First of all, let’s try to avoid American-bashing, and stay respectful to everyone.

I’ll start: for me it’s the tipping culture. Especially nowadays, with the recent post on !mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world with the 40% tip, it just seems so weird to me to have to pay extra just so that menu prices can stay low.

  • Io Sapsai 🌱@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m currently reading Twilight and judging by the tone it’s normal for 16-17 year olds to go to school by car (or even truck!) that they drive by themselves? I might be ignorant on the subject so correct me if I’m wrong but car culture in general. We just…took the bus or the lucky ones with a free parent got a lift. I’ve even walked to school for the fun of it, granted it was 40 minutes by foot.

    I’m nearing my 30s. I don’t own a car and I don’t have a license. I do wish I had one sometimes but once I hop on the bus to the remote place I want to visit, I quickly lose interest once I see the (usually mountainous) road ahead. Driving just scares me.

    • Drusas@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Most Americans towns require you to have a car because they have little to no public transportation. Can’t get a job without a car in most places, for example.

    • dot20@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In the Netherlands it’s even pretty decadent (and time-consuming) to take the bus to school, most of the kids just cycle to school.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Being an American, I see a winding mountain road and think about how much fun it would be. Then again, my parents bought me a $1500 shitbox when I turned 16 in exchange for me giving my sister a ride to all our after-school activities.

      And I have this weird phobia about taking public transit where they’ll leave without me and I’ll be stranded with no way to get home. Planes, trains, busses, heck even monorails I have to be way, way early because I’m terrified of missing them. And if I have to make a connecting stop I’m even more anxious because they’ll also just leave without me.

      • uint8_t@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        you just need transit that’s frequent enough that you stop caring! metros in cities are great example, no one checks the schedule, it is basically always available within a few minutes.

        • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          That would fix ground transportation but it’s kinda hard to have a plane show up every few minutes. That’s the most anxiety-producing mode of transportation for me, and it has nothing to do with accidents and everything to do with nobody but me caring if I make it to where I want to go, and me being completely powerless.

          I would much rather drive cross country than fly, and would prefer a week on a ship to eight hours on a plane.

    • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.deOP
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      1 year ago

      I had to watch Twilight movies at some point, and they indeed all have trucks. Seems to reflect the reality with teenagers being able to drive at 16.

    • artisanrox@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The average drive here to work is ~30minutes with zero public transportation in most places. I go through 4ish towns myself. Add in terrible weather ~4 months out of the year in rural areas, that’s why most people have SUVs.

      Of course the dumbshit street-legal mobile tanks that the neonazis spend $1000/month in petrol on are RIDICULOUS, overkill, and definitely compensating for something, but most people not in cities need safe cold-weather vehicles.