Update not_just_bikes.

[minor]

voussoir.net/writing/not_just_bikes/not_just_bikes.md

@@ -34,13 +34,15 @@ My favorite quote:
 
 He says centuries, but I think he means "since the dawn of civilization". Automobiles are less than 150 years old. You might recognize a number of beautiful, comfortable, enviable cities which are older than that. And you'll never, ever find yourself thinking "living in ancient Rome must have been so difficult without a car!", because it wasn't. The car didn't become a necessity until we intentionally stamped out all of the alternatives.
 
-In America, young people love to say that the DMV needs to be more aggressive with re-testing and revoking drivers licenses from the elderly because they cause more danger in traffic. And while that's true and probably a good idea, it doesn't get implemented because license revocation is a prison sentence and absolutely everyone knows it. In the cities of respectable nations, children and the elderly don't have any problems going to the shop or cafe on their own because it's only five minutes away from their front door. In the States, a car is very much compulsory for all travel unless you live in the densest of areas. Without it, you're stuck.
+In America, young people love to say that the DMV needs to be more aggressive with re-testing and revoking drivers licenses from the elderly because they cause more danger in traffic. And while that's true and probably a good idea, it doesn't get implemented because license revocation is a prison sentence and absolutely everyone knows it. In the cities of respectable nations, children and the elderly don't have any problems going to the shop or cafe on their own because it's only five minutes away from their front door. In the States, a car is very much compulsory for all travel unless you live in the densest of areas. Without it, you're stuck. Taking away your grandmother's license is taking away her independence. Anybody who's ever heard the phrase "single point of failure" will wonder why we allow our lifetime of independence to topple as soon as that one stone is removed, and will not find an answer.
 
 The phrase that's been in my mind for a while is "too stupid to live". It is something of a wonder that we Americans haven't already extinguished ourselves by forgetting how to breathe or eat. You may have heard that sloths can starve to death on a full stomach because their only source of food is practically indigestible. You'd think they'd try something else.
 
-There is a freeway near me that is currently undergoing expansion, which is proven to [induce more demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). Smart people have known this for decades. The millions of dollars being used to put more cars on the road are not being used to improve walkability, bikeability, or reduce the need for driving in the first place by fixing our [wack zoning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUeqxXwCA0&t=1m43s "How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer") and just allowing a grocery to open on more corners. We are the sloths. We are too stupid to live.
+When my family gathers around the dinner table, one topic that always comes up for conversation is the vehicular idiocy that was seen throughout the week. Red light runs, excessive speeding, drivers in the shoulder lane, crashes and near misses. A majority of people are not to be trusted with the task of driving, but we force them to do it anyway because we, collectively, are too stupid to put together better systems that don't necessitate it. It is easier to concentrate our moments of frustration towards the individuals who make short-term mistakes like running red lights than it is to realize the frustration that should be directed at the makers of long-term, diffuse, and pervasive mistakes like building suburban sprawl and bulldozing transit options.
 
-We are hellbent on keeping our heads in the sand. We'd rather challenge ourselves with the invention self-driving cars and the manufacture of unspeakable quantities of batteries for EVs [footnote_link] than consider the possibility that maybe spending thousands of hours in traffic isn't an inherent part of life around which all else must bow down.
+Another part of the problem is that it feels good to punish people. We are a sadistic species and we like to coerce people into crossing boundaries so that we can feel justified in retaliating. It is less fun to design boundaries that don't get crossed. We design roadways that encourage unsafe driving and then we put up signs justifying punishment. It's dissonance. Here's a big fat five lane road that runs straight for twenty miles, but you'd better slow down to 25 because there's an elementary school here. Nevermind that the 25mph stretch of road is cut from the same cloth as the 50mph road -- it's the posted sign that makes the difference. Here's a series of traffic lights that don't coordinate with each other and will stop you just as soon as you get going, but you'd better not run any reds and you sure as hell better not get stuck in the intersection during a light change because boy I'm gonna, um, honk at you, yeah that's what I'm gonna do, and you're gonna deserve it. It is difficult to convince people that car crashes are a symptom of deep, systemic design flaws affecting average people rather than the fault of uniquely stupid individuals.
+
+There is a freeway near me that is currently undergoing expansion, which is proven to [induce more demand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand). Smart people have known this for decades. The millions of dollars being used to put more cars on the road are not being used to improve walkability, bikeability, or reduce the need for driving in the first place by fixing our [wack zoning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUeqxXwCA0&t=1m43s "How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer") and just allowing a grocery to open on more corners. We are the sloths. We are too stupid to live. We'd rather challenge ourselves with the invention self-driving cars and the manufacture of unspeakable quantities of batteries for EVs [footnote_link] than consider the possibility that maybe spending thousands of hours in traffic isn't an inherent part of life around which all else must bow down. You'd think they'd try something else.
 
 NJB has made me ashamed to be American. I am ashamed that a country with this much flagrant disregard for sense touts itself as the best nation in the world. I am ashamed that the closest we can get to eco-friendliness is to make our cars run on massive batteries and steer themselves, because simply getting out of the car was never considered an option. I am ashamed that these are my surroundings and that I did not wake up from this [Matrix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQE_5MFCekg "The Orange Pill") sooner.
 
@@ -69,11 +71,13 @@ NJB has talked about [microcars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ly7JjqEb0 "Th
 
 If we were to adopt small vehicles in more areas, I'd like them to remain mostly open-air, or wrapped in clear glass only. Slower modes of travel allow everyone to be closer to each other, and this coupled with high person-to-person visibility will ease traffic interactions and lessen the visceral savage hate that leads to so many of our stupid, pointless crashes. A switch to small vehicles is an opportunity to solve multiple traffic problems at once -- let's not squander it by following the same old metal-bubble design. I don't expect actual golf carts to be what sweeps the nation, I just want small vehicles about that size, plus some comforts like weatherproofing and a sound system.
 
+(See also Micah Toll's glowing review of a 25 mph electric mini-truck from China: [part 1](electrek_1.html), [part 2](electrek_2.html))
+
 Finally, we need more public transit and it needs to provide benefits that cars can't. Sometimes I'll pick a destination on Google maps and ask it to route by transit. For destinations that are within "day trip" distance, the results are usually three to five times as long as travel by car, blowing all possibility of making a day trip out of it. I tried sampling a few destinations from here to the other coast and transit never seems to break even, always 1.5× to 2.5× the travel time of the car.
 
 I have very little experience riding transit, so I'm not sure how much timing overhead is to be expected, or if these numbers are Americanly bad. Naturally, some time overhead is worth it in exchange for not having to do the driving, and transit routes can never be as direct as driving there yourself. But I really was expecting the trains to go just a little bit faster to make up for it. Notwithstanding that at these distances you're better off enjoying stops along the way rather than gunning for the finish.
 
-For day-to-day travel it is undeniable that transit is always significantly slower and less practical than driving and only exists for those who have no other options (except, again, in some of the densest urban centers). Transit can reasonably be twice as fuel efficient as individualized automobiles. Improved transit could be a great boon to our society and atmosphere [footnote_link], but only if it provides enough advantages to be desirable to a person who otherwise could drive a car.
+As it stands, it is undeniable that transit is always significantly slower and less practical for day-to-day travel than driving except in the very densest of cities, and only exists for those who have no other options. Improved transit could be a great benefit to our society and atmosphere [footnote_link], but only if it provides enough advantages to be desirable to a person who otherwise could drive a car.
 
 I won't detail the need for separated bike lanes and narrower, slower streets because those should be self-evident by now.