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Matthew Loutner
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Comments by "Matthew Loutner" (@Matthew_Loutner) on "" video.

@uliwehner Or a two-lane 45 mph secondary road. It is ridiculous to have to walk in the grass and mud 1000 feet to reach the bus stop. But it is common. The reason it gets that way is that most cities have laws saying the home builder has to put a sidewalk in front of every house they build. In many cases the city does not assume the responsibility of building the sidewalk. So walking in front of a vacant lot, you may have to walk in the grass or mud because no house was built on that lot. But of course everybody drives to the market. So the city putting in sidewalks may not justify the expense. Also businesses have to put in the sidewalk when they build. The developer also builds the street by the way . . .
43
That is right! 😂👍🇺🇲 ✝️
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@JanBruunAndersen 😂 Those gates are usually controlled by a light sensor and you can open them by blocking the light beam with your hand (but there should have been a button). Chances are you are the only one who has ever used the pedestrian gate . . .
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@Flameboar Yes. I see them walking on their lunch hour to get some exercise and lose weight. And then at 5 o'clock get into their car and drive home . . .
17
Those are called heat islands.
8
Who says smaller cars are "more sensible" ? That is a subjective value judgment. My car is the right size for my needs and makes sense in my situation.
7
I could "cruise endless highways" every day for the rest of my life and never tire of the changing scenery or the sensation of flying and feeling of freedom. 🇺🇲 ✝️
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@maximipe What is your point? Because in the United States of America there are more registered vehicles on the road than the population and it is the city's job to serve those taxpayers.
5
 @elPracticante There is no such thing as "a smarter option than a pickup."
5
@Sevenfold120 If you were not specifically going to the park to run, you would not have been on the 4 lane highway in the first place. What does the highway have to do with anything? The question is can you run in your subdivision? They said earlier that American sidewalks are completely empty. You should be able to run on any sidewalk anywhere without obstruction. I cannot see a need to go all the way to the park to run. Unless you live on a farm, there should be a sidewalk closer somewhere. As far as 4-lane highways are concerned, most highways have a paved shoulder as wide as a car and I have walked and biked on the highway shoulder many times with no problem. (When you are walking and get struck by a car ANY speed is unsafe for a pedestrian.)
4
"Ugly" is in the eye of the beholder.
4
After you buy your house, you plant trees, shrubs, and flowers where you want them. I bought in a subdivision with no trees in 1980 and planted a tiny tree in the front yard. Today the same subdivision has plants everywhere and the tree is huge overwhelming the house.
4
@rolflin Nope. All humans are "bipeds." People are only pedestrians when they are "walking along a road."
4
@PolarisMidnightSoldierLux Any kind of transportation whatsoever is dependency. Just what until somebody steals your horse in the desert and you have to walk home. We are doing it the most economical way. The free market determines that. Your other question makes no sense. You might as well be asking me "where is Comoros?" Comoros is where it is. Just because you do not know where something is does not mean it does not exist. Comoros is where it is and public transportation is where it is. We have public transportation everywhere and it is up to date and reliable. The fact is most Americans prefer to drive their own car for increased flexibility and mobility.
4
@greek9244 Go research it someplace else. Americans do not want public transportation. They want to drive their own personal car. "Traffic engineering and city design" must conform to the public's wants and needs and Americans want and need cars.
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@ReflexVE I know I "do not live in a vacuum." Thank God I live in a country where 360 million people, pedestrians, taxpayers, and city planners think the same things are "sensible" that I do. THEY are sensible. (Some question about you.)
4
@iracture You said in a previous comment that you want to "walk and walk and walk."
3
@machtmann2881 HOAs are not that common and they do not generally tell people that they cannot plants flowers and cut the grass. If you have grass, they are more likely to tell you to keep it cut.
3
No reason to do it.
3
@PolarisMidnightSoldierLux This is America. We do not have anyone "outside a car." Our roads DO work for everyone. An alley "divides communities" . . . and so does a fence . . . What is the problem that pedestrians cannot use the sidewalk and the crosswalk? I do not get your point.
3
@PolarisMidnightSoldierLux We are AHEAD on transportation flexibility because we have interstate highways from coast to coast and there are more vehicles registered in the United States than there are people. We do not need any of that JUNK that you mentioned because we are already more flexible with our cars. Those other countries are STUCK relying on public transportation and cannot afford to catch up with us who do not need it. And I already mentioned that there is public transportation for disabled people who are anti-social and do not like going to the store with their friends. And who cares if Asians and Europeans shower us with praise? Do those naysayers own their own car? And your saying that most Americans do not live where they have public transportation available is flat wrong. It is EVERYWHERE.
3
@FGGiskard Being "less than ideal" has nothing to do with flexibility. Flexibility means that you can hop in your car anytime day or night and go someplace. Flexibility means that you can drive out onto a farm, drive up to the barn, load a bale of hay into your trunk, drive home and unload that bale of hay in your yard or garage. It is flexibility of time and flexibility of space. Neither of which can you do on public transportation because public transportation is not flexible. Public transportation is inflexible and you must conform to its routes and its schedules.
