Comment by cpursley

Comment by cpursley a day ago

17 replies

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I think the catch is, Americans have to spend so much time driving for ADLs (activities of daily living) that there is no time to walk over to the local court (if there is one, usually there is not). This is due to the sprawl Ponzi scheme (which spreads everything out). It's also the primary cause behind America's mental health crises (lack of 3rd places, everyone is isolated). And yeah, I'm not talking SF or NYC, but 90% of the rest of the country.

bluGill 21 hours ago

That is false for every american I know. Driving means less time than transit users in every study I've seen - that time is of course more stressful but we spend less time commuting and thus have more time. Working hours can be longer but for many it isn't much longer.

There are a lot of couch potatoes that don't use their time, but they have it.

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  • ndriscoll 21 hours ago

    It always blows my mind when I see how many subscribers Netflix has. Americans are so busy driving and working that they don't have time to do anything (cook, grocery shop, exercise, etc.). How are 90M households finding the time to watch movies or binge on TV shows?

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    • jjav 34 minutes ago

      > It always blows my mind when I see how many subscribers Netflix has.

      Not sure how they count, but for example I have a "free" netflix subscription through a tmobile phone plan. So it's easy to pump the numbers. I only watch like one episode of something every other year on netflix, so not exactly a real user of it.

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    • 0_____0 20 hours ago

      Maybe they're not actually watching it. I have read that the content guidance recommends that media produced for Netflix et al. have the action described auditorially as well as visually, so people can follow the plot without actually looking at the screen.

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  • dahart 20 hours ago

    > Driving means less time than transit users in every study I’ve seen […] we spend less time commuting and thus have more time

    Transit is indeed slower, but there are several big assumptions in there that don’t support your conclusion. In the US, only 15% of trips are commuting to work, the majority of trips are shopping, errands, and leisure. People with cars make more trips than transit users, and go out of their way for shopping, errands, and leisure more often, because they can, because it’s “faster” than transit. Driving commuters tend to drive to lunch, while transit commuters tend to bring one or walk. Transit users can sometimes get things done that can’t be done while driving, which can in some cases more than negate the added travel time. I think that’s a minority of transit users, but I spent a couple years commuting by train and working on the train, and I saved a considerable amount of time compared to driving. Because a lot of people spend this “more time” they saved commuting doing more driving for things other than work, drivers don’t actually have more time in practice.

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  • giantg2 11 hours ago

    I can confirm, I took transit for month instead of driving and every trip was 2x-3x as long and cost at 1x-2x the cost of gas.

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  • cpursley 21 hours ago

    Are you talking American transit? Because yeah, it sucks. Also, where do you live - SF, NYC?

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  • CalRobert 21 hours ago

    That’s the issue though - bad design is why driving is the only logical choice

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    • bluGill 20 hours ago

      For the purposes of this discussion there is more time to exercise.

      Yes transit uses in practice get more, but it is incidental and lower quality exercise than someone who uses their extra time on a well developed gym plan. (There are of courseetransit users with a well developed gym plan)

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      • Jensson 20 hours ago

        Light exercise several times a day is much healthier than a typical gym plan. You don't get as fit, but you are much healthier.

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maxerickson 21 hours ago

I commute like 12 minutes and the stores I shop at regularly are in the middle of the drive. My office is more out of town than most jobs here.

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  • cpursley 21 hours ago

    You are an outlier, majority of Americans live in suburbia with a significant commute. And that sounds like a sweet setup. Mind if I ask where you live? Medium or small sized town?

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    • maxerickson 21 hours ago

      Smaller town.

      The average US commute is less than 30 minutes, people aren't spending all that much time. And with a 30 minute commute, they are likely doing the same thing I am, passing by stores that are reasonable for many of their needs.

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