I’m getting a lot of ‘but my car is more convenient’ arguments lately, and I’m struggling to convey why that doesn’t make sense.
Specifically how to explain to people that: Sure, if you are able to drive, and can afford it, and your city is designed to, and subsidizes making it easy to drive and park, then it’s convenient. But if everyone does it then it quickly becomes a tragedy of the commons situation.
I thought of one analogy that is: It would be ‘more convenient’ if I just threw my trash out the window, but if we all started doing that then we’d quickly end up in a mess.
But I feel like that doesn’t quite get at the essence of it. Any other ideas?
I think before you get to convincing people, I think you simply have to ask people more questions. What do they mean by “more convenient”? And then, how is their car more convenient? And remember, two people can both think, “my car is more convenient,” but have wildly different definitions of what “more convenient” means and how their car fits that definition.
In my experience, when most people say, “My car is more convenient” they mean, “That’s what I’m used to, that’s what I’ve always done,” as well as all the points you made in the 2nd paragraph. Other people mean that a bike can’t 100% replace a car, which is a little easier to argue against because it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Maybe they can commute to work or do chores by bike, and even if there’s a day where the weather doesn’t cooperate or they need to carry more stuff than they can fit on their bike
However, I think the biggest revelation you have is this is a tragedy of the commons situation. I would suggest you dig into that a bit more and how you can combat tragedies of the commons. In my honest opinion, I think this is a systemic problem and needs systemic solutions. Getting support for these changes is huge and resources like Strong Towns are a good place to start.