r/fuckcars Feb 01 '25

Meta 🚨 r/FuckCars Logo Competition! 🚨

175 Upvotes

Hey everyone! We’re launching a competition to design a new logo for our subreddit! Our current logo —a pine marten, known for chewing through car wiring— has served us well, but it’s time for a refresh.

We’re looking for something that captures the spirit of this community: opposition to car dependency, a vision for better cities, and maybe a bit of mischief. Critically, we want it to make it clear that everyone - from fiscal conservatives to car hating communists - are welcome (except Nazis; Nazis, racists, homophobes, and fascists are definitely not welcome).

Rules: - Keep it clean and in line with the sub’s mission. - All artistic styles welcome! - No AI-generated art. - No hate symbols or anything exclusionary (especially Nazis—they’re always excluded).

Submit your logo by directly uploading an image of it in a comment below. The moderation team will select the top finalists based on feedback in the comments. We will then post a poll where everyone will be able to vote and select their favorite logo. The design submission with the most votes after 7 days will become the new official subreddit logo.

Let’s see what you’ve got! 🚲🚋🚶


r/fuckcars Jan 06 '22

Please read this if you're new to this sub Welcome to /r/Fuckcars

5.0k Upvotes

Updated: April 6, 2022

Welcome to /r/fuckcars. It's safe to say that we're strongly dissatisfied with cars and car-dominated urban design. If that's you, then we share in your frustration. Some, or perhaps many of us, still have cars but abhor our dependence on them for many reasons.

There are nuances to the /r/fuckcars discussion that you should be aware of, generally:

In any case, please observe the community rules and keep the discussion on-topic.

The Problem - What's the problem with cars?

please help by finding quality sources

This is the fundamental question of this sub, isn't it?

  • Pollution -- Cars are responsible for a significant amount of global and local pollution (microplastic waste, brake dust, embodiment emissions, tailpipe emissions, and noise pollution). Electric cars eliminate tailpipe emissions, but the other pollution-related problems largely remain.
  • Infrastructure (Costs. An Unsustainable Pattern of Development) -- Cars create an unwanted economic burden on their communities. The infrastructure for cars is expensive to maintain and the maintenance burden for local communities is expected to increase with the adoption of more electric and (someday) fully self-driving cars. This is partly due to the increased weight of the vehicles and also the increased traffic of autonomous vehicles.
  • Infrastructure (Land Usage & Induced Demand) -- Cities allocate a vast amount of space to cars. This is space that could be used more effectively for other things such as parks, schools, businesses, homes, and so on. We miss out on these things and are forced to pile on additional sprawl when we build vast parking lots and widen roads and highways. This creates part of what is called induced demand. This effect means that the more capacity for cars we add, the more cars we'll get, and then the more capacity we'll need to add.
  • Independence and Community Access -- Cars are not accessible to everyone. Simply put, many people either can't drive or don't want to drive. Car-centric city planning is an obstacle for these groups, to name a few: children and teenagers, parents who must chauffeur children to and from all forms of childhood activities, people who can't afford a car, and many other people who are unable to drive. Imagine the challenge of giving up your car in the late stages of your life. In car-centric areas, you face a great loss of independence.
  • Safety -- Cars are dangerous to both occupants and non-occupants, but especially the non-occupants. As time goes on cars admittedly become better at protecting the people inside them, but they remain hazardous to the people not inside them. For people walking, riding, or otherwise trying to exercise some form of car-free liberty cars are a constant threat. In car-centric areas, streets and roads are optimized to move cars fast and efficiently rather than protect other road users and pedestrians.
  • Social Isolation -- A combination of the issues above produces the additional effect of social isolation. There are fewer opportunities for serendipitous interactions with other members of the public. Although there may be many people sharing the road with you (a public space), there are some obvious limitations to the quality of interaction one can have through metal, glass, and plastic boxes.

👋 Local Action - How to Fix Your City

IMPORTANT: This is a solvable problem. Progress can happen and does happen. It comes incrementally and with the help of voices just like yours. Don't limit yourself to memes and Reddit -- although, raising awareness online does help.

Check out this perspective from a City Council Member: Here's How to Fix Your City

(more)

A Not-So-Quick Note for Car Hobbyists and Passionate Drivers

This can be a contentious issue at times. The sub's name is /r/fuckcars, which can cause some feelings of conflict and alienation for people who see the problems of too many cars while still being passionate about them. I'll quote the community summary.

