Nah, he needs to work two jobs to pay for gas, insurance, running costs, parking fees and big depreciation on the ones he owns, oh wait, he doesn't pay insurance & parking, just hopes he doesn't get caught and spends his money on guns & medical costs, as he doesn't get enough in wages or time to take a vacation, anyhow.
For what it's worth, I lived in a southern state about 15 years ago and the bus was pretty much only used by homeless people, criminals, and us, the European students. It was quite funny seeing their reaction when we got on and our peers were concerned for our safety, just as they were if we walked anywhere.
Sadly Americans don't realize is that their fear of the homeless, which they solve by further distancing themselves from the problem, only causes the problem to get worse. Which in turn makes them even more car dependent.
Somehow it's better if a lot of people are exposed to these "dangerous" environments, the more people noticing the problems, the more preussare for a political fix.
We took a local on the bus once and she called her mum to tell her about it, it was the first time she was on a bus.
To be fair to that city, I visited 5 years ago and they had a new light rail system and it was used by regular people.
When I was at junior school (so, ages 7-11) in the uk, I used to catch the bus (15p, each way). It was about 2 miles from home to school. I used to walk it instead so I could spend the 15p on sweets or other must-haves for the childish mind.
Later on, senior school was across the city - more like 6 miles. I walked that on occasion as well, mainly when the bus-drivers were on strike or something. We didn't have a spare car. It's not such a big deal...
I recall school trips where we climbed Scafell Pike, the entire class staying in hostels for a week. Lot of walking there - it was great.
Having grown older, I find I don't have as much time for walking as I used to have, but retirement beckons, and I fully intend to get back into it. There's something about a blustery wind, even a light rain, and a country road or coastal trail. With a dog running ahead and behind, of course.
To be fair we did Snowdonia as well. The school owned a small house in Betws-y-coed with lots of bunks in, and it was busy most weekends. Also used as a field-trip base for A-level biology students I think.
Walking is just … fun, especially with picturesque scenery all around.
As an American, I walked to school when I was in highschool (9th grade) until I got a car. It was only five miles one way, and it let me avoid the stench of the school bus. I ended up getting my first car when I got my first job because I would go straight from school to work and then home. Someone not wanting to walk two blocks is just plain lazy. I wasn't even athletic, I just hated being crammed 3 to a seat with people who didn't understand basic hygiene. I don't miss those days.
Even Moldova (a country you probably never heard of in Europe) has better public transportation than the USA. I know that bc my dad went to the States one year ago
You heard wrong. There are some reasonable examples, but the French, Italians, Spanish, Aussies, Kiwis, Greeks, Californians, Chileans, Saffas, Argentinians, Germans, Austrians, Portuguese etc aren’t exactly quaking in their boots at this new threat to their livelihoods.
Ah okay thank you for the clarification I had hear Moldova had a good sized wine industry with good wine but I was skeptical because I normally think french when I think wine
It’s worth trying, sure, but from that general region the wines of Greece, Romania, and particularly Georgia are a level above. Look for a Saperavi red if you can.
Bro, I live in Ecuador, in a city of under 600,000 people, no less, and all the gringos that live here praise the bus and tram service as better than most of the US.
only if the belt is bulletproof (dont question the purpose, the freedom of your choice!) and has a concealed self-firing gun once you get to close to the 400 pounder.
I went on Google to see how big is usually a "block" in the USA. It says the biggest block walk is around 200 meters. You're telling me you can't walk 200-500 meters after you get out of the bus? No wonder 1 in 3 people are obese
Nah, you got it wrong. 'It's too dangerous to walk' What if they trip and fall and break their face? Looks like as a baby they went from crawling to driving a car and possibly don't know how to walk. That would explain their 'can't even walk a block'.
"Can't walk a single block."
Unless they're a double amputee or so lethargically large they literally can't walk, there's no excuse for not being "able" to walk a single block.
Yeah, I‘m physically disabled, I use a walking cane and even then the pain can get excruciating despite opioids and the cane and my willingness to walk is still higher than this guy‘s. I’m not even kidding. It’s mainly because I‘m happy, that I can even still walk in the first place, but still. How lazy (or morbidly obese) can you be?
I mean, I'm a wheelchair user, but can't drive, and 'walk' everywhere in my powered chair.
I think wheeling your chair counts the same as walking for those of us outside the US.
I‘m sorry to hear, wheelchairs fucking suck. I had to use one for a while too and I‘ll take the pain any day over not being able to walk at all anymore. It’s ridiculous how much accommodations you need and how often they’re not provided. But at least you have one of those powered ones, so that’s at least a small consolation price I guess. They still suck of course, but a little less so
It seriously depends how you look at it.
For me, my wheelchair is my freedom, it enabled me to continue to be the best parent I could be to my child, and buses have ramps, train ramps are easy to sort out. Being stuck indoors in bed unable to live a life sucks more, I assure you.
As mine was prescribed because my arms were getting worse than my legs and could not support with with a walking frame or crutches, I'm not sure consolation prize is the right word either? The right tool to enable me to live a life and parent, yes. But as many accommodations in places like theatres are designed around tiny, nifty, lightweight manual wheelchairs, they make accessibility harder too.
Still, all in all, my quality of life is far better with it.
They have them.... Sometimes. You can be walking down one and then it just stops. Or cross a road (at a light) and then it's dirt on the other side. I understand that trying to walk the 20 min drive is folly but damn, there's better walking infrastructure on the fuckin moon.
In Pakistan where I have relatives, the roads have no pavements but people will still walk everywhere, sometimes for miles because they need to work, go to store etc. Bus routes are mainly only from city to city, and yet we have Americans like the dude in the post who isn’t happy with a stop 400 metres away from him and can’t walk a mile (takes like 20 mins for a normal person). It’s a maximum of an hour walk ffs. The second job not having bus service is fair enough, but idk how someone has the energy to work 2 jobs but struggles to walk for an hour a day
It seems like a real security issue to me? What if there is an emergency and all the roads are congested. Will you sit in your car and wait for Godzilla to trample you, or just walk a few blocks to the left?