3
@PolarisMidnightSoldierLux In the United States you would be hard pressed to find people living in suburbs who "want to use alternative transportation." I used to live in a suburb that had a bus route going directly past it. I could literally look out of my house window and see the bus stop. The bus started at a mega-shopping mall at the outskirts of the county and went all the way to downtown Indianapolis. The bus stop was directly at the exit street of the subdivion where it was convenient for all subdivisioners to access. And it could take you to a lot of really useful places that people would like to go. A bus went past there every 20 minutes all day long from 6 am to 11 pm. It got a fair amount of ridership from a certain class of people. But the people living in the subdivision just ignored it and drove their car because cars are much more convenient. Americans drive cars. And your comment from 2 days ago says "we need to learn from others and do better." That is wrong. We already have things better. If we started copying other countries, we would be going backward. Americans do not want public transportation. They want flexibility and convenience. (And are willing to pay for it.) (And now I HAVE told you where "readily available, affordable, up-to-date public transportation is in the U.S." . . as you requested 2 days ago.)
3
@ismaelatta3470 Regardless of what you think, I am qualified to speak for the 99% of Americans who do prefer to drive cars. I will continue to speak for them and if you do not like it . . . tough cookies. If you want to speak for the 1% of Americans who prefer to ride on public transportation, go right ahead. Who authorized you to get on here and tell me what to say??? Do you always go around telling other people what to say and do?? What I say is MY DECISION AND MY CHOICE.
3
@maltekoch1632 Houston, Texas does not have any zoning laws. And zoning laws would not stop a cornershop anyway. Each lot can be zoned individually. The lot owner goes before the town board and requests whatever zoning that he wants for his lot. If the neighbors do not object, the zoning is changed. I have already said multiple times that Americans drive cars because they want to drive cars. Americans "have the freedom to choose from different fair options" and they choose to drive cars. Nobody wants to walk through a suburb. An American would not walk 500 m to visit a store. No one is going to walk there. Who cares what happens with stadium traffic? You will only go going there once a year. And we do not like living in a stack of cardboard boxes.
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 @franhunne8929 Why would Heaven forbid a pickup?
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@haukesattler446 If I utilize my large car to full capacity once a year, I need it. What do you expect me to do? Go buy a second car for that one vacation? Big cars make sense when I am climbing in and out of a tiny car and need a crutch to do it and break both of my legs and one arm getting into the car. Taking 7 children from your neighborhood to a school or church function or to go get ice cream would be a lot harder in a small car.
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@iracture Walking on an interstate highway is illegal . . . And unsafe.
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It is not "difficult to shift" back.
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@LodeNid I am an avid bicycle, motorscooter, and motorcycle rider. I know how it feels to ride each.
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@gregniemi572 Try driving from Van Horn, Texas to El Paso, Texas. That is a 120 mile stretch of rolling hills on an interstate highway with no traffic. You will be looking at wide open scenery where you can see for miles. I do not find driving in the cities to be "stressful" or "dangerous." It is a matter of adjusting your mind to accept and expect that it will take more time than you "WANT it to take" and learn to have patience. Try reading a book or somerhing. Walking that same 5 miles would take over 2 hours, right? And if Portland is stressing you out, you can always move out of Portland . . .
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@uuuuuu352 I walk much slower than most people do. It takes me 2 hours and 20 minutes to walk 5 miles. Don't you think it is kind of dumb of you to assume that everyone in the world walks at exactly the same speed?
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You must be a pedestrian . . .
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@algomes715 Hopefully, you are walking on the sidewalk NEXT TO the "road that belongs to you" and not out in the street where you do not belong.
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@PolarisMidnightSoldierLux WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?? We are AHEAD of the rest of the world in transportation flexibility. And if you know ANYTHING about America, you know that there is public transportation to EVERYWHERE and disabled and carless people use it every day. What kind of lame gaslight question is that??? And you should know that disabled people have friends, relatives, and church members who drive them everywhere. They are not exactly stranded at home. And WHO said things are too spread out??? How ridiculous. I can walk to Walmart, McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Sonic, my local hardware store, my laundromat, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dominoes, General Dollar, the Post Office, and numerous pharmacies and gas stations. Too spread out??? 🤣 How ridiculous!!! And our cities were not built by bulldozing anything. They are built on previously used farmland that developers bought. I certainly hope in the future, you can present some REAL arguments.
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@franhunne8929 God does not care if I destroy his planet. In fact He told me that within the next 50 years or so humans are going to destroy EVERYTHING and then He will return to Earth to rebuild.
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@ReflexVE Considering that every adult in America owns a car (including many homeless people), who are these "extravagant few consumers" who are giving you such a hard time? I thought you were working for the taxpayers . . . The subject is being sensible and the sensible thing to do when you are working for somebody else is to let them tell you what is sensible -- not the other way around.
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@ReflexVE Sorry. But I did not get it from "delusions" -- I got it from God. I do not need to see a doctor.
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@ReflexVE The "community" is the taxpayers and even if you work for free, you are still working for all taxpayers. And the taxpayers own SUVs, motorhomes, and pickup trucks. The roads are not "oversized" -- they are comfortable. And they are not "silly and wasteful." I used to work for a moving company and we have to be able to park a semi in front of every house in the country to deliver their furniture. We need access to EVERYWHERE.
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@ReflexVE God did not tell me to destroy the world. But He did tell me that you will. And you will not be thinking about who is delusional when you realize that you have let it get out of control. You will only be thinking about how you can save your bacon.
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@ReflexVE I know how it gets done. They use box trucks instead of semis. You know that I can watch a video and see what is on their roads, right? Which incidentally is not always the most economical way to do it. The big trucks, longer trains, big airplanes and wider streets are more economically efficient. Economy of scale.
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@ReflexVE When you "plan" for the community (taxpayers), you are supposed to "plan" for the big trucks and other vehicles that people need to use. Telling 70,000 companies to scrap their semis is not a plan. They are trying stuff like that in New York City . . .