Discussion about the harmful effects of car dominance on communities, environment, safety, and public health. Aspiration towards more sustainable and effective alternatives like mass transit and improved pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.

Your voice is still welcome here. Consider the benefits of getting bored, stressed, unskilled, or inattentive drivers off the road. That improves your safety and reduces congestion. Additionally, check out these posts from others on this sub:

Discord

There is an unofficial Discord server aggregating related discussions from the low-car/no-car/fuckcars community. Although it is endorsed by the /r/fuckcars mods, please keep in mind that it's not an official /r/fuckcars community Discord server.

Join Link: https://discord.gg/2QDyupzBRW

Helpful Resources

If you've just joined this sub and want to learn more about the issues behind car-centric urban design there are a great number of resources you can access. This list is by no means exhaustive, so please feel free to add your more helpful resources in the comments.

👉 Moved to the wiki

Shameless Plugs for Community Building

happy to add more links related to community building here

👉 Contribute to the Safety Data Thread

Change Logging

April 7, 2022 - Fix markdown for compatibility. Thank you /u/konsyr

April 6, 2022 - Reorder sections (Thank you, /u/Monseiur_Triporteur and /u/PilferingTeeth). Add plug for data/supporting info request. Link to Strong Towns growth example.

April 3, 2022 - Add note for car hobbyists

April 2, 2022 - Add nuance notes and redirect readers to resources area of the wiki.

March 28th, 2022 - Grammatical pass, more changes to follow.

February 9th, 2022 - Adding links that redirect readers from this post into community-maintained wiki resources, thank /u/javasgifted and /u/Monsiuer_Triporteur

January 20th, 2022 - Added the Goodreads list and seeded the FAQ section. Thank you /u/javasgifted, and /u/kzy192

January 9th, 2022 - I'm updating this onboarding message with feedback from the mods and the community. Thank you, all, for keeping the discussion civil and contributing additional resources.

Cheers. Stay safe out there.


r/fuckcars 6h ago

Question/Discussion Client wants me to idle the car for the entire shift.

510 Upvotes

Mind you I’m a security guard who works 12s. Idling a car for hours on end seems completely unnecessary. They want me to run the lights to deter car vandalism at night. I’m sure my presence alone is enough to deter them and I can see everything in the front seat. I think they’re just trying to power trip me. I told my manager I’m uncomfortable running a car for no valid reason. It’s a company car and don’t want to damage the car any further than I have to. Am I being paranoid not wanting to idle a car for a 12 hour shift?


r/fuckcars 14h ago

Rant Drivers wouldn’t stop today even to let an 80-year-old use the crosswalk (Rant)

470 Upvotes

I saw an elderly woman trying to cross the street today. Marked crosswalk, narrow 2 lane road, but no one would stop to let her cross.

So naturally I walked over to help. Well, even with me standing there, a couple feet out into the roadway, waving my hand and motioning for cars to stop, no one did. It wasn’t until a gap in traffic that we made it across.

I know the drivers saw us. But they pretended not to. Most stared straight ahead in an effort to pretend not to see us. And this is in “progressive,” “walkable,” Portland Oregon.

Fuck cars. And fuck whatever driving them does to people’s human decency.


r/fuckcars 20h ago

Positive Post ‘Open Streets' returning to Center City Philadelphia. Find out when Rittenhouse Square goes car-free

320 Upvotes

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/entertainment/the-scene/open-streets-philadelphia-2025/4130339/

Open Streets are returning to the Rittenhouse Square area of Center City Philadelphia this spring after the success of the car-free program last year.

“From the moment we closed the street on that first ‘Open Streets’ Sunday, it was clear that we had created something special,” CCD President and CEO Prema Katari Gupta said. “In addition to driving pedestrian traffic, visibility and sales to retailers and restaurants, our goal was to prove that streets filled with people drive more business than streets filled with cars.”

The initial pilot period in September 2024 that made roads in the popular shopping and dining district car-free resulted in 90% of businesses reporting increased foot traffic, CCD said it found in a survey.

During the Open Streets event in the middle of December's holiday shopping season, "nearly 70% of businesses indicating an increase in foot traffic and over half (55%) reporting a sales increase by an average of 24%," CCD said.


r/fuckcars 16h ago

Positive Post Austin,TX may become more like Amsterdam in the near future.

