A Redditor posted a video highlighting Americans' dependence on cars, sparking frustration.
Posting in the r/Amazing subreddit, the user shared a video of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, which features five lanes in each direction.
The massive highway was awash with cars stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, driving home just how much people in the United States rely on automobiles.
For most Americans, being stuck in this kind of traffic jam is just a basic fact of living in a major city and even some midsize towns. Most metropolises aren't designed to be pedestrian-friendly, and outside of the biggest cities, including New York, Boston, and San Francisco, public transit isn't sufficiently built out to get you where you need to go in a timely fashion.
If you want to get around, you basically need a car.
The problem is a compounding one; without effective public transit such as buses and trains, freeways fill up with single-occupant or single-family vehicles, which slows everyone down. This also slows down public transit, which makes people less likely to rely on it to get around, putting more people in cars on the road.
All those cars have a serious impact on the environment, as well. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a typical passenger vehicle produces 4.6 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Transportation accounts for 30% of U.S. carbon emissions, which are warming the planet unsustainably.
Designing downtowns and cities to be more pedestrian-friendly and walkable while creating the infrastructure for mass public transit would make city life more enjoyable and accessible to everyone.
Commenters voiced their frustrations with the scene in the video.
"This is my nightmare," one said.
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 "Dystopian," another wrote. "This is horrible and insanely inefficient. This is proof that more lanes don't equal faster traffic. "
"Maybe if they add another lane…" one user joked. "In all seriousness, we need better public transport, and European-style trains."
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