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Toadlips72 t1_j2dp2wi wrote

Reply to comment by Deluc02 in In opposite : could you list things cheap today that will be unaffordable in 2030 ? (and why) by salutbobby

Yep, came here to say this. I think we'll be moving toward walking, public transportation, bicycles and mopeds in the United States, like other countries where automobiles are out of reach for the common folks.

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blueskieslemontrees t1_j2dpjw6 wrote

But with the exception of a few choice mega cities, you literally cannot get around (school, work. Doctor appointments, grocery shopping) without a car at all. Numerous visitors to the US have attempted walking to scoff "those lazy Americans" and about a block and a half in turn around and give up because its a fatal mistake. Quite literally. Pedestrians are not safe at all woth how our entire infrastructure is built. You would have to etch a sketch end the entire system and start over. And where will everyone live for those 20 or so odd year ls when there is nowhere to live or be when everything is tore up?

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RatKing20786 t1_j2dszl7 wrote

You hit the nail on the head. The vast majority of the country is not able to be traveled in anything resembling an efficient fashion. I live in a county where there's no medical care of any kind outside one city. There's a few grocery stores with really limited provisions kicking around, but you have to go that city to go shopping for anything else, and it's about 50 miles away. Public transportation is a pipe dream, since the odds of anyone building 50 miles of high speed railway or doing several round trip bus routes per day to service a few hundred people, who are scattered over about 60 square miles are pretty much nonexistent. And proximity aside, in the winter, travel on foot or bicycle is pretty much a non-option due to snow and temperatures.

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I think there's a huge market for simple cars, that don't have staggering amounts of unnecessary "luxury" BS packed into them that isn't even optional. The newest car I've ever had was a 2003, and I'll keep it like that as long as I can. Sure, it's cool to have an electronic paddle shifting, keyless start, traction controlled, automatically braking, car that can take voice commands and wirelessly sync to phone, but it's not worth $80,000 to me to buy it, and the cost of maintaining all that crap is huge. If somebody still made a simple vehicle with no frills, just a simple, tried and true piece of machinery, it would cost a fraction of new vehicles today, and I think there would be a ton of people who would buy it. Whether or not that'll happen, I don't know, but it's an option.

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regisphilbin222 t1_j2drvga wrote

I’m hoping for a major infrastructure and planning reform to really kick off soon. We designed ourselves into a car mess, no reason why we can’t design ourselves out

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Toadlips72 t1_j2dz94a wrote

For those who downvoted, check my reply again 10, 15, and 20 years to see if I am right. That's where we're headed, like it or not. I'm not saying that infrastructure is there -- because it certainly isn't where I live. What I'm saying is that the cost of transportation is rising rapidly, and cars are quickly becoming too expensive for regular people. I predict a lot of pain for us related to transportation in the next decade or two.

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yaboi2016 t1_j2e9h9f wrote

I don't disagree that we're heading that way, but the OP asks for 2030, and I think these changes are unlikely to be impactful on the average american within the next 7 years

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Toadlips72 t1_j2ebwtr wrote

The text I was replying to said "I think in a few decades cars will be a luxury". I was not replying to the OP.

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