I recognize appreciating cool machines, I really do. I’ve just never been able to wrap my head around being a car guy. Spending huge chunks of change on a car, consistently modifying it, watching car shows all the time. I just dont get it. What’s the big draw for you?
And there’s your problem, you see cars as an appliance.
Why even bother driving if you’re going to have that attitude? Just take public transport if you really hate cars that much.
Cars are an appliance. And I have two, a daily and a special.
Both are appliances.
I have two superbikes. They are useless for anything other than being shiny, making noise, and putting a smile on my face. They are also just appliances.
I have a mountain bike and an eMTB. I have fun on them and they keep me fit but, guess what…? Yep, appliances!
I don’t drive.
Cars are an appliance. Your problem is that you don’t see them as such
I gotta say, it’s wild behaviour to come into a vehicle appreciation post and call them toasters hahaha.
Your bike is an egg timer, but if you’re passionate about egg timers then so be it, enjoy that countdown. When you find yourself in an artisanal grandfather clock festival, keep the egg timer in your pannier.
I’m going to shit on people who actively make my life worse. Cars are regressive.
Alao, I didn’t call them a toaster lmfao
Wouldn’t you think a toaster an appliance?
Do you think the people in this post have any decision making power over the type of infrastructure that gets built in their respective municipalities? Your comments here don’t show someone that wants safer biking through their city, just fruitless yelling at the wind.
Join an advocacy group in your community to pressure your councillors for modal separation. If there isn’t such a group, start one. Start a bike bus for your local elementary school. Start a bicycle based trash collection service for your neighbourhood. Do anything other than shit on people that may not have another option than driving due to their infrastructure. Antagonizing people only serves to harden their position.
Showing up to a huntering lodge and shouting about veganism isn’t going to help the cause. Instead, try inviting them to a barbeque and have plant based sliders for them to try.
I specifically hate car enthusiasts, because their driving around on roads at high speeds and loud engines worsens life for other people. It’s separate from infrastructure concerns. Though I have both.
The straight pipes worsening air quality also doesn’t help.
People don’t change their positions just because you act nicely
I understand disliking those things. I dislike them too. What I don’t understand, is associating those things to every car enthusiast.
Off the top of my head I can think of about a dozen enthusiasts I know that drive politely, don’t purposefully make their vehicles louder, and don’t make alterations like removing converters that result in worse emissions.
One of these enthusiasts has a few Japanese imports that have barely enough power to drive on the highways, and he certainly wouldn’t be passing anyone in those things. Another regularly rebuilds Honda engines and transmissions. One drives a car that I swear has been on its last leg for a decade, but he maintains a couple racing cars and gets his fun out on the track. A few I know have switched from combustion to electric cars. They’re still car enthusiasts.
We shouldn’t be painting every member of a group with the same brush as would be used for its most extreme members. You and I don’t want to be referred to as stupid bicyclists because some people that also ride bikes have a habit of cutting lanes, hopping sidewalks, and riding across private lawns.
‘Car enthusiast’ is such a non specific term, as can be seen in this very post. These people don’t deserve to be judged by the actions of street racers, for example. It’s like judging an entire nationality or race or language or diet solely based on the worst individual that ever was any of those things. To do so is rather shortsighted.
For what it’s worth - which may well be nothing but I’ve written this much already - I have myself experienced people changing their minds when approached with open arms, after multiple brutish attempts had failed. Even if trying kindly fails nine times out of ten, that’s still better than failing ten times out of ten with a brutish method.