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@Vanadium Dude. It costs a FORTUNE to rent a car. It is substantially cheaper to OWN your car. You are the funny one. You cannot even count . . .
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@Greeniykyk I would not be caught dead saying, "God is a jerk."
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Wrong. You are comparing the government spending of a federation of 50 countries to a single country.
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@mikeblatzheim2797 All states in the United States are "nation-states." Go look up what a nation-state is. Germany is not a federation of nation-states. My point was that she was talking about using federal money to build state roads. She should have been talking about using state money to build state roads. Using federal money to build state roads would be equivalent to using European Union money to build German roads. If Monaco can be a country, Wyoming can be a country. Where I have been has nothing to do with the facts. That is a stupid European thing to say.
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@mogon721 22.7% but still wrong. We are talking about governmental structure -- not population size. And which government entity pays for what infrastructure.
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@mikeblatzheim2797 The members of the United States federation are sovereign countries also. Each has their own political system, government structure, and way of funding things also. The United States has: Cities that fund city street building. Counties that fund county road building. States that fund state highway building. Federal that funds federal interstate highway building. A state of Germany would be equivalent to a county. In fact 3 of the German States are called city-states: Berlin, Bremen/Bremerhaven and Hamburg.
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@mikeblatzheim2797 You might want to look up the phrase "state's rights." Also the history of Texas. Also the American Civil War (war between the states).
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@mikeblatzheim2797 United States government can only make laws that concern issues that cross state borders. They cannot make any law concerning any issue that lies within a state as each state is a sovereign country. The federal government has no jurisdiction to tell a city how wide their streets must be as suggested in the video. Only a state government could do it and it is always left up to the city to decide based on the localism principle.
1
@mikeblatzheim2797 The United States was founded by 13 British colonies. They were called colonies, but each colony was operating their own affairs as an independent country. At the Continental Convention there were lengthy discussions and arguments about how much power the colony-countries should surrender to the federation. 11 of the colony-countries had been operating as independent countries for over a hundred years. The only reason for federating the colony-countries was in order to organize limited cooperation to fight the British Empire. There was no other reason for the federal government to exist. And the political framework they created reflects the fact that each colony-country considers itself sovereign. One of the requirements for setting up the federation was that each colony-country had to write their own constitution and setup a republican form of government. That is still true. Any random territory is required to form themselves into a sovereign country with a constitution before they can join the federation.
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@mikeblatzheim2797 In case you did not know this: Each state has their own military and when the federal government needs more soldiers the president has to call the state governor and request to use the state's military. Currently the great state of Texas has their military stationed along the Rio Grand River defending Texas from Hispanic immigrants illegally crossing into Texas. Other states have sent their militia's to assist Texas. Biden is mad about it, but there is nothing he can legally do to stop Texas from doing that. It is the biggest news in America currently.
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@iracture I do not perceive flat land as boring. Each building or fence or culvert or cornfield you pass is different from the others. In the United States, carless people and homeless people use the cart from the grocery store and push it home. You probably did not know about that. 😅
1
@thorstenjaspert9394 You are referring to the interstate highways? Normally, I check my facts, but today I will guess: A car traveling at 65 mph can cross that wide stripe in 2 seconds and strike another car head on. If you watch some American car crash videos, you will commonly see the car run down the grass and get stuck in the ditch at the bottom.
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@thorstenjaspert9394 Yes. We do have some metal barriers. But they are not foolproof. We have cars flip over them and bounce off of them into other cars, go spinning and so on. That damages other cars severely, risks additional lives, leaves the cars dead blocking the highway, and involving multiple cars leaves debris all over the highway that has to be cleaned up so it does not cause a flat tire or secondary accident. Still guessing, but I think they want the car to get off of the highway as quickly as possible and stay off. And of course in the United States, there is plenty of space to spread out and farmland is cheap. The largest cost involved is the labor used to cut the grass. They are called "medians" by the way.
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@johnmoore2342 😅😂🤣
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@johnmoore2342 Your question is not fully defined, but we have different entities that build different roads: The subdivision developer builds the streets in his own subdivision. If his street meets all of the requirements, the city will adopt those streets. The city builds streets inside city limits. The county builds county roads outside of city limits. Those are 45 mph roads. The state builds state highways for fast access to major cities. Those are usually 2 or 4 lane and the speed is around 60 mph. Those are the ones the person said she could not walk to the park for running. The United States government builds interstate highways that are fast, and nothing is allowed on them unless it is traveling at least 45 mph. There are no stop signs or stop lights. You use entrance and exit ramps. Those are pedestrian-restricted. The United States is HUGE and we have 33,000 miles of Interstate highways to arrive anywhere quickly and conveniently.
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@Fragenzeichenplatte Carless people bring their cart back when they come the following week. Homeless people just abandoned the cart anywhere. But the supermarket does not care. There is a separate company who goes around and picks up the abandoned carts and returns them to the store. The store considers this a service to the needy. Why are you trying to explain things that you do not understand in a country that you do not know anything about?
