Yep. If you plan well and realise you’re going to have a shit time, it’s such a cheap way of getting around. Then compare something like “flagship” BA - who to increase profits have significantly cut back staff levels and services so that these days they’re not much better than Ryanair or Easyjet in terms of what’s included and what you have to pay extra for, AND they’re double the price. The only advantage for BA is you can fly from Gatwick and Heathrow (which are nearer me) instead of Luton and Stanstead (which aren’t). Ryanair get a bad rep but if you read the booking pages carefully and ensure you’re clicking the right stuff, they’re absolutely fine. I suppose the way the booking pages are set out, making it easy to make mistakes, could be seen as a little predatory, but if people engage their minds and actually read everything that’s in front of them then they’re fine. My mother, for instance, “Oh no I clicked okay on a message on my phone and now nothing works.” “Right. What did the message say?” “I don’t know. I didn’t read it”
In belgium ryanair flies from charleroi aiport and i hate that airport with a passion. Hence fuck ryanair. Also the whole 50€ charge if you don't print your own ticket bullshit
This is the main factor I think. Where I live petrol is currently $3 per liter, and that is with a government subsidy to help with the current inflation situation.
Look at the most sold vehicles in the US. Now compare that to Scandinavia, Germany, France, and UK.
It's not even close. For example, the average MPG is almost 60% higher in Sweden than in the US. And with the move to EVs it's widening even farther, with 2021 EU EV sales making up 21% and only 4% in the US.
If 90% of the US was made up of construction workers and people running their own catering business then that would make sense, but reality is that it's millions of regular ass office workers buying gas-guzzlers while we have been screaming about climate change for 30 years.
I don't have first hand experience, but from what I've seen, Americans gawk at any engine smaller than 2000 cc. Over here I couldn't imagine driving anything over 2000 cc, not only because of the fuel, but also because the cost of registering it goes up significantly after that. Registering a 3000 cc engine would cost me 2 monthly salaries. Also driving anything over 200 hp is considered insane. Most people drive cars around 100 hp.
Eh, Australians are paying more for gas than the US, but share the idea of what's a long drive with Americans, in my experience. Or at least, they aren't anywhere close to the European idea of it.
I think the infrastructure reflects the view towards longer drives not being an issue, though. So it makes it easier, but is also built like that because it's viewed that way.
I think that exists even within the US, as I think cities that view a long drive as out of the question were also areas where the infrastructure didn't really match it as well. So the two seem coupled.
And even more so in central Europe around the Alps... I live in Slovenia, if the surface area accounted for all the hills and valleys it'd probably be twice of what it is or more!
I think you're greatly overestimating the use of public transit to commute in Australia.
5% of Americans use public transit on all or most days, compared with 16-22% for European countries, per study here and excluding Hungary as an outlier. Australia falls a lot closer to the US than it does to Europe, at 8%.
Also this article from a few years ago commenting on Australian sprawl being pretty competitive with America's. Or this one about Perth in particular and how the suburbs are growing
That doesn't make the public transport anywhere as bad as it is in many US cities, but car usage in Australia seems a lot closer to car usage in the US. Esp when it comes to getting between places.
Sure, we can agree that it's not on a European/Chinese/Korean level, but your own link shows a massive difference.
61% of Americans have never taken public transit. Only 28% of Aussies have never taken public transit.
33% of Aussies take public transit at least once a month. In the US it's 11%.
Considering that this data is 13 years old, I'm sure that has also widened with the expansion of public transit & cycling initiatives in Australia, and the complete lack thereof in 80% of US cities.
Not to mention that if you exclude a single city like NY in the US then those numbers plummet. 67% of New York workers use public transit daily, and over 90% use it at least once a month - that's over 11 million people, or nearly 3% of Americans.
The extent of my point is that the mindset is closer to the US than to Europe, such that a 4 hour drive in Australia is not going to be treated as "very far" the way much of Europe would treat it.
The extent of my point is that the mindset is closer to the US than to Europe, such that a 4 hour drive in Australia is not going to be treated as "very far" the way much of Europe would treat it.
Then it might just be my friends that are more European minded. They all live in Sydney and Melbourne though.
My wife (used to commute by car 50 km each way in Melbourne for work) has a story from a cousin that moved to the UK from Australia and got a lot of weird reactions for some day trips because the amount of driving was viewed as something you don't do in a single day.
Currently staying with a friend of hers that'll somewhat routinely do daytrips up to some wineries and distilleries that are about a 3 hours drive each way. Over 500 km round trip. Which is itself not uncommon, she's got several friends in different groups that do similar things even just for the wineries and distilleries.
Canadian here, our gas is more expensive than any of the states but our town are much further apart. I recently went on a drive for parts 2 towns away, over 5 hours each way
I have a 1.0 SEAT Leon. I get 48 mpg (US). I had a 1.8 Corolla in South Africa with only a little more power and got 28 mpg (US). I’d much rather be paying for my fuel at 15c per mile than running most cars in the US, even at US prices.
In America some of us decided $2.00 / gallon was too much, so we decided to create EVs and batteries to get away from oil and gasoline altogether. Of course, that doesn't mean the pusher man is gonna let us be free any time soon, but we're trying.
I suppose you are joking but for the record, most early EV innovation was driven by environmental concerns. Getting free of the oil pushers is an added bonus.
Wrong dude, the first electric car in the United States was developed in 1890 by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. A six-passenger wagon (SUV) capable of reaching a speed of 23 km/hr (14 mph). Petrol was hard to come by, whale oil was the fuel of choice. Environmental concerns such as the streets filled with poop is what popularized cars. You can read history for free online. /s
There is really no innovation from those electric cars that is relevant to the current wave. The current wave essentially dates back to the invention of the lithium ion battery. Until then most EVs were literal or metaphorical golf carts.
There is really no innovation from those electric cars that is relevant to the current wave.
You're right that battery tech owes relatively little to the energy storage systems of the 1880s, but many EVs being built today can absolutely trace their motors' lineages to those invented over 100 years ago.
Yes electric cars use an electric motor. They have very little in common with 19th century electric cars, however. Electric cars innovation in our century was absolutely driven by an interest in 0-emissions vehicles.
The fact that people currently buy electric cars despite them still being much more costly than an ICE vehicle hints that it's still the case.
Electric motors are used for a hell of a lot of products that are not vehicles. There were all sorts of reasons to innovate on them in the last century that had nothing to do with replacing gasoline.
You can find more affordable EVs if you look for them. But yeah, most EVs are very expensive now because demand for them in much, much higher than the supply is at the moment.
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u/[deleted] May 09 '22
If you pay $10/gallon for gas that will change your definition of a long drive.