Isn’t this what ambulances/non-emergency medical transport is for?
I mean, where I’m from you have two different medical phone numbers, one for emergencies, and one for non-urgent help, like transport to chemo or other regular treatments.
Edit: As in: a securing of health infrastructure should be included in the car-free discourse. Having free and easily accessible medical transportation would make the argument for less private cars much more palatable.
Unfortunately these services are privatized and incredibly expensive in places like the US. They are also fairly rare and their fleets aren’t large enough to cover everyone who would need them. Cars (your own or a friend’s) have to fill the gap until something better.
I’m studying in a medical profession where I frequently attend to people in their homes, sometimes urgently (midwife in Canada). We are all required to have private cars to drive to people’s houses and meet people at the hospital for births and assessments.
If the medical system would give me a free car to use for my profession that would be cool… But I’d also have to use it just like a private car because you can get called to a birth while grocery shopping since you’re on-call 24/7 as a primary care provider.
Home care does actually take others off the road which is a fun bonus though. The first week of birth and postpartum assessments taking place in the home saves clients about 8 car rides which is great because riding in a car or driving during labour is no bueno and postpartum riding sucks. After a C-section you can’t drive either. Even in a hospital delivery postpartum care occurs in the home which people find an absolutely fantastic experience. Those appointments aren’t emergencies but there can be emergencies…
I know of one bike midwife. But that’s extremely rare and all students must drive.
Thats a really solid perspective. Again, where I’m from, Denmark, midwives and the like, especially at-home help, have their own cars with the regions seal on the side of the car. So that part is also solvable.
My argument is based on: fewer cars = good.
Especially in urban spaces. I’m not saying cars have been totally solved in Denmark, far from it, but with a solid network of bikepaths, sometimes more space for bikes than cars, and many exclusive bus lanes, not having a car isn’t an issue. In fact, in our capital, you can’t get somewhere faster with a car than with a bus/metro.
The main problem with going less cars as I see it is mostly gear transportation. How do you bring whatever kit you need for your job, if you can’t bring a car? This question remains unsolved.
Totally agree with you that the fewer cars the better, and using cars and trucks as specialty tools.
Have you seen the YouTube channel NotJustBikes? His entire channel is a gold mine for this kind of stuff. He actually has a video on Canada’s only car-free community (Toronto Islands) and there is a very small number of transport vehicles available. Otherwise people just use those cart bike attachments for moving stuff around. The roads were built decades ago and basically have never need to be replaced because the bikes are too light to damage asphalt…
In the US these sorts of services are incredibly, even prohibitively, expensive depending on your health insurance situation. This shouldn’t be an excuse, but the fundamental ways our healthcare system is broken is a topic of it’s own that shows how this is all linked and how much of just our whole shit needs to be fixed before we can have nice things.
Well, if you’re ok with a $5000 to $15,000 of arbitrary fees imposed by the ambulance for what amounts to a 20 minutes ride with few treatments from a couple paramedic who are paid $25/hr. You can get double billed by multiple ambulance companies for the same ambulance ride. In a sane world, your logic is sounds and should be practiced, but in America… well…
Here how it’ll turn out if you have a family:
You get hurt, you get shipped off in an ambulance ride against your will or consent
You get $15,000 bills for a 5 minutes ride, no medicine or equipment was used on you during the ride.
Insurance refuse to cover it and you can’t pay it, because your family live in an apartment that cost $3300/mo, you’re living paycheck to paycheck. You can’t work for a while after being injured, so you get fired from your job.
The bills goes unpaid, your credit score tanked, and now you can’t get a new apartment, so eventually your lease lapses.
If collections garnish your wage, then you’re double f’d, because not only your credit score tanked that bars you from finding a new apartment to live in, you also can’t afford to feed your family, because of the garnished wage and now you’re facing homelessness and everyone in politic get to call you lazy through no fault of your own.
You can try bankruptcy, but that is no guarantee.
With your already low credit score, some jobs are now closed to you, because apparently they check for your credit score too.
Tl;dr: If you fall in America, the American society love to keep you down forever. There is a growing shift from nuclear family to multi-generational family, because of this fact, we want to minimize expenses and have more safety nets between family members if one of us get hurt.
Isn’t this what ambulances/non-emergency medical transport is for?
I mean, where I’m from you have two different medical phone numbers, one for emergencies, and one for non-urgent help, like transport to chemo or other regular treatments.
Edit: As in: a securing of health infrastructure should be included in the car-free discourse. Having free and easily accessible medical transportation would make the argument for less private cars much more palatable.
Unfortunately these services are privatized and incredibly expensive in places like the US. They are also fairly rare and their fleets aren’t large enough to cover everyone who would need them. Cars (your own or a friend’s) have to fill the gap until something better.
I’m studying in a medical profession where I frequently attend to people in their homes, sometimes urgently (midwife in Canada). We are all required to have private cars to drive to people’s houses and meet people at the hospital for births and assessments.
If the medical system would give me a free car to use for my profession that would be cool… But I’d also have to use it just like a private car because you can get called to a birth while grocery shopping since you’re on-call 24/7 as a primary care provider.
Home care does actually take others off the road which is a fun bonus though. The first week of birth and postpartum assessments taking place in the home saves clients about 8 car rides which is great because riding in a car or driving during labour is no bueno and postpartum riding sucks. After a C-section you can’t drive either. Even in a hospital delivery postpartum care occurs in the home which people find an absolutely fantastic experience. Those appointments aren’t emergencies but there can be emergencies…
I know of one bike midwife. But that’s extremely rare and all students must drive.
Thats a really solid perspective. Again, where I’m from, Denmark, midwives and the like, especially at-home help, have their own cars with the regions seal on the side of the car. So that part is also solvable.
My argument is based on: fewer cars = good. Especially in urban spaces. I’m not saying cars have been totally solved in Denmark, far from it, but with a solid network of bikepaths, sometimes more space for bikes than cars, and many exclusive bus lanes, not having a car isn’t an issue. In fact, in our capital, you can’t get somewhere faster with a car than with a bus/metro.
The main problem with going less cars as I see it is mostly gear transportation. How do you bring whatever kit you need for your job, if you can’t bring a car? This question remains unsolved.
Totally agree with you that the fewer cars the better, and using cars and trucks as specialty tools.
Have you seen the YouTube channel NotJustBikes? His entire channel is a gold mine for this kind of stuff. He actually has a video on Canada’s only car-free community (Toronto Islands) and there is a very small number of transport vehicles available. Otherwise people just use those cart bike attachments for moving stuff around. The roads were built decades ago and basically have never need to be replaced because the bikes are too light to damage asphalt…
I’ve seen that name around on Nebula. Seems like he does good stuff! Thanks for the recc
I’m just glad that there is finally a little pushback to the urban-hell model of urban planning haha
In the US these sorts of services are incredibly, even prohibitively, expensive depending on your health insurance situation. This shouldn’t be an excuse, but the fundamental ways our healthcare system is broken is a topic of it’s own that shows how this is all linked and how much of just our whole shit needs to be fixed before we can have nice things.
Well, if you’re ok with a $5000 to $15,000 of arbitrary fees imposed by the ambulance for what amounts to a 20 minutes ride with few treatments from a couple paramedic who are paid $25/hr. You can get double billed by multiple ambulance companies for the same ambulance ride. In a sane world, your logic is sounds and should be practiced, but in America… well…
Here how it’ll turn out if you have a family:
Tl;dr: If you fall in America, the American society love to keep you down forever. There is a growing shift from nuclear family to multi-generational family, because of this fact, we want to minimize expenses and have more safety nets between family members if one of us get hurt.