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@leob4403 What is your problem?? YOU are the one who needs to learn some humility. I am "humble" and you lied when you called me a "liar." Isn't that a bit hypocritical of you?? I did not claim the "the USA has the best transportation in the world." I claimed that Americans do not want or need much public transportation. I never claimed that "the USA is the best at everything." However, we are the best at leading the world: The facts are . . that the Americans created your whole life: Every minute of every day of your life an American invention is giving YOU a better life. So let us look at some American inventions that YOU could not live without: Lightbulbs Aluminum foil Frozen Food High Process Food Canning Can Openers Microwave Dinners Peanut Butter Breakfast cereals French Fries Fluoridated water that prevents cavities Durable Vehicle tires Electric starters for cars Generators to charge car batteries Airplanes The Modern Jet Engine Electric well pumps that bring water to your house Electric power generating stations The whole electrical grid Every fan or blower in your heating system Your air conditioner Your refrigerator Your microwave oven Automatic Clothes washing machine Radios Television Satellite telecommunications GPS Fiber optic cables Lasers Sound and music recording Industrial computers Desktop computers Laptop computers Cell phones Smart phones Smart watches Videos The internet Anything with a transistor or microchip The factory assembly line Cotton Gin Various Farming Equipment Metal-hulled Ships Petroleum refining into gas and diesel Petroleum refining into plastics Polyester and Nylon Nuclear power Solar panels for green energy transition and . . . Soft Drinks (Have a Coke. 🧋) Then there are business models invented by Americans: McDonald’s Burger King Kentucky Fried Chicken Starbucks Circle K Tesla Walmart.…. It was ALL invented in America. And if you live in a constitutional republic, the Americans invented your entire political system. An American farm yields up to 30,000 pounds of potatoes per acre. And this is just a tiny mention of how Americans have improved your life. The fact is that Americans are so ingenious that the United States patent office has over 3 million American patents on file (in a country only 247 years old). The Americans are the smartest, most creative, most industrious people in the world who created the entire modern world. Without the United States of America YOU would be living in a cave, stone building, or wood hut with a thatched roof, carrying your water from a stream in a bucket with half of your teeth missing and cooking and heating over a campfire using wood that YOU PERSONALLY went out and gathered from a forest. And you would be using the bathroom outdoors and washing your clothes in a stream. Your connection to the outside world would be extremely limited and depending on your specific situation, you may not even know what is happening beyond your own village -- let alone around the world. 🌎 My advice is that before you "laugh" at any American, first try going without American invented lightbulbs 💡 for 24 hours and learn how American 🇺🇸 ingenuity has helped YOU see 👀 in the dark.
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@keithrushforth4019 No. The guy lied to you. I never said that "America is the best at everything." What I told that idiot is that Americans do not want or need European style public transportation.
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@leob4403 What is your problem??? YOU are the liar who needs to learn some humility. You are also a hypocrite literally lying by calling someone else a liar when they aren't.
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@uuuuuu352 I did not "assume you assumed." Your comment stated that you were assuming. If you were not assuming , you should have written your comment the right way.
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@keithrushforth4019 If you will do a little checking on these comment threads, you will find that they are full of Europeans saying that the European way of transportation is more advanced and superior and the dumb slow Americans need to catch up with Europe. The Americans are on the defense here by saying "what we have works for us and we do not want or need European style transportation." Your comment fails to be lucid because there are no Americans saying "ours is the best." We are saying that we are not behind the Europeans because we have no set goal of heading in that direction. The arguments ensue because the Europeans refuse to accept that as a real answer and keep trying to prove that the Americans should be doing things the (advanced) European way. Americans are self-confident and are satisfied with our country the way it is and we are busy concerning our own lives and our own country. We do care how anyone else wants to have their country and we do not make comparisons about other countries. It is always the foreigners who start those discussions -- not the Americans. We do not say "everything here is the best." We say "everything here is setup the way it works best for us." Even your final comment starts up the "we are better than you" comparison narrative.
1
@gregorybiestek3431 I have a difficult time trying to understand how someone could stand to live cooped up in a concrete box with gray concrete surrounding them on all 4 sides. How ugly. I think people need open spaces, front yards, back yards, trees, flowers and greenery all around them in order to achieve Earth-grounding and mental, emotional, and spiritual balance. But I guess there are some people who are okay living in a gray concrete box . . . I also think that these people claiming that gray box Lego living is the best are probably doing so because they have gotten out of balance with nature and reality.
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@Gerben42 Actually, that is completely wrong. Have you ever been in the different parts of an American city? The suburbs are the coolest for 2 reasons: 1. All of the buildings are spread apart, allowing the breeze to blow through, cooling the street. 2. The houses have front yards, backyards and side yards. The yards have grass that cools by the evaporation principle. The yards have bushes and trees that cool by the evaporation principle. Then the breeze blows that cool air from the yards across the sidewalks and streets and cools them. It is known that planting green things in your yard reduces your air-conditioning expense. On the other hand, as you go into the center of a city, there is much more concrete and pavement everywhere that absorbs heat, and everything is built both tall and close together, blocking the breeze. And there is not enough greenspace due to all of the buildings. You could not plant enough grass and trees there to have a good cooling effect because there is no place to put it. Then you have the problem that all of the airconditioners in all of those tall buildings are creating heat, and the people cooking is creating heat, and the automobile engines are creating heat. The city centers are stifling hot in the summers with high humidity and no breeze. And while that is going on, you are breathing pollution from car and truck exhaust. A city is a very unpleasant place to be in the summer. We fry eggs 🍳 on the sidewalk.