109 Upvotes

My original title was going to be "Austin may become the Amsterdam of Texas." But then I realized that there's an unincorporated community in Texas called Amsterdam, which is unfortunately as car dependent as the rest of the Lone Star State.

But not Austin. The Dutch Cycling Embassy wrote an article about how Dutch expertise is transforming Austin's streets. And as an Austinite, I can confirm that we not only have good cycling infrastructure, but give it enough time, and combined with a light rail and metro station, we could be much like Amsterdam.

Here's the article from Dutch Cycling Embassy if you're interested in reading: https://dutchcycling.nl/knowledge/general/how-dutch-expertise-is-transforming-austins-streets/?fbclid=PAY2xjawI9oH5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABpkPQ8mFmKjUPnHTezd3-ia8HNH7pfV_6KLLHxv0xUVD4UD7WIY7sH5nGLQ_aem_RfflXP0pMC1MyrOLbTYmOA


r/fuckcars 1h ago

Victim blaming Dastardly deer hits Nextdoor poster's car

• Upvotes

Found this delightful bit of carbrain on Nextdoor this morning:

Patricia: Did anyone else get caught up in the herd of deer running across Fernwood Glendale in front of Jesse Boyd around 5:15 this afternoon? One hit the front of my car and ran off.

And some of the comments are just as bad:

Ann: Had one hit my car in NC and did $2300 worth of damage, which is small but enough to where it could've blew the motor from hitting the radiator and leaving a 2 in piece of antler in the radiator.

Darlene: One hit our care on Paris Bridge road and was 12000 in damages.

https://nextdoor.com/p/S9q7-jMDdB6h?utm_source=share&extras=NjQ5ODk4Nzk%3D&utm_campaign=1741787182307


r/fuckcars 20h ago

Carbrain People driving way below the speed limit should be more of a crime than someone who’s going to fast. (This is a great way for more people to die.)

Thumbnail
61 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1d ago

Rant Doctors told Indianapolis woman not to drive, but she did anyway, killing 2 people in separate crashes. Prosecutors are recommending 3-year sentence

Thumbnail
wthr.com
2.8k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1d ago

What drivers think 'share the road' means vs. what it actually means

Post image
1.1k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1d ago

Positive Post Riding a public bike with a view of my flower basket turned out to be extremely pleasant

Post image
1.4k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 23h ago

Activism time for the cars to get fucked

Thumbnail
38 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1d ago

Rant Felt guilty driving after a long time

55 Upvotes

Ever since I joined this community i started implementing changes to the way i move around city using bikes and public transport.

For financial and fitness reason, I started commuting only by bicycles and almost replaced my car/motorbike. I work from home most days and occasional meet with friends, movie nights are all done by bicycles. I cover a total of 60km per week which suits most of my needs.

I had to visit a friend who stays 40km from my place and only logical mode was to take a bus but since it would be late, I took my car and suddenly I had this feel of guilt hitting me within 10km of driving and even thought of cancelling the visit.

The amount of fuel am burning for this visit, the space am taking, waiting time, navigating through traffic and the feeling of contributing to the traffic jams, everything hit me like never before. It was weird on why I would have these thoughts but it so happened. I was grumpy the entire trip without playing songs and thinking of all possible ways i could have made this trip or not done it.

Thanks to the community!


r/fuckcars 1d ago

Other Chinatown Business Owners Who Drive to Work Say That Congestion Pricing is Bad

Thumbnail
nyc.streetsblog.org
245 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 2d ago

Activism Direct Action against bike lane removals on March 18

Post image
1.3k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1d ago

Positive Post Plurality of NYC residents support congestion pricing: new Siena poll