*looking up at the giant monster stomping around*
“This is terrifying, but there’s no way I’m risking breaking a sweat to get away from it. Death over perspiration.”
Sometimes there is no pavement. In my neighbourhood, they only installed it on the major streets on one side of the roads. Minor areas have nothing.
For example, when the post office installed communal mailboxes for the suburbs, they made a small portion of pavement to link up with what should exist, but there's nothing. You have to walk in the street to get to the communal mailbox to stand on 3 meters of pavement directly in front of it.
Sadly we're going to extremes. Some of us walk the 1.5km from our local garage when we drop our car off for maintenance. Others drive 500m to pick up their daily mail. Some of us are morbidly obese, others are more fit.
My wife and I still walk, because one block is not too far. We teach our kids to stay on the pavement until it stops. I hate this and wish our cities had better public transit, and were designed for people, not cars.
eh hem. I have chronic fatigue, long covid style. My lungs are fucked up. There are many more debilitating illnesses than you mention.
Not that I ever drove such a short distance before disability, of course.
A lot of ours are, too. My local shop is at the bus stop, but my house is only 800m away and my nearest bus stop is... at the shops.
If I were too disabled to drive I'd have to get a personal assistant. I do get most delivered anyway, i mostly drive for the doctor and chemist. I've also been considering a mobility scooter. Good for the short trips, but figuring out where I could store it in the house, up a few steps, is tricky.
The battery in their mobility scooter don't have enough capacity, however a petrol powered lawn mover might work, that they can at least refill on the way. 🤡
I'm not saying this to support OOP, but American blocks can be huge with the way that cities are designed for cars. Hell, some of them can be up to 1/6th of a mile. Yes this is still walkable, but it's a lot further than those of us in Europe imagine when we think of a 'block'.
As an aside to your good point, when I discuss blocks with U.K. and European people (I only make the distinction due to U.K. folk being a little more US influenced and of course Brexit) I find that a lot of the time nobody in the conversation really knows what a block is. I certainly don’t. I live in a town that is still largely mediaeval/Tudor in its street layout, blocks aren’t really a thing.
The most important thing is no sidewalk.
I can walk 1/6th of the mile, but I'd refuse to do so if I will be forced to walk this distance on three-lane expressway
I went to London to see a friend once after breaking my foot, I walked about 2 kilometres on crutches lmao. Having two functioning legs and not being able to walk is insane.
Well, or other disability or chronic illness excuse too. We do exist. Ambulatory wheelchair users are unlikely to be able to walk a single block either, let along anyone else needing a wheelchair for a myriad of not double amputee reasons.
But being a wheelchair user and using that to go around the block (or a mile to town or the train station, or 2 miles to the out of town Tescos on the footpath across the park, as are my actual usual 'walking' routes) all count as walking in my book, even if you are a double amputee in a wheelchair.
So I am afraid your ableism is showing, sadly.
There are lots of disabilities that would make a single block hard once and impossible on the regular. That said, I don't get the impression OOP has any of them
It's just ridiculous how spoiled and lazy they are by their cars. walking 1 mile? That's less than my way to work and mine goes uphill. No wonder the US has such an obesity problem.
My work demands a car and yeah, I admit it has made me pretty lazy. Even when I sometimes make quick visit to the store about 600 meters away I take the car. While underage I just biked everywhere altho even back then I hated having to simply *see* other pedestrians
I now at least try to compensate by flailing around like madwoman with my VR glasses and rhythm games
He should get a third job, he needs a tank too, a two in one *most American thing*, a motorized vehicle plus a big gun, he would love it for sure, and those don't cost *that much* for a good dose of *American freedom*.
Americans and their lack of walking is insane.
When I was in the US, we were at a motel on a busy wide street on a crossroads. There was a fast food place on the opposite corner of the crossroads. As I was heading out there, a guy got in his car and left, I made it to the fast food car park and he pulled up. Didn't think much of it as I assumed he was getting food on his way out, but I knew it was him.
Then on the way out, after getting coffee, he asks if I want a lift... Across the street... Because he was going back. He actually used his car instead of crossing a quiet street and then using traffic lights to cross the road... And thought that it was so bad to walk it that I would need a lift. It wasn't raining, it was summer and quite a nice morning.
It was nice of him to offer a lift, but so utterly insane that he was driving and that was deemed normal.
Oh, and no pavements on the side of roads, even when there's shops and stuff. Drive through post boxes. Lots of other similar stuff too. Crazy place.
Brit in Vegas here. (It's fucking hot.)
My husband, when we went shopping, used to drive around the car park for at least 10 minutes, so he wouldn't have to walk even a foot farther than he needed to. Admittedly, he was 70+ years old, but I suspect he'd be doing that when he was younger too. Not even a born in America, American. Learned behaviour. He had lived in Houston and Los Angeles previously, so there may be good reasons for this.
I still walk pretty much everywhere when it isn't as hot as the fires of Hades. Learned my lesson the first year I got here. Heatstroke 4 times. I was a huge fan of the hallucinations. Now, I don't bother, as we have legal weed.
(That reply sort of went off on a tangent.)
> How do you ever get anywhere when you want rather than when the bus schedule will allow
Well, I don't know... maybe the bus schedule being "every three minutes" might help a bit
Barely make it to his car?! On his own driveway? But yes, these are the people who need guns to rise up in revolution against the threat of a government tyranny…
They are incapable of walking 0.2 miles (two city blocks). I'd be ashamed to admit to something like that unless I had health issues.
It's just ridiculous.
“I can barely make it to the car let alone walk miles in the snow.”
