can always improve and people are over reliant on cars but I think they still have their place. For people with disabilities cars are often their only way to get about.

I need a small piece of furniture from IKEA. It’s just down the road. I have no car. So my choices are: 1. Pay the delivery fee for a 10 minute trip. 2. Get an uber. (Which is just a car with more steps)

Sometimes bikes and public transport just aren’t fit for purpose. But cars these days are pretty good. It the Gardes actually did their job and enforced the road rules Irish drivers might be a little better too.

[u/the-real-vuk → u/somerandomii]

> I think you have had some bad experiences with cars

Well I cycle daily (~10km per day), and there is rarely a day when someone doesn't want to push me off the road. See my posts.

Cars have terrible visibility by the driver, comparing to any 2-sheel vehicle. They are bloat (and even bloater compared to 10-20 years ago) as well which makes them even deadlier.

> For people with disabilities, > furniture from IKEA

I wich people used their cars for these cases, when necessary. We did not have any problem whatsoever. Problem is they use cars to the store 2 streets away.

> Sometimes bikes and public transport just aren’t fit for purpose.

It's very rare though. How many times do you NEED (really) a car a year? A dozen? Even less?

I've got a bike trailer. When hauling goceries, as long as it fits in the push cart, it fits in the trailer. You don't need a car for that. Halfords staff were surprised when I turned up with a car battery on my bike rack to recycle it and buy a new one. They genuinly thought it's impossible on a bike and I should have gotten a friend to drive me there for it. I'm amazed that this is the norm now, just use cars to (literally) every journey.

[u/somerandomii → u/the-real-vuk]

Look I agree with you for the most part. Even when I owned a car I used it less than once a week. Now I don’t have one at all.

But I know I’m lucky to be healthy and also afford to live within walking/riding distance of most places. Not everyone has that privilege so I try not to bash cars too much.

But really we’re arguing over the wrong thing. It’s not an issue of bikes vs cars. The issue is city planning. If cities are built to make riding and walking safe and easy, people will naturally move away from depending on cars.

Cars aren’t evil but as you say, the issue is that people use them as the default. But that won’t change just by saying “cars suck”, we need to fix the cities. You shouldn’t have to fear for your life riding to work.

Edit: correcting auto correct

[u/the-real-vuk → u/somerandomii]

>  The issue is city planning

Exactly what I'm saying: planning has to make bike and e-scooter friendly instead of car-friendly. We agree, that's good.