Hey there, i’m new here! i feel…atracted? by this topic/movement but im a completly newbie, so where are some sources or webs to read about this hate to cars (lol)? or if you want to tell more about of this, let me know in the comments Thanks for reading!

  • trepli@lemmy.ml
    1·
    29 days ago

    Hi, the most direct one about the hate for cars in my opinion is Carmageddon by Daniel Knowles. Curbing traffic by Melissa and Chris Brunlett is also amazing and it focuses more on the solution. Happy city by Charles Montgomery is also a well done book focusing more on urbanism. To end there are also books about positive human powered alternatives: How cycling can save your life by Peter Walker, The miracle pill also by Peter Walker and lastly Bikenomics by Ellie Blue

  • cerement@slrpnk.net
    1·
    29 days ago

    also if you’ve had any contact with areas with decent public transit (ie. a lot of Europe) - being able to get around without a car or even a driver’s license

    one of the classic books is Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities - part urbanism, part diatribe against the racist Robert Moses who is responsible for most of the current US urban “design”

    Robert Moses was such an asshole that Behind the Bastards even did a couple episodes on him

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
    0·
    29 days ago

    Not directly answering your question (though it does explicitly call out the problem of car-centric infrastructure), The Case for Socialized Ownership is a fantastic intro to why individualist forms of infrastructure become impedements to societal progress and overall well-being.

  • wheezy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    01·
    29 days ago

    The real answer is that “fuck cars” is the first realization for people of the failures of the economic and political structures within society. Once you realize how ridiculous the infrastructure of transportation is (within America especially) it starts to expose to you the incentive structures and contradictions when you look to change that.

    If you stop there and just enjoy hating the structures then the movement of “fuck cars” is where you remain. Within a mostly inactive and losing “movement”.

    The short answer is. There is no “fuck cars” movement. There is a “fuck cars” meme that either leads you further down the left wing pipeline. Or, you never actually attempted to make change within your city or neighborhood. Which is fine. You can enjoy the infrastructure or social critique of City Nerd. You can enjoy the “here is an example of good infrastructure” of NotJustBikes. That’s fine. We all enjoy consuming content. But that’s not a movement.

    But neither of those people that make these common forms of consumption of “fuck cars” content is going to tell you to join a “fuck cars” movement. Those don’t exist. The movement of leftist and socialist politics is the only means in which a fight against the fossil capital that created this car dependency to begin with.

    But if you’re looking for a MOVEMENT within America that is against car dependent infrastructure. You’re looking to join DSA and disrupt and dismantle the control of fossil capital within our society. To take control of the natural resources and production powers. To take them away from those that privately own and control them.

    Within our current structures there is no means in which to change things on the scale that need to be changed when our systems require that satisfaction of capital profits.

    It’s the same reason an activist like Greta Thunberg changed her focus from Climate Change to fighting against the imperial powers and structures of capital directly. It is not that climate change is not extremely important. It is not that car dependent infrastructure isn’t awful. It’s that, once you recognize the problem and attempt to work within the system to solve it. You quickly realize that these issues are not unique in what is preventing them from being solved.

    Those of us on the left WANT to reduce car infrastructure. Those of us on the left WANT to produce renewable energy. Those of us on the left WANT universal healthcare and affordable housing.

    The movement is not about “fuck cars”. “Fuck cars” is about giving people the opening to a movement that can actually solve the car dependence problem.

    Your “fuck cars” pipeline.

    That’s a good start. Soon you’ll loop back around to “cars are actually ok and can be kind of cool and useful; it’s just the levels of dependence and disruption to community and walk ability that I really hate. We must seize the means of production and free our society from serving fossil capital to change things comrade!” I’m being hyperbolic, but only a little.

    We don’t really hate cars for the individual hate of a single car. We hate what the over dependence on cars and fossil fuels has done to our society, our neighborhoods, our sidewalks, our communities. I like when I hit the pedal on a car and it goes voom voom. It’s fun. I just don’t think we should design our entire transportation structure around that. It would be like designing our diet and health programs around eating ice cream.