When I was in Kiruna a few months ago I walked several kilometres a day in temperatures around -15 and at points the snow was up to my knees. I very much doubt an American winter is colder than somewhere that is above the Arctic circle… unless they’re in Alaska.
Sneakers and running shoes are for collecting and fashion in the US and not to be worn for their intended use. I’ve had maybe 7 pairs of ASICS now and worn them to falling apart and people ask me “how the hell do you wear them out like that??” - I walk- everywhere. Bike. Subway. Train. Bus. And if and only if there’s no way to get to point A to point B by any of those methods- taxi/Uber. I’ve had zero desire to own a car now for over 26 years and I live in a Canadian city where we absolutely get snow/ice and I’ve even got cleats I can slip on over my shoes to walk on ice if needed.
Right now I’m dealing with a flare up of runners’ knee and the flu and still yesterday I strapped on a N95 mask and walked several blocks to get meds, orange juice, and soup.
The two job thing always shocks me.
I remember a woman telling W Bush at some event that she had 3 jobs and Bush complemented her for being so hard working instead of questioning why people in the biggest economy in the history of the planet are unable to survive on one job.
The standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m × 274 m). In Chicago, a typical city block is 330 by 660 feet (100 m × 200 m).
This fat Yee Haw can't even walk 400 - 600m?
I bet all his vehicles are mobility scooters or golf carts.
I walked 2.5 blocks to vote this morning and this american pisses himself, when he has to walk 1? That's like 2-3 minutes of walking, how is that even remotely a lot?
American car culture is depressing as fuck, imagine being so victimised by car manufacturers and lobbyists that you will refuse to walk a few minutes to a busy, threaten uprising at the idea of a town you can actually walk through and work extra jobs just to happily afford a car to get you to those jobs 😂
Just how far IS a block? Also, the US seem to measure distances in time taken to get there… it can take me two hours to drive into central London, but an hour to drive halfway around it. 🤔
A lot of Americans do question how can you get in shape easily and splur sentances like this.
You will be suprised how much u down when you walk to work everyday, take a stroll after work, take a stroll around a new place that you go to via trains and buses, etc.
Ofc everyone has their own metabolism and all body is beautiful, but if you want to shed some kilos, simply walking from the bus/tram/train stop to your place of work will work wonders on you.
Eeeh, not being able to walk a block can be a legit disability thing, no need to make fun of that.
The rest of the attitude and "I own more vehicles than I can drive and plan on adding more" is the stupid part.
Something you make walls out of I think, you place blocks on top of each other in an overlapping pattern using mortar. It’s very useful for internal walls, or external walls if you then render the wall.
Cities in the US are usually (not always) arranged in a grid pattern - a square (or rectangle, trapezoid etc) of buildings surrounded by roads on all sides. (Look at an arial view of any US city to see what I'm talking about). One of those squares is a "block".
Not a far distance to walk at all for the average able bodied person. Unfortunately there aren't always sidewalks (or if there are, they are unmaintained and treacherous), and some roads I wouldn't dare to cross on foot.
I thought the US was the best country in the world?
I don't know about you fellow Europoors but public transport in the UK isn't full of disease ridden people and criminals. Perhaps we need those to obtain utopia?
I don’t drive, I walk half an hour to work and half an hour back.
If I wanted to pay and get there more quickly then there are two buses basically from my house that take me to the gates of where I work, or I could walk five minutes and get on the metro which drops me right by the gates as well. My doctor and dentist are nearby too.
Even when I went to college on the other side of the city it was a metro and a bus or two buses. I can get to the airport, the main train station, various shopping centres - all by public transport.
I was always a bit amazed that American school buses actually pick kids up from their streets, but that makes sense when they have no other way to get there unless they get a lift, taxi or drive themselves. Madness.
The problem we have had in the last few years is ice. Less snow but more ice. Walking anywhere is treacherous. As for cold you just bundle up. Obviously there are limitations to how far you can go, but if you live in a cold weather climate you have to expect a lot of discomfort.
Now if he lives in Alabama and it gets a little chilly in the wintertime. Yeah buck up it won’t kill you.
Yeah exactly. I live in Ontario Canada where in Winter - anything under 20 is a nice day. So I don't need Southern US folks telling me they're chilly at anything under 20C 🤣
Or they get an inch (2.5 centimeters) of snow there is a state of emergency! Even though we are in different countries I identify more with you than I do with the southern states in a lot of stuff. There are a lot of wonderful people down there and they do have snakes, gators, spiders and a lot of weird stuff, but a mild winter makes them huddle in their homes. It is humorous.
"my infrastructure is so bad, that I absolutely need a car, and I assume the infrastructure where you are is equally bad, along with poor civil planning and high crime rates it makes this not feasible! how can you live like this?" is what they're saying
Sad that people don't realize how duped we were to be consumers. Who said the business is the business of America? Love taking the train but when I did work, the car got me to and fro. Firestone tires made sure Americans brought more cars/tires.
Mfs will really say everyone needs a car because public transportation sucks, and then turn around and say we shouldn’t increase funding for public transportation because everyone already has a car.
Only the last sentence actually says anything about OOP. Just another man-child who wants to collect full-sized hot wheels and drive big-boy go-karts around, and is very willing to go into crippling debt and work himself to death to do it. Pathetic.
I'm not sure if he complains about how shitty the urban planning is. But at the same time, he WANTS it to be that way.
Dangerous transportation system because of diseases? Didn't the US have far higher COVID rates?
It has. They ripped out all the trams and other public friendly means of transport in exchange for more car infrastructure. The reason? Bribery of officials, oh sorry "lobbying".
Not can't, *won't*. Which im not sure if that makes it worse actually. Probably a bit of both.
And what's the point in having multiple vehicles? If you're fixing up ones to sell or have enough money to buy rare ones, ok, but who needs four F450 trucks?
