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’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