It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that nothing can ever change for the better, but that doesn't mean it's true. One TikTok content creator recently made a video explaining that even though the United States is car-centric with poor train infrastructure, that doesn't mean the state of things is unchangeable.
@molesrcool Replying to @tiasenpai this is totally incorrect, and here's why #usa #traffic #cars #trains ♬ Yacht Club - MusicBox
Replying to a comment on one of his other videos that sought to explain Europe's superior train infrastructure, @molesrcool explained: "What they're saying is that cities in the United States were built around cars and 9-5 office jobs, whereas in Europe the cities are ancient and were built before cars and 9-5 office jobs. I feel crazy even having to say this, but cities in the United States were built around trains and, before that, carriages and horses and walking."
He went on to tell his 123,000 followers that "every major U.S. city was already built around trains and walkability" before anyone had a car.
As we can see, it is possible for things to change — in this case, for the worse, as cars became more popular and leaders decided to degrade every major city in the U.S. by turning them into sprawls of parking lots and highways.
In addition to making cities less attractive, cars also make people and Earth less healthy, spewing planet-overheating air pollution, fine particulate matter, and noise pollution as well as dividing animal habitats with roads. Even more environmentally friendly electric vehicles still have a negative impact on the world when compared to options such as biking or electrified mass transit.
Of course, it is also possible for things to change for the better.
"But here's something you may not know," the creator concluded. "European cities were also rebuilt around the car in the '70s and '80s, and then they realized it was dumb, and they started fixing the mistake. … We can fix past mistakes. It's doable, and it's being done."
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