To explain my question, and why I’m asking it:

I’ve had this debate in the past with someone who was anti-car but didn’t really know why other than that it was popular in his social circle.

I’m distinctly curious what a solution for unusual travel habits would be without cars.

My situation is thus; I rather frequently do cross-country, round trips. Simple enough, right? Well, it gets more complicated than that. I show dogs. I need to take myself, potentially a friend or two, and on average 4 dogs several hundred miles, along with all the equipment.

For a fun experiment, this is the details of the show that I’m currently planning this month:

  • 4 hours from my house by car
  • 2 humans, 4 dogs
  • 10 36" dog crates
  • 1 36" folding grooming table
  • Extra equipment that would fill a large suitcase, roughly speaking.
  • two small containers of clothing
  • cooler of dog food (frozen)
  • vault of dog food (kibble)

I drive a Honda CRV for reference, 31mpg average.

  • vldnl
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    1 year ago

    People here are not for completely banning all cars, but for reducing the use of private cars. I personally don’t think personal cars have a place in society (outside a couple of edge cases) and that we should start phasing them out. Other people just want better alternatives. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone argue that disabled people, who need a car to get around should not be allowed to have one, or that we should ban taxis and moving companies from using cars.

    I think that would be a very difficult trip to make without a car, but you could easily make that trip without a private car, especially in a society where that is the norm. You could either rent a car for a day or two, or use some kind of moving/transport/taxi service to get around.

    Another perspective is that society would look different if is wasn’t the norm to use cars to get around, and maybe you wouldn’t need to travel as far to get to your local shows. I know nothing about showing dogs but I’ve grown up with ponies in my backyard, and from my childhood home (in the middle of nowhere by Danish standards) I could walk to a couple of horse camps and shows per year. Within an hours drive there was plenty to do, every weekend. We just kept our ponies as pets/lawn movers and took them camping or to a 4H show once in a while, and we rarely needed a trailer or even a car for that. When we did need a trailer, we would rent one at the local gas station or hitch a ride with someone.

    • Ktanaqui@lemm.eeOP
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      1 year ago

      That’s fair, and something I can understand the switch to! A couple of my friends do rent larger vehicles for the longer shows. ❤️

      I would love to see shows occur more locally 😞 I usually drive 4 or 5 hours minimum.