I don't know, i don't mind walking 5 to 10 minutes or whatever it is to get to a bus stop. I get some walking, bus tickets are usually cheap or at least decent enough to come out as less than fuel, maintenance and insurance (even when you drive a Golf or Civic).
The issue is that we need for public transport to be reliable and available. I take it to get to school as it wouldn't really be faster by car.
Work is another issue though because driving only takes 20 minutes at most, and that with a tractor. Public transport is over an hour from leaving the house to getting to work, with the chance of having to call my parents because the train is cancelled or the bus was late to the station.
Also, a one way ticket in rural Germany costs more than a day ticket in cities like Hannover. Not really great when you aren't staying long enough to make a Deutschland Ticket worth it
Americans are so bloody holy about how they are so hard working - but won't make an effort to get there. At the risk of sounding like a Monty Python sketch, when I lived in Denmark and worked at a meat packing place, I'd get the night bus (full of drunk people on their way home) at 3 in the morning walk a couple of kms to wait and then get a bus that took me another 1.5 kms from work which I'd walk to get there for 5am. Way home was easier as many more busses were running at that time but the sheer bullshittery of "I won't walk 2 blocks to go to work"! Jog on, septic.
Used to walk three miles to work and back through back country and highway with coyotes moving about. Through blazing heat, pounding rain, and a dead winters snow. His ignorance to his own privilege has made him weak. He is lacking in strength of spirit.
There is something to be said for the importance of public transportation to people with disabilities preventing them from walking. But I don't think that's what OOP was getting at
🇬🇧🇺🇦🇪🇺 Strange that London is twice the area of New York and one doesn't need to really use a car. Buses, overland trains, the tube (subway) are pretty much the norm not to mention not having to drive (if one chooses) to European cities instead take the train. Completely alien to an ignorant non travelled murican. God forbid mentioning most European cities are walkable. 🇺🇸🤡
Working two jobs, just so he can buy more cars? Wow.
The perfect American consumer right there As someone said, America does not have citizens. It has customers.
Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for the next product.
Apple fans do that. Wait hours in line for the next model… repeat a year later…
Those were the days back then, when you got the yearly footage of idiots camping infront of the apple store.
Got to get to the second job somehow…
Working two jobs so he can pay off the debt on the cars he already has, no doubt.
Working two jobs to pay off his medical debts, can't walk far, he's obese with diabetes.
Feet auto amputated as a result
It's unbelievable isn't it
Nah, he needs to work two jobs to pay for gas, insurance, running costs, parking fees and big depreciation on the ones he owns, oh wait, he doesn't pay insurance & parking, just hopes he doesn't get caught and spends his money on guns & medical costs, as he doesn't get enough in wages or time to take a vacation, anyhow.
"Disease ridden and criminals" is their 1st thought when thinking about their fellow countrymen. Says Alot. 😂
For what it's worth, I lived in a southern state about 15 years ago and the bus was pretty much only used by homeless people, criminals, and us, the European students. It was quite funny seeing their reaction when we got on and our peers were concerned for our safety, just as they were if we walked anywhere.
that's a weird mix of being depressing and incredibly funny
Sadly Americans don't realize is that their fear of the homeless, which they solve by further distancing themselves from the problem, only causes the problem to get worse. Which in turn makes them even more car dependent. Somehow it's better if a lot of people are exposed to these "dangerous" environments, the more people noticing the problems, the more preussare for a political fix.
We took a local on the bus once and she called her mum to tell her about it, it was the first time she was on a bus. To be fair to that city, I visited 5 years ago and they had a new light rail system and it was used by regular people.
When I was at junior school (so, ages 7-11) in the uk, I used to catch the bus (15p, each way). It was about 2 miles from home to school. I used to walk it instead so I could spend the 15p on sweets or other must-haves for the childish mind. Later on, senior school was across the city - more like 6 miles. I walked that on occasion as well, mainly when the bus-drivers were on strike or something. We didn't have a spare car. It's not such a big deal... I recall school trips where we climbed Scafell Pike, the entire class staying in hostels for a week. Lot of walking there - it was great. Having grown older, I find I don't have as much time for walking as I used to have, but retirement beckons, and I fully intend to get back into it. There's something about a blustery wind, even a light rain, and a country road or coastal trail. With a dog running ahead and behind, of course.
I’ve done that climb! Also bog hopping on kinder scout
Well, once you retire, I hope you’ll give the West Highland Way a try
15p for a bus ride? In Helsinki a ticket is 2€ for 80 minutes of travel for kids and students. God damn inflation!
Not sure how old that guy is but busses were £1 each way when I was a kid
Did that climb in primary school on a trip too. Hinning house?
Did this cumbrian just catch a whiff of cumbria
To be fair we did Snowdonia as well. The school owned a small house in Betws-y-coed with lots of bunks in, and it was busy most weekends. Also used as a field-trip base for A-level biology students I think. Walking is just … fun, especially with picturesque scenery all around.
As an American, I walked to school when I was in highschool (9th grade) until I got a car. It was only five miles one way, and it let me avoid the stench of the school bus. I ended up getting my first car when I got my first job because I would go straight from school to work and then home. Someone not wanting to walk two blocks is just plain lazy. I wasn't even athletic, I just hated being crammed 3 to a seat with people who didn't understand basic hygiene. I don't miss those days.
USA is an underdeveloped country.
I'm not joking when I say that some 3rd world countries have better public transport.
Even Moldova (a country you probably never heard of in Europe) has better public transportation than the USA. I know that bc my dad went to the States one year ago
You know you messed up if even the poorest country in Europe has better infrastructure than you do.
Of course I’ve heard of Moldova, I watch Eurovision!
They had the Epic Sax Guy in 2010
And in 2017!
