Pros of golf carts and neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) replacing all private cars within a city:

  • Only goes as fast as a bicycle, so isn’t a viable suburban commuter vehicle, meaning you’ll probably only take it to the nearest transit station
  • Only goes as fast as a bicycle, so isn’t likely to kill people
  • Excellent visibility, so less likely to run over children
  • Much smaller and lighter, so building parking garages for park-and-rides would be a lot cheaper and less objectionable than with our current style of cars
  • Electric
  • Smaller batteries than jumbo EVs
  • Compatible with dense, transit-oriented city development
  • Could be installed with mandatory speed limiters

Cons:

  • Less profit for GM and ExxonMobil
  • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    353·
    10 months ago

    Some people have never had to balance two massive bags of chicken feed and a propane tank on a rusty bicycle with a bent wheel and it shows.

    • Dharma Curious@startrek.websiteEnglish
      373·
      10 months ago

      Some people also don’t have physical disabilities or family members with them, and it really shows. Bikes are great, and we absolutely should be encouraging bike use, but the automobile is, frankly, a necessity for millions of people. We shouldn’t be getting rid of wheelchairs, either. I swear, sometimes I feel like the fuck cars community is basically anprim. Yes, fuck cars, yes fuck car culture, but jimminy crickets they’re not evil. Our use of us them.

      • papabobolious@feddit.nuEnglish
        22·
        10 months ago

        Cars have a place and the name of this community is stupid, but in large cities using cars is quite problematic obviously. For disabled people there are already motorised wheelchairs, for cargo it seems like there are better choices than this still.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          10 months ago

          I’m disabled. A motorized wheelchair is fine for walmart or Disney World, because those places are built for them. But they are also very expensive, and can actually be more of a hindrance when facilities and infrastructure are lacking. The world is generally not accessible.

          • papabobolious@feddit.nuEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            I get that but surely this massive golf cart looking thing offers a lot less accessibility than s mororized chair still?

            I am not trying to minimize the struggles of being disabled, even with sophisticated technology of course it is something that affects almost every aspect of your life in some way.

        • Dharma Curious@startrek.websiteEnglish
          5·
          10 months ago

          It’s not excuse, but thanks for being dismissive of disabilities that might be different to your own. I’m not pawning you off as anything, and I do think we need massive reform and restructuring. But motorized wheelchairs are not a viable solution to someone who needs to get to a doctor’s office 20 miles away, nor are busses a solution to someone who has severe difficulty being outside of their home for hours on end. Should most of us be driving? No. Should no one be using cars? Also no.

    • wolfruff@pawb.socialEnglish
      71·
      10 months ago

      you can attach a trailer/carrier to a bike for that reason if you need to

      • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        10 months ago

        “Hop in the bakfiets, grandma, let the good doctor check out your arthritis. We can’t take the car because an internet stranger says so.”