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@AnotherDuck Spread out suburbs are not particularly costly to the city. All of the roads, sidewalks, plumbing and sewer was built by the project developer -- not the city. There is a cost is to send police and fire trucks to the suburbs. And the facts are that suburbs have half the crimes and fires that the city has. When a house burns in a suburb, it is just one house. In the INNER city, you can lose the whole block. As the city spreads out, the city occurs some costs by way of libraries, parks, and community centers dotted around. But what happens concurrently is that commercial centers pop up near any subdivision and those business property taxes are very high. Our basic belief here is that the people live how they want to live and the community builds itself how it wants to be. Then the city SERVES the community. The community does not serve the city. That would be socialism. We are not here to be "economically beneficial to the city." We are the city. Now as far as taxes: Property taxes are pro-rated based upon real estate value. The very expensive houses in the burbs pay very high taxes. Higher than the older urban areas where the houses have a MUCH LOWER value. You mention that we have 3 times the vehicle deaths than Germany. But you did not mention that we have MANY more vehicles on the road per capita. You need to learn to count beans. Also, most of our vehicle deaths occur on interstate highways. Secondly, in urban street crossings. There are NONE in suburbs. Additionally, our roads that go out to the burbs are built by gasoline tax. So that the individual who drives on that road every day pays to repave the road. The guy told you square in the face that Americans prefer suburbs. If rich Americans can afford to live in suburbs, we can live in suburbs. It is not your country. So why is that a problem for you?!?
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@AnotherDuck What is your deal that you cannot walk a mile to visit a friend?? That is a 15-minute walk. Are you lazy or something?? You Europeans are coming on here frequently saying that we should build "walkable neighborhoods" and walk everywhere. But as I talk to them, I learn that they really do not like walking. When a European says "walk," they are talking about no more than a 5-minute walk. Really. How do you get any exercise walking 5 minutes?????? You should have bought a bicycle. 🤷
1
The United States has 22,000 miles of bicycle lanes adjoining roadways and no one uses them.
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@kailahmann1823 It is not "nonsense" and you need to work on getting your arrogant attitude straightened up.
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@kailahmann1823 According to law, children are required to bike on the sidewalk. Is that a problem? The white lines are for adults. I have never seen a driver drive over the line. Who told you they "regularly do it" ? Drivers are continually watching for any upcoming obstacles. They can see bicycle riders and do not need a white line to see bicycle riders.
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@mikefraser4513 You are going Hell 🌅 for using filthy language and I have permanently blocked you for the same reason. (And it was Ford -- not General Motors. And the city streets were covered with cars BEFORE Ford bought the trolleys. It was something that was going to happen anyway from natural progress. Trolleys are way too limiting for Americans.)
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@maltekoch1632 You are going to Hell 🌅 for using filthy language with me and you are now permanently blocked.
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@maltekoch1632 Well again, you are completely wrong: 1. The United States has 20,000 miles of dedicated bicycle lanes and you could live here A YEAR without seeing a bicycle in one of the bicycle lanes. 2. I can show you a place the United States where a very good high quality bus line goes directly past a housing subdivision all day long and NOBODY living In that subdivision rides that bus. They drive their car. In fact, there is one bus running along the South of that subdivision and a different bus running along the North of that subdivision and STILL nobody in that subdivision rides the bus. And really, I can show THOUSANDS of situations where people have public transportation running directly in front of their house and they do not use it. They drive their car. You do not understand Americans or American culture, yet you are trying to explain America to an American. Your problem here is that you are stubborn and blockheaded, refusing to learn from somebody who is on location and knows what he is talking about. I find that most Europeans are stubborn and blockheaded like you are and think they understand America better than Americans themselves. You people argue your point with me all day long, instead of using the opportunity that is placed in front of you to learn something. If you were smarter, you would be asking me about how American transportation systems work -- not trying to tell me. You even questioned on how disabled people can get their groceries, as if you believe that all disabled people just starve to death in their home and then we bury them. If you had studied all of my comments on this thread before commenting, you would have learned a lot about America. This is your pop quiz for the day: Name one disabled American who cannot get to their doctor's appointment, restaurant, or grocery store when they need to. Extra Credit: Figure out how we do that. (And no I do not believe you.)
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@tobeqz7065 We have the options we need.
1
 @haukesattler446 Or get stronger rims . . .
1
@haukesattler446 There is no "ugly" situation in America. America is beautiful and we have beautiful wide open spaces with lots of vegetation and room to stretch. I could just as easily point out things in Europe that I find ugly, but I do not do that. Personally, I think your crowded little streets and old buildings are ugly. But have I ever said that? No. I try to view them as quaint and nostalgic. Your attitude is reprehensible and disgusting. You need to repent. And they do not just build streets here that suit "my needs." The streets fit the needs of most Americans. Do you know what it costs to rent a car? A one week vacation from Indianapolis to El Paso costs $2600 plus the fuel. And what if I had to rent a car 3 other times during the year for some reason? How much is the total for that? You are a blathering idiot who knows nothing about America, cannot count, and speaks without understanding what you are talking about.
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@Vanadium If I rent a car to take a one-week vacation once a year from Indianapolis to El Paso that rental fee is $2600. I can buy a car for $30,000. It is cheaper to buy a new car than to rent a car for 12 years in a row. After the 12 years, I am making a $2600 profit every year from owning the car. And that does not include that I have the car that I bought every day of the year. it is constantly available for other uses. I can use it for any spontaneous use. And it does not include annual inflation of the rental car fee. Once you own the car, you are free from inflationary price increases. You cannot win with renting. And if you only drive a car once a year, there is no maintenance cost to consider.
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@Vanadium Sorry. I had to block you for using filthy language. I did not finish reading your comment.