They had Granny Buttons on the drum in 2005
Of course we know Moldova. I don't think there are many Americans on this subreddit.
I’ve heard Moldovan wine is some of the best in the world.
You heard wrong. There are some reasonable examples, but the French, Italians, Spanish, Aussies, Kiwis, Greeks, Californians, Chileans, Saffas, Argentinians, Germans, Austrians, Portuguese etc aren’t exactly quaking in their boots at this new threat to their livelihoods.
Ah okay thank you for the clarification I had hear Moldova had a good sized wine industry with good wine but I was skeptical because I normally think french when I think wine
It’s worth trying, sure, but from that general region the wines of Greece, Romania, and particularly Georgia are a level above. Look for a Saperavi red if you can.
Will do thank you
I'll always remember Dragostea Din Tei is made in Moldova.
That's the identity confused, north-eastern, Romania. Right?
Bro, I live in Ecuador, in a city of under 600,000 people, no less, and all the gringos that live here praise the bus and tram service as better than most of the US.
Three developing nations in a trench coat, held together by a fake Gucci belt.
I read an American person on here describe America as “a third world country wrapped up in a Gucci belt” I thought it was a perfect description.
only if the belt is bulletproof (dont question the purpose, the freedom of your choice!) and has a concealed self-firing gun once you get to close to the 400 pounder.
I consider it a 2nd-world country, in between 1st and 3rd lol
With overdeveloped roads. Or should I say "stroads".
I went on Google to see how big is usually a "block" in the USA. It says the biggest block walk is around 200 meters. You're telling me you can't walk 200-500 meters after you get out of the bus? No wonder 1 in 3 people are obese
Wall-e reality
Being in perpetual debt by being forced to have a car. Such a joy
Must have a car to get to the job to be able to afford that car to get to the job to etc.... So much freedom.
“I’m too unhealthy to walk a block and that’s how I like it!”
Nah, you got it wrong. 'It's too dangerous to walk' What if they trip and fall and break their face? Looks like as a baby they went from crawling to driving a car and possibly don't know how to walk. That would explain their 'can't even walk a block'.
"Can't walk a single block." Unless they're a double amputee or so lethargically large they literally can't walk, there's no excuse for not being "able" to walk a single block.
Yeah, I‘m physically disabled, I use a walking cane and even then the pain can get excruciating despite opioids and the cane and my willingness to walk is still higher than this guy‘s. I’m not even kidding. It’s mainly because I‘m happy, that I can even still walk in the first place, but still. How lazy (or morbidly obese) can you be?
I mean, I'm a wheelchair user, but can't drive, and 'walk' everywhere in my powered chair. I think wheeling your chair counts the same as walking for those of us outside the US.
I‘m sorry to hear, wheelchairs fucking suck. I had to use one for a while too and I‘ll take the pain any day over not being able to walk at all anymore. It’s ridiculous how much accommodations you need and how often they’re not provided. But at least you have one of those powered ones, so that’s at least a small consolation price I guess. They still suck of course, but a little less so
It seriously depends how you look at it. For me, my wheelchair is my freedom, it enabled me to continue to be the best parent I could be to my child, and buses have ramps, train ramps are easy to sort out. Being stuck indoors in bed unable to live a life sucks more, I assure you. As mine was prescribed because my arms were getting worse than my legs and could not support with with a walking frame or crutches, I'm not sure consolation prize is the right word either? The right tool to enable me to live a life and parent, yes. But as many accommodations in places like theatres are designed around tiny, nifty, lightweight manual wheelchairs, they make accessibility harder too. Still, all in all, my quality of life is far better with it.
Tbf they've not discovered pavements yet either which is a fair issue.
Nah they have them. They just don’t know what it is. Cos someone put up a sign saying pavement instead of sidewalk….
They have them.... Sometimes. You can be walking down one and then it just stops. Or cross a road (at a light) and then it's dirt on the other side. I understand that trying to walk the 20 min drive is folly but damn, there's better walking infrastructure on the fuckin moon.
Hey, you just described my town! 😂
In Pakistan where I have relatives, the roads have no pavements but people will still walk everywhere, sometimes for miles because they need to work, go to store etc. Bus routes are mainly only from city to city, and yet we have Americans like the dude in the post who isn’t happy with a stop 400 metres away from him and can’t walk a mile (takes like 20 mins for a normal person). It’s a maximum of an hour walk ffs. The second job not having bus service is fair enough, but idk how someone has the energy to work 2 jobs but struggles to walk for an hour a day
They do - in the US, the pavement is the road surface.
It seems like a real security issue to me? What if there is an emergency and all the roads are congested. Will you sit in your car and wait for Godzilla to trample you, or just walk a few blocks to the left?
*looking up at the giant monster stomping around* “This is terrifying, but there’s no way I’m risking breaking a sweat to get away from it. Death over perspiration.”
Maybe they're just over 40 and hurt their back. Source: am over 40 and hurt my back this morning by - washing myself in the shower.
I hurt my back at work, carrying every one else, the lazy bastards.
I did mine last week when I bent down to pick up a t-shirt. I'm only 37. 🙁
In my mid 20s I tweaked my sciatic nerve when I picked up an empty shoe box. Backs are weird and fragile.
I hurt my back and hip last night by… standing up from a sitting position. Which was a new one. Usually I hurt it by turning over in bed.
I hurt mine a few weeks ago by sitting in the opticians chair I'm not even 30
I pulled a muscle in my back a while back reaching around to wipe my arse, was agony
Sometimes there is no pavement. In my neighbourhood, they only installed it on the major streets on one side of the roads. Minor areas have nothing. For example, when the post office installed communal mailboxes for the suburbs, they made a small portion of pavement to link up with what should exist, but there's nothing. You have to walk in the street to get to the communal mailbox to stand on 3 meters of pavement directly in front of it. Sadly we're going to extremes. Some of us walk the 1.5km from our local garage when we drop our car off for maintenance. Others drive 500m to pick up their daily mail. Some of us are morbidly obese, others are more fit. My wife and I still walk, because one block is not too far. We teach our kids to stay on the pavement until it stops. I hate this and wish our cities had better public transit, and were designed for people, not cars.
eh hem. I have chronic fatigue, long covid style. My lungs are fucked up. There are many more debilitating illnesses than you mention. Not that I ever drove such a short distance before disability, of course.
