Society’s got priorities wrong.

  • most car travels are 1 person or sometimes 2 person

  • the majority of car travels are quite short, less than 40km.

  • many car travels are just to get some groceries or drop of a little package or just say “hi” to someone, carrying nothing but themselves.

  • cars are fucking expensive, to buy and to maintain

  • accidents become way worse with heavier vehicles

Microcar is a valid answer to all of these, while still being sheltered from weather.

How are urban places (i’m in Belgium) with almost permanent super heavy road traffic congestion, bad climate statistics, high polution values, very limited available space left, no self-sustaining energy production and high traffic accident statistics still pooring in billions and billions in subsidies year after year into “regular” big heavy SUV-like vehicles instead of these? It’s beyond my comprehension. The only real valid reason i somewhat get is the collective scare of being in a crash and not wanting to be in the smaller vehicle. We could save the climate, we choose not to.

  • MICROLINO: 17.990 €
  • OPEL ROCKS: 8.699 €
  • CITROEN AMI: 7.790 €
  • RENAULT TWIZY: 13.000 €
  • FIAT TOPOLINO: 9.890 €

A lot of people here casually spend more on a sunday racing bike every few years for fucks sake.

  • Prandom_returnsEnglish
    7·
    5 months ago

    Or

    Electric bicycle / electric bike / electric trike.

    Half the price, double the mileage, double the speed+acceleration, half the charging time, half the cost, half the parking space, 1/4th the traffic.

    • exanime@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      5 months ago

      Agreed… however in countries like mine (Canada) the weather make those useful only half of the year.

      PS: no, I am not like those hardcore people who can bike in the winter.

      • Prandom_returnsEnglish
        12·
        5 months ago

        Well, some of these cars have no windows. And if you turned on heating (if they had them) you’d probably lose half of the power and range.

        I’m from a northen country as well, where it reaches -30°C. Wouldn’t want to be in a kids’ shopping cart either.

        • exanime@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          I do not know the details… however, I could handle the cold as I can drive with my winter gear on… but biking seems impossible to me.

          Even if we cannot use these in the dead of winter… we usually don’t get to the harsh stuff until mid December and by March is manageable again… with bikes, a normie like myself would have to skip November to May

          I think for most people living in the main cities, this could work well … even great a second car for a fam… I just hate that 99% of my choices are big or bigger… and if I want EV I get to pay for the luxury packages I care little about

    • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      5 months ago

      They require a different license and skill in my country. Not everyone can ride bikes unfortunately, especially for fear of accidents. Regardless if that fear is well founded or not.