I think he’s partially right. It’s a valid point of view for sure.
North America can probably be fixed but it’s going to take a long time and meanwhile other regions are already much more advanced than we are in this regard. So it’s only natural that some people would not want to wait for the change and just go live where life will be “better” for them.
It can even happen while staying in North America! I left my small town in rural Canada because I didn’t want to drive a car. I went to the closest medium size city with public transit instead of waiting for my village to have a bus service back, a service that was cut in the 90ies and indeed never came back anyway. Eventually I moved to Montreal because it’s just easier here. There’s already an established public transit network, bike shares, a solid bike path network… I didn’t want to have to advocate and wait for this to happen back where I lived. Nothing has changed there still! It’s even worse than it was before. They cut even more bus services to other medium sized cities in the region.
And so for this path I’ve taken in my life, moving to Montreal, I’ve been called privileged for being able to live in a city that allows me to not to be threathened (or less) on the road when I walk or cycle around and that just makes my life easier. They would prefer that I stay in my region and fight to get even a hard shoulder on a provincial road between two villages, so that I can get “coaled” by pickup trucks while cycling there?! Sorry but I chose to live elsewhere instead.
You can take this to different degrees. I see it like people chosing to flee a country they don’t feel welcome in, rather than try to change it. You have to chose your battles.
![[Discussion] What are your opinions on this Not Just Bikes comments on "fixing" North America?](https://lemmygrad.ml/pictrs/image/08843796-69a9-4286-9e88-3f4d1bc30758.png){kind=link}
I think he’s partially right. It’s a valid point of view for sure.
North America can probably be fixed but it’s going to take a long time and meanwhile other regions are already much more advanced than we are in this regard. So it’s only natural that some people would not want to wait for the change and just go live where life will be “better” for them.
It can even happen while staying in North America! I left my small town in rural Canada because I didn’t want to drive a car. I went to the closest medium size city with public transit instead of waiting for my village to have a bus service back, a service that was cut in the 90ies and indeed never came back anyway. Eventually I moved to Montreal because it’s just easier here. There’s already an established public transit network, bike shares, a solid bike path network… I didn’t want to have to advocate and wait for this to happen back where I lived. Nothing has changed there still! It’s even worse than it was before. They cut even more bus services to other medium sized cities in the region.
And so for this path I’ve taken in my life, moving to Montreal, I’ve been called privileged for being able to live in a city that allows me to not to be threathened (or less) on the road when I walk or cycle around and that just makes my life easier. They would prefer that I stay in my region and fight to get even a hard shoulder on a provincial road between two villages, so that I can get “coaled” by pickup trucks while cycling there?! Sorry but I chose to live elsewhere instead.
You can take this to different degrees. I see it like people chosing to flee a country they don’t feel welcome in, rather than try to change it. You have to chose your battles.