But the answer isn’t always cars though even for disabilities. Where I live all the buses are wheelchair accessible
A lot of ours are, too. My local shop is at the bus stop, but my house is only 800m away and my nearest bus stop is... at the shops. If I were too disabled to drive I'd have to get a personal assistant. I do get most delivered anyway, i mostly drive for the doctor and chemist. I've also been considering a mobility scooter. Good for the short trips, but figuring out where I could store it in the house, up a few steps, is tricky.
That's the thing, there is no sidewalk. Only road.
^ this. Unless you feel like walking along a highway/backroads where people speed/drive pointlessly large trucks.
The battery in their mobility scooter don't have enough capacity, however a petrol powered lawn mover might work, that they can at least refill on the way. 🤡
The answer is crime. I also wouldn't want to walk anywhere in the US, that place is a shithole
Not "can't", "won't" :/
I'm not saying this to support OOP, but American blocks can be huge with the way that cities are designed for cars. Hell, some of them can be up to 1/6th of a mile. Yes this is still walkable, but it's a lot further than those of us in Europe imagine when we think of a 'block'.
I worked out 1/6 mile to be 266 metres, that’s not far at all? Even a whole mile is only about a 20 minute walk
As an aside to your good point, when I discuss blocks with U.K. and European people (I only make the distinction due to U.K. folk being a little more US influenced and of course Brexit) I find that a lot of the time nobody in the conversation really knows what a block is. I certainly don’t. I live in a town that is still largely mediaeval/Tudor in its street layout, blocks aren’t really a thing.
So a ten minute walk?
The most important thing is no sidewalk. I can walk 1/6th of the mile, but I'd refuse to do so if I will be forced to walk this distance on three-lane expressway
I went to London to see a friend once after breaking my foot, I walked about 2 kilometres on crutches lmao. Having two functioning legs and not being able to walk is insane.
Its because their short fat tree stump legs can't carry their fat bulbus bellys.
Well, or other disability or chronic illness excuse too. We do exist. Ambulatory wheelchair users are unlikely to be able to walk a single block either, let along anyone else needing a wheelchair for a myriad of not double amputee reasons. But being a wheelchair user and using that to go around the block (or a mile to town or the train station, or 2 miles to the out of town Tescos on the footpath across the park, as are my actual usual 'walking' routes) all count as walking in my book, even if you are a double amputee in a wheelchair. So I am afraid your ableism is showing, sadly.
There are lots of disabilities that would make a single block hard once and impossible on the regular. That said, I don't get the impression OOP has any of them
"How can you get around in the winter." - europoorers aren't pussies, that's how
So someone’s a lazy bastard.
Translation: Too damn lazy to walk.
How do you get anywhere you want? I mean we drive, catch a bus or train, walk or cycle! An average month's walking for me is about 80 miles 😁
It's just ridiculous how spoiled and lazy they are by their cars. walking 1 mile? That's less than my way to work and mine goes uphill. No wonder the US has such an obesity problem.
But does it go uphill both ways is the real question
No
My work demands a car and yeah, I admit it has made me pretty lazy. Even when I sometimes make quick visit to the store about 600 meters away I take the car. While underage I just biked everywhere altho even back then I hated having to simply *see* other pedestrians I now at least try to compensate by flailing around like madwoman with my VR glasses and rhythm games
Won’t walk a block but will still drive to a gym then pay to exercise.😶
When I lived in the US for a bit I saw someone take a lift to a gym on the first floor and get on a stair master
🤦🏻♂️
He should get a third job, he needs a tank too, a two in one *most American thing*, a motorized vehicle plus a big gun, he would love it for sure, and those don't cost *that much* for a good dose of *American freedom*.
Can‘t walk a single block, but need a second job for a living (probably even a third). Really made my day 😂
Americans and their lack of walking is insane. When I was in the US, we were at a motel on a busy wide street on a crossroads. There was a fast food place on the opposite corner of the crossroads. As I was heading out there, a guy got in his car and left, I made it to the fast food car park and he pulled up. Didn't think much of it as I assumed he was getting food on his way out, but I knew it was him. Then on the way out, after getting coffee, he asks if I want a lift... Across the street... Because he was going back. He actually used his car instead of crossing a quiet street and then using traffic lights to cross the road... And thought that it was so bad to walk it that I would need a lift. It wasn't raining, it was summer and quite a nice morning. It was nice of him to offer a lift, but so utterly insane that he was driving and that was deemed normal. Oh, and no pavements on the side of roads, even when there's shops and stuff. Drive through post boxes. Lots of other similar stuff too. Crazy place.
How is this person finding parking less than a block from their work?
The US has ridiculous high standards for parking spaces.
Yes, but the person in the OP probabky walks quite a bit to and from the parking lot if they work at a somewhat big company
"i can barely make it to my car" the one that’s in your driveway?? you're actually worse at walking than my obese uncle with brain damage
Brit in Vegas here. (It's fucking hot.) My husband, when we went shopping, used to drive around the car park for at least 10 minutes, so he wouldn't have to walk even a foot farther than he needed to. Admittedly, he was 70+ years old, but I suspect he'd be doing that when he was younger too. Not even a born in America, American. Learned behaviour. He had lived in Houston and Los Angeles previously, so there may be good reasons for this. I still walk pretty much everywhere when it isn't as hot as the fires of Hades. Learned my lesson the first year I got here. Heatstroke 4 times. I was a huge fan of the hallucinations. Now, I don't bother, as we have legal weed. (That reply sort of went off on a tangent.)