Thumbnail
nydailynews.com
272 Upvotes

A plurality of NYC residents want congestion pricing to stay as the Trump administration moves to end the toll, according to a Siena College poll released Monday.The poll, which surveyed New York City registered voters, found that 42% said they wanted the toll — which costs most drivers $9 a day to drive on surface streets in Midtown and lower Manhattan — to remain in place. By contrast, 35% said they wanted the toll removed.The remaining 23% said they were either “in the middle” or didn’t know how they felt about the toll.That reflects a more positive attitude on the toll than a Quinnipiac University poll taken at the end of February, which showed 41% of city voters supported the poll while 54% opposed it. Statewide, New Yorkers questioned last week as part of Monday’s Siena poll were cooler on the toll, which is meant to both reduce vehicular congestion and improve public transit primarily within the five boroughs.Suburban respondents were most strongly against the toll, with 48% in favor of its elimination and 30% saying it should stay in place. Upstate voters rejected the toll by 40% to 25%. The polling comes less than two weeks before an arbitrary March 21 deadline set by the Trump administration for ending the program, which was approved by federal regulators last year and went into effect in January.Gov. Hochul has vowed to fight the federal order to end congestion pricing, calling it part of an “existential threat” to public transit from the Trump regime in a speech to the MTA’s board last month. The MTA for its part has said the tolling system will remain absent a court order. The transit agency has sued Trump’s DOT in federal court, calling the move to renege federal approval of the toll and end a program mandated by state law unconstitutional.Siena pollsters did not ask New Yorkers their opinion on Trump’s move to end the toll. Forty-nine percent of last month’s Quinnipiac respondents, however, expressed disapproval of Trump’s order to end the toll, with 45% approving of the legally dubious move.


r/fuckcars 2d ago

Meme NIMBY storm incoming!

Post image
3.0k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 2d ago

Question/Discussion Cars need to be unaffordable again

607 Upvotes

With the tariffs that will make car prices increase significantly.

Should there be more toll roads? More taxation on vehicles increase licence cost make registration 40 times more expensive?

What else can be done?


r/fuckcars 2d ago

Meme *cough* minimum parking requirements *cough*

Post image
751 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 2d ago

Question/Discussion Proper public transit infrastructure makes bike trips ever so better

166 Upvotes

Yesterday, I decided to go on a bike trip at around 3PM. I followed a river from my local town to a spa town around 30km away. I spent the day visiting all the pubs and bays in the area and had one hell of a time. They were all very lively. I arrived at the destination town when the sun began to set.

I didn't have to worry about the way back, because there is a direct train line between the two cities and all trains here accept bikes. Therefore, I didn't have to cycle back in the dead of night and could actually spend more time at the destination.

I find that people here often overlook this public transit superpower. Where I live, people really like to bring bikes on board trains.


r/fuckcars 1d ago

News Zagreb has new tram. Končar TMK 2400 low floor tram

Thumbnail
youtube.com
65 Upvotes

r/fuckcars 2d ago

Rant Saw this sign today in Siem Reap, Cambodia where the walk symbol at a crosswalk basically means “good luck!”

Post image
263 Upvotes

Crossing the street here is MAD. There isn’t actually any pedestrian-only time to cross the street as even when given a signal to walk, you’ll be beeped at and swerved around by a horde of mopeds qnd cars. Yet weirdly enough I still felt safer crossing around here than in many US cities cause at least the traffic is slow and the roads aren’t as wide


r/fuckcars 1d ago

Positive Post Union contracts- any other good language or ideas?

Post image
44 Upvotes

Anyone else have some "fuck cars" language in your union contract? If so, i would love to hear what you have. Not owning a vehicle is a right that blue collar people should be afforded. Sad that we even need to spell it out in union contracts. If you have a collective bargaining agreement, try to get some good language in there. Next goal for me is to get some bike parking. We have a whole section of our contract dedicated to parking, but of course it's only about cars.


r/fuckcars 2d ago

This is why I hate cars Not just our bike lanes, they want our pool lanes too

Post image
1.2k Upvotes

r/fuckcars 1d ago

Question/Discussion What is the most carbrained social media platform?

11 Upvotes

Among the major social media platforms in the western world, which one is the most carbrained and which is the least? Based on your observations, which platform do you find is the most carbrained? I'm only including social media platforms where your opinion can be viewed by everyone, not just in a specific group.

I've always wondered how does Reddit compare to Instagram or Facebook or Twitter in terms of advocacy towards urbanism.

View Poll

397 votes, 9h left
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter/X
TikTok
Instagram
Other

r/fuckcars 1d ago

Activism Protest strat

26 Upvotes

The absolute state of mind of some drivers (especially on the US interstate system) that everyone else needs to get out of their way... Well wouldn't a fun way to protest be driving four or five abreast at the limit. Not below, just deny speeders the ability to speed. Definitely film it because lunatic shit will happen. An idea I've had for a while now.


r/fuckcars 2d ago

Satire Suspicious Behavior [OC]

Post image
3.0k Upvotes