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@ReflexVE Again. Semis do NOT work just fine on narrow roads. What do you know about it? Have you ever driven one or are you all just big mouth and talk??? I can back a semi from a two lane road into a driveway and until you can do the same stop getting smart mouth with me. ************ "The traditional trucking company in Europe has a number of smaller vans, which collect shipments and bring them to larger terminals, larger lorries then drive between terminals in Europe, and finally, the smaller vans deliver the goods (often through a network of agents). This model is known as “hub and spoke” as it reminisces the spokes of a bicycle wheel, where the goods are transported via a terminal – a so-called “hub”. Source: Trasporteca
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@haukesattler446 Yes. I know what I am talking about. I am a retired auto mechanic and there is no maintenance expense on a brand new car for the first 36,000 miles other than routine oil changes and tire rotations which are dirt cheap. And considering that you are only driving the car once a year, it would take you over 10 years to put 36,000 miles on it and things started breaking down. Considering the supreme quality of the new cars, you can likely go 50 to 60 thousand miles before needing a fan belt or water pump and those repairs are not particularly expensive. And new tires last 50,000 miles. I live in the United States and rental cars cost $30 per day plus 59 cents per mile (and those miles add up fast if you use it for everything like going to the store, restaurants, and various people's houses and everywhere while you are out of town on vacation). And so what if a big car costs more? If you are keeping a car until you die, the depreciation is meaningless. And if you only drive it once a year, you WILL still have it when you die. Taxes on a bigger car may be marginally more expensive, but you are not going to be comfortable taking a small car on a long vacation, are you? Also insurance is cheaper on a big car, not higher because they are safer in accidents. And if you only drive it once a year, you can get one month insurance for that by the way.
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@ElwoodEBlues It seems that all Europeans believe we are "forced" to own a car. The facts are when a child is 15 years of age, all you hear out of them is: "I cannot wait to turn 16 so that I can have my own car." "I cannot wait until I turn 16 so that I can have my own car." "I cannot wait until I turn 16 so I can have my own car." Owning a car in America is like owning a cat or dog or horse. It is a natural thing and everybody wants one.
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@ElwoodEBlues We used to have station wagons, but people stopped buying them and they dropped off of the market. All of the mothers are buying SUVs. They are more common than cars. The men want trucks and I think we have more do-it-yourselfers who have things to haul. Trailers are inconvenient and people without experience cannot back them up. You will normally only see a trailer behind a pickup truck. Gasoline is so cheap here that we never consider the cost. It is plenty cheap to buy one big car and drive it for everything. We spend about 5% of our monthly income on fuel. But you have to keep in mind that every person in the family owns a car and they are multiple kinds and sizes.
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@markusmontkowski6088 "Americans cannot drive" ??? You are the typical jealous, snobbish, arrogant European who you just likes to make himself feel important by looking down your nose at the "poor little colonialists." Your arrogance does not deserve a response.
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@haukesattler446 Apparently you failed to read the part where I said I am a retired auto mechanic (which is in my most recent comment to you). YOU are lecturing an auto mechanic on car maintenance??? Are you joking??? As a professional, it has been my job to get old cars running that have been sitting for years. And it is also my job to advise people on routine maintenance and long-term storage. I think I know about storing cars, thank you. And I do NOT advise practices that are "dangerous," thank you. Obviously, I know what is "dangerous" about car maintenance and you do not. If you had been reading the thread you would know that I drive my car daily and this discussion is merely about a hypothetical question that someone asked me – it is not about a real situation. But since I am a professional, this is how you would do it: 1. Fuel: They make fuel stabilizer that you put in your gas tank that will preserve the quality of your fuel. You can keep condensation in your fuel tank down to a minimum by filling the tank before storing it. But in reality, it is not going to have any more water vapor in the tank storing it than it would driving it because your gas cap has a seal on it and if you do not open the cap, moisture cannot enter the fuel tank. It gets in while you are fueling the vehicle. 2. Brakes: When you are ready to drive your car, you can take the wheels off and spray the brakes with a rust dissolver. 3. Moisture in Oil: You change your oil and filter once a year and plan to do it the week before your vacation. And I will add to that: your fully warmed up internal engine temperature is 215°f. Any moisture or condensation that has built up over the winter will evaporate within 10 minutes of warming up the engine. As far as “boiling it out regularly” . . . you do not need to do that. Your engine crankcase is a sealed unit that is not open to the atmosphere except in a few tiny places. When you shut your engine down it was 215°f inside and the only water inside was vapor and more water vapor does not readily enter because the crankcase is not open to the atmosphere. All you need to do is change your oil in the spring. 4. Tires: What makes a tire age is called “dry rot.” Basically, the lubricants evaporate out of the rubber and the rubber dries out. However, tire manufacturers have prepared for that and modern tires are made to be self-lubricating. A tire self-lubricates when it is flexed. All you have to do to prevent dry rot is move or flex the tire once a month and the tire will lubricate itself. You can do that by moving the car forward one foot once a month. 5. Engine and Drive Train Aging: Other than rubber tires and seals, non-moving parts do not “age prematurely.” The primary parts are made of metal and moving metal parts “age” by rubbing against each other causing “erosion.” The metal parts that rub each other STOP eroding each other when they stop rubbing each other. They do not “age” any more than a dry river bed does. The supposed rubber parts on your engine and drive train do not dry rot like tires do because they are not really make of rubber. They are made of neoprene and other long-lasting materials that are scientifically designed to not dry out. Your engine and drive train do NOT “age prematurely" when a car is sitting. But I do recommend to my customers that they drive their car around the block once a month just to keep some parts from sticking. I also advise them to bring the engine up to full operating temperature at the same time. That will evaporate any condensation that happens to arrive inside the oil crankcase. And driving a car around the block once a month will exercise the tires and completely keep them from dry-rotting. 6. Interior: Rot is caused by mold. You treat that the same way you would deal with any mold issue. Keep your car interior dry and clean it with a good household disinfectant as needed. 7. Battery: A lead-acid vehicle battery only degrades when the battery is not fully charged. If you keep the battery charged all the way up at all times it will last indefinitely. They make “battery maintainers” for that. They come in both wall plug-in powered and solar powered. You have your choice. I mean, really? How do you think classic and antique car collectors store their cars for years and then take them out for an occasional Sunday afternoon drive? And rich people who take long overseas vacations store their cars and then drive them when they come home? Let me know if you have any more automotive questions. I am always happy to help people.