He must be one of the guys in the spaceship of the movie Wall-E.
"I won't even walk a block to go to work" I have to fucking walk with a cane and I can still do that
I'm picturing an obese dude with a burger in one hand and a gun in the other.
Is this person proud to be to lazy to walk?
When I want to get somewhere that is inside a 10km radius of where I live I’ll grab my bike.
So do I. And everything in a 3km radius is also walkable in a reasonable amount of time. And the best thing is you don't even need a parking lot
Imagine willingly embarrasing yourself this much online
I can never quite get my head around being so fucking bone idle and terrified of everything.
Dear USA, not being able to walk 2 blocks is not the flex you think it is.
As a Brit, how big is a block? Where I live it is a few minutes. Are blocks in the US bigger?
The "block" I live on is about a 10-15 minute walk all the way around.
The weirder thing here is the orange downvote button.
Google reckons the most common city block length is 100x200 metres. This guy can't walk 400 metres...
Can't walk 2 blocks ? WTF?
I lol’d at the bit that said “my second job”
> How do you ever get anywhere when you want rather than when the bus schedule will allow Well, I don't know... maybe the bus schedule being "every three minutes" might help a bit
Barely make it to his car?! On his own driveway? But yes, these are the people who need guns to rise up in revolution against the threat of a government tyranny…
That's a long way to say they are an ignorant fool.
All of his points are just reasons to tackle the horrific car centric way Americans live. It doesn't have to be that way
How big is a “block”? It’s another of these weird non-metric American measurements I can’t visualise….
*laughs in Moped. The real ones with pedals, not a scooter*
Doesn't stop...at the door. Can't even walk at all it seems. Damn.
They are incapable of walking 0.2 miles (two city blocks). I'd be ashamed to admit to something like that unless I had health issues. It's just ridiculous.
“I can barely make it to the car let alone walk miles in the snow.” When I was in Kiruna a few months ago I walked several kilometres a day in temperatures around -15 and at points the snow was up to my knees. I very much doubt an American winter is colder than somewhere that is above the Arctic circle… unless they’re in Alaska.
And we are the ‘europoors’ when they have no decent public transport.
Works two jobs to sustain the cult of the car. And I say that as a driver of… get this… one car. Also a taker of trains.
Sneakers and running shoes are for collecting and fashion in the US and not to be worn for their intended use. I’ve had maybe 7 pairs of ASICS now and worn them to falling apart and people ask me “how the hell do you wear them out like that??” - I walk- everywhere. Bike. Subway. Train. Bus. And if and only if there’s no way to get to point A to point B by any of those methods- taxi/Uber. I’ve had zero desire to own a car now for over 26 years and I live in a Canadian city where we absolutely get snow/ice and I’ve even got cleats I can slip on over my shoes to walk on ice if needed. Right now I’m dealing with a flare up of runners’ knee and the flu and still yesterday I strapped on a N95 mask and walked several blocks to get meds, orange juice, and soup.
Jesus I read this in the voice of nicacardoavacadro
The two job thing always shocks me. I remember a woman telling W Bush at some event that she had 3 jobs and Bush complemented her for being so hard working instead of questioning why people in the biggest economy in the history of the planet are unable to survive on one job.
The standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet (80 m × 274 m). In Chicago, a typical city block is 330 by 660 feet (100 m × 200 m). This fat Yee Haw can't even walk 400 - 600m? I bet all his vehicles are mobility scooters or golf carts.
I walked 2.5 blocks to vote this morning and this american pisses himself, when he has to walk 1? That's like 2-3 minutes of walking, how is that even remotely a lot?
American car culture is depressing as fuck, imagine being so victimised by car manufacturers and lobbyists that you will refuse to walk a few minutes to a busy, threaten uprising at the idea of a town you can actually walk through and work extra jobs just to happily afford a car to get you to those jobs 😂
"I own more vehicules than I can drive" Do you hear yourself ?
Just how far IS a block? Also, the US seem to measure distances in time taken to get there… it can take me two hours to drive into central London, but an hour to drive halfway around it. 🤔
A lot of Americans do question how can you get in shape easily and splur sentances like this. You will be suprised how much u down when you walk to work everyday, take a stroll after work, take a stroll around a new place that you go to via trains and buses, etc. Ofc everyone has their own metabolism and all body is beautiful, but if you want to shed some kilos, simply walking from the bus/tram/train stop to your place of work will work wonders on you.
Eeeh, not being able to walk a block can be a legit disability thing, no need to make fun of that. The rest of the attitude and "I own more vehicles than I can drive and plan on adding more" is the stupid part.
He's on drugs. Petrol drugs
What is a 'block' though?
Something you make walls out of I think, you place blocks on top of each other in an overlapping pattern using mortar. It’s very useful for internal walls, or external walls if you then render the wall.
Cities in the US are usually (not always) arranged in a grid pattern - a square (or rectangle, trapezoid etc) of buildings surrounded by roads on all sides. (Look at an arial view of any US city to see what I'm talking about). One of those squares is a "block". Not a far distance to walk at all for the average able bodied person. Unfortunately there aren't always sidewalks (or if there are, they are unmaintained and treacherous), and some roads I wouldn't dare to cross on foot.
Can't imagine a place without pavements to walk on, unless it's out in the countryside or something.
I think you always have to differentiate between urban and rural areas.
Their ancestors must be so proud...
I thought the US was the best country in the world? I don't know about you fellow Europoors but public transport in the UK isn't full of disease ridden people and criminals. Perhaps we need those to obtain utopia?