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@haukesattler446 In my previous post, I did not say to "park your and do nothing." In fact, if you will check my comments, someplace up there I said that I would drive my vacation car 3 or 4 other times during the year to go other places in addition to my vacation. When I said the tires "oil themselves," that means that the plasticizers are encapsulated and get released from flexing the tire. You are wrong about the oil and rubber. For starters, the "rubber" that tires are made of is not pure rubber. It is a mixture of complex compounds including rubber. Tires are mostly oil resistant and you should know that because they ride on asphalt which is a petroleum and vehicles drip various oils everywhere all over the road and splash oil on the tires and it does not ruin the tires. Immersing rubber in pure oil will over time dissolve it. But a tiny amount of oil on rubber will serve to keep it soft and pliable without any damage. And I will give you a parallel example: Paper has a moisture content of 6% that keeps it pliable. Paper would be no good without that 6% moisture. But immersing paper in water will ruin it. The same thing applies to rubber tires. A small amount of oil keeps them pliable. But they are not intended to be immersed in oil. Here is a random list of plasticizers from Science Direct: "The most common plasticizer chemical structures, polar or nonpolar, are, for example: phthalates, phosphates, carboxylic acid esters, epoxidized fatty acid esters, polymeric polyesters, modified polymers; liquid rubbers and plastics, NBR, CPE, EVA,…; paraffinic, aromatic, or naphthenic petroleum oils." As you can see fatty acids are included which is an organic type of oil and petroleum oils are included. When these oils are mixed in the correct compounds and applied in the correct quantities they can be good to soften tires. We do not know the precise compound that a tire manufacturer uses because it is a trade secret. But they can contain oils. You are right that since the plasticizer may or may not contain oil, saying it oils the tire is incorrect. So I am editing my comment to reflect that. I said that your engine crankcase has tiny holes that are exposed to the atmosphere and that comment was intended to also speak for the running gear. But I also said that it is difficult for moisture to get into those holes and the amount of moisture you would get is inconsequential. And speaking as someone who has a long history of taking apart running gear in junk yards, just trust me when I tell you that we mechanics do not find rust inside running gear of a junk yard vehicle. Probably the reason for that is there is always a microscopic film of oil that covers the entire interior surface to protect the metal from rusting (and moisture that can get in is negligible). The microscopic film can be washed off if left out in the rain. But it really takes flushing to wash it off. Specifically what I said is there is no maintenance cost to consider on a brand new vehicle for around the first 36,000 miles. This is true. If you were driving the car frequently, you would not be buying, fuel stabilizer, rust disolver, driving your car around the block or battery maintainers. However you would have those costs if you left it parked as indicated: Fuel Stabilizer $5.00 Rust Disolver $7.00 Block Driving $30.00 Battery Maintainer $5.00 Oil Change $30.00 Total $77.00 The median wage in the United States is about $67,000. So 77 divided by 67,000 equals 0.1% So as I said, "That is not a cost worth considering." (Honestly . . . I cannot believe you are trying to debate car repair with an auto mechanic. 🤷‍♂️)
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@haukesattler446 When I say something it means what I intend for it to mean and I am not required to meet your guidelines on that. No maintenance cost to consider means you do not have any maintenance costs that you need to consider in our hypothetical discussion or that would have a direct impact on your monthly budget. And so what about the oil change prices? You pay what it costs. You are picking at straws trying to find some point that you can be right on. And if you will go review my no cost to consider comment, you will find that I say there you will have oil change costs. And I have not "created any rolling death traps with my tips." You made up that baseless lie about me out of nothing because you know you are losing this debate and you are developing a bad attitude about it and trying to find some way to insult me or put me down. I am the mechanic and you are the customer. Your bad attitude and insults cannot change that fact. Go work on your attitude.
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@haukesattler446 Yes. You are searching for ways to insult me. YOU are the one who picked this fight with me. And you are mad because you are losing every point. Even your very first comment about my car being dangerous and being afraid to ride in my car was an attempt to put me down and to pick a fight. Did you think I did not see through that?? Even claiming that my arguments are not valid in Europe is a made-up lie. Nice try . . . YOU are the Troll.
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@haukesattler446 So when you cannot win a debate, you default to serving fish? Novel . . . 🤣
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@haukesattler446 Well you need to work on your sources because I looked it up on the internet and here are the facts: Europe uses what is called a spoke and hub delivery system. Which means that there are large distribution warehouses on the outskirts of metropolitan areas. The semi trucks do the long over-the-road hauling from one distribution center to another. Then at the distribution center the material is off-loaded from the semi and put into a straight box truck for delivery into town. The fact that you saw TWO semi trucks in town out of 100,000 trucks does not "false" the standardized method of doing things. Very likely due to the fact that a whole semi truck all went to one stop, they decided that the labor cost to swap trucks was too expensive to do it. And a school would be on a primary road that was easy to access. Your neighborhood does not speak for all of Europe. But internet research does.
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@weeardguy You would not have any difficulty at all getting in and out of my Oldsmobile sedan. I have a complete explanation of American car rental costs somewhere on this thread. Well you are permanently blocked for using filthy language and you need to pray about that tonight.
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@weeardguy Our roads are planned correctly and are sensible. If you are having to park delivery trucks on the sidewalk, your roads are not planned correctly. I presume that would block the bicycle lane.
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@udishomer5852 You did your calculation wrong. If you buy a brand new car and only drive it on a 4000 mile vacation once a year, the car will last 50 years. We can buy a full size sedan for $45,000. The interest will be $3,331. Depreciation is not a cost. Insurance for one month is $102. Fuel does not count because you would have to put fuel in the rental car. So rounding off to $50,000, a new car would cost you $1000 per year to own. We have to pay $0.69 per mile to drive a rental car. The same 4000 mile vacation would cost $2800. Your mistake is assuming that it is a "very simple calculation" without getting your pencil out and working out the math. The facts are that you are never going to rent anything long term and come out ahead of ownership because the rental company has to cover their costs AND make a profit off of you.
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@udishomer5852 Huge pickup trucks are pointless? You can 1. Haul stuff with them. 2. You have a much better chance of coming out alive in an accident. 3. They look cool. 4. You have much better road visibility. 5. They are just fun to drive. You foreigners say the weirdest stuff. I think you are living in a parallel universe. At any rate, I own my car and it was paid for years ago and I drive it everywhere I go all the time. The vacation question is just a theoretical question that someone posed.
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@sircaballero You are going to Hell 🌅 for using filthy language, so I did not finish reading your comment. But we can assume that anyone who is wrongly using filthy language is also wrong in other areas as well. However, in the first part that I did read before you spewed your filth in my face: A van is just a pickup truck that is closed in. So the pickup truck has much better driver visibility and is safer than a van. According to official safety data, an SUV is safer than a car and a pickup truck is safer than an SUV. Now you are permanently blocked for spewing filthy language in my face.
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@anthonysandle5055 Correction: Everything I say is true, and I can guarantee you that you have errors in your math. I have a car sitting in my driveway. If I drove it once to the furniture store, that would cost me $45.00 for the car insurance, and $2.00 for the gasoline. But that car insurance allows me to drive 30 days a month 24 hours a day with no additional costs. So if I drive to the furniture store every day for a month, my total cost would be $105. How much would it cost you to drive to the furniture store every day for a month? God told me that He wants me to drive my car. It is the atheist/socialists who do not believe in God that keep telling me not to drive.
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@anthonysandle5055 Do you really think that God cares whether you waste your money or not?
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@haukesattler446 Americans do not want the government forcing them to do stuff. That is dictatorship. The job of government is to make laws that THE PEOPLE vote for. If someday Americans want small cars and narrow streets, we will first produce those small cars and buy them and start driving them. Then the government can follow suit by making the roads match the cars. You are suggesting that our government should become a dictatorship, and that is not going to make you very popular with Americans.
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@Flinno-k8w Are you American? A home owner has a lot of needs for their truck. Most of them are surrounding maintaining the home. You haul mulch, lumber, drywall, sand, gravel, appliances, furniture, paint, lawnmowers and garden tillers. And it is also used on hunting expeditions and camping in the woods and pulling camping trailers, pulling broken down vehicles, and hauling stuff for people you know who do not have a truck. And hauling stuff related to your job. Firewood for your backyard barbecues or your indoor fireplace. Homeowners use their truck frequently.
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Slower cars are required by law to drive in the far right-hand lane. If people were passing you on the right, you were in the wrong lane. And forget your quoted statistics because they are meaningless when all of the variables are considered.
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@natbarmore Well for starters if you are driving 10 over the speed limit, you are legally, ethically, and morally wrong. (and you are putting someone's life at risk.) Secondly, if there are cars on your right driving slower than you, it would be difficult to pass you on the right. Thirdly, highway departments frequently declare that they want a "smooth steady flow of traffic" because that is the safest. So comply with that. Thirdly, whether other drivers have a complaint or not has nothing to do with anything. Fourth, if other drivers are passing you, you are the slow vehicle. What you are supposed to do is stay at or below the speed limit at all times, except when passing other vehicles. If other cars are speeding, then that automatically makes the right lane your lane. You get in the right lane and drive the right speed. If someone is driving slower than you and impeding you, you pass them on the left and then move back into the right lane. Drive sixty-drive and arrive alive.
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@kailahmann1823 The United States of America is the second largest country in the world and we have infrastructure that meets the needs of our "insane" distances. If the "distances" are THE problem, we are open to suggestions on how you would shrink a continent.
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@kailahmann1823 We have people living on both ends of the country and they all need to eat. If they have to eat, they need grocery stores. In fact, there are quite a few because we have 2 ocean coasts that have a lot of tourists visiting, international shipping, ports and foreign trade. I really think that you should let us figure out how to do things here because you do not know enough about how the country is laid out.
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@kailahmann1823 It doesn't. You are the nut who came up with the concept of "insane distances." and the "size of the country." Those are your comments.
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