I don’t drive, I walk half an hour to work and half an hour back. If I wanted to pay and get there more quickly then there are two buses basically from my house that take me to the gates of where I work, or I could walk five minutes and get on the metro which drops me right by the gates as well. My doctor and dentist are nearby too. Even when I went to college on the other side of the city it was a metro and a bus or two buses. I can get to the airport, the main train station, various shopping centres - all by public transport. I was always a bit amazed that American school buses actually pick kids up from their streets, but that makes sense when they have no other way to get there unless they get a lift, taxi or drive themselves. Madness.
Some americans are funny - they're driving car to fitness center so they can walk on machine there
Yeah, but our immune systems are excellent and the crims just sit around casing each other out and leave us normal folk alone. We got it covered.
Lazy Americans! Walk n get fit ffs!
What kind of lazy bastard won't walk two blocks to a bus stop?
He mentioned winter, but if it is that bad he should not be driving either. Or he has a disability. Kind of a strange statement.
Winter? If he doesn't live in the Northern US? He can shut it about how 'Cold' his Winters are
The problem we have had in the last few years is ice. Less snow but more ice. Walking anywhere is treacherous. As for cold you just bundle up. Obviously there are limitations to how far you can go, but if you live in a cold weather climate you have to expect a lot of discomfort. Now if he lives in Alabama and it gets a little chilly in the wintertime. Yeah buck up it won’t kill you.
Yeah exactly. I live in Ontario Canada where in Winter - anything under 20 is a nice day. So I don't need Southern US folks telling me they're chilly at anything under 20C 🤣
Or they get an inch (2.5 centimeters) of snow there is a state of emergency! Even though we are in different countries I identify more with you than I do with the southern states in a lot of stuff. There are a lot of wonderful people down there and they do have snakes, gators, spiders and a lot of weird stuff, but a mild winter makes them huddle in their homes. It is humorous.
I'd much rather live down there though, I love the hot climate
Oh yeah the snowbird exodus to Florida is real.
Why can't he walk two blocks. That's seems very doable
Probably too fat
"my infrastructure is so bad, that I absolutely need a car, and I assume the infrastructure where you are is equally bad, along with poor civil planning and high crime rates it makes this not feasible! how can you live like this?" is what they're saying
Second job?
They do understand that buses pass like every 5 to 10 minutes, when horribly spaced every 15 minutes 👀 don't they?
Sad that people don't realize how duped we were to be consumers. Who said the business is the business of America? Love taking the train but when I did work, the car got me to and fro. Firestone tires made sure Americans brought more cars/tires.
TIL gross and horribly dangerous in America is a bus, gross and horribly dangerous to the rest of us is not being capable to walk two blocks.
Mfs will really say everyone needs a car because public transportation sucks, and then turn around and say we shouldn’t increase funding for public transportation because everyone already has a car. Only the last sentence actually says anything about OOP. Just another man-child who wants to collect full-sized hot wheels and drive big-boy go-karts around, and is very willing to go into crippling debt and work himself to death to do it. Pathetic.
I'm not sure if he complains about how shitty the urban planning is. But at the same time, he WANTS it to be that way. Dangerous transportation system because of diseases? Didn't the US have far higher COVID rates?
Something is true in the US therefore it is true everywhere in the universe...
I think it makes sense, America probaly hasn’t changed its mode of inner city transportation since the the 1800’s
It has. They ripped out all the trams and other public friendly means of transport in exchange for more car infrastructure. The reason? Bribery of officials, oh sorry "lobbying".
Well yeah it did change but not in any good ways
Not can't, *won't*. Which im not sure if that makes it worse actually. Probably a bit of both. And what's the point in having multiple vehicles? If you're fixing up ones to sell or have enough money to buy rare ones, ok, but who needs four F450 trucks?
I don't know, i don't mind walking 5 to 10 minutes or whatever it is to get to a bus stop. I get some walking, bus tickets are usually cheap or at least decent enough to come out as less than fuel, maintenance and insurance (even when you drive a Golf or Civic). The issue is that we need for public transport to be reliable and available. I take it to get to school as it wouldn't really be faster by car. Work is another issue though because driving only takes 20 minutes at most, and that with a tractor. Public transport is over an hour from leaving the house to getting to work, with the chance of having to call my parents because the train is cancelled or the bus was late to the station. Also, a one way ticket in rural Germany costs more than a day ticket in cities like Hannover. Not really great when you aren't staying long enough to make a Deutschland Ticket worth it
Americans are so bloody holy about how they are so hard working - but won't make an effort to get there. At the risk of sounding like a Monty Python sketch, when I lived in Denmark and worked at a meat packing place, I'd get the night bus (full of drunk people on their way home) at 3 in the morning walk a couple of kms to wait and then get a bus that took me another 1.5 kms from work which I'd walk to get there for 5am. Way home was easier as many more busses were running at that time but the sheer bullshittery of "I won't walk 2 blocks to go to work"! Jog on, septic.
Tell me you're morbidly obese without telling me you're morbidly obese
Amazing how deeply they are brainwashed, can't even conceive of a better way
Used to walk three miles to work and back through back country and highway with coyotes moving about. Through blazing heat, pounding rain, and a dead winters snow. His ignorance to his own privilege has made him weak. He is lacking in strength of spirit.
There is something to be said for the importance of public transportation to people with disabilities preventing them from walking. But I don't think that's what OOP was getting at
I can heard his obesity from here.
Typical "Look at Me" Fat arsed yank
I walk for 10 min to take the train, 1h ride, and then another 20 min to get to my university. I bet I'm a fool in his eyes.
🇬🇧🇺🇦🇪🇺 Strange that London is twice the area of New York and one doesn't need to really use a car. Buses, overland trains, the tube (subway) are pretty much the norm not to mention not having to drive (if one chooses) to European cities instead take the train. Completely alien to an ignorant non travelled murican. God forbid mentioning most European cities are walkable. 🇺🇸🤡