The average transaction price for a new car now sits around $50,000.
I could ride a NYC subway or bus 16,666 times for that, assuming I never do more than 12 rides in a week to trip the “rest of the week is free” condition.
“Make cars cheaper” is a stupid solution that won’t scale well. Cars do tremendous damage to the environment and our society. But I expect everyone subscribed to “Fuck Cars” already knows that.
You can get a decent older, nothing fancy, riding horse for ~$3k and pay about $11k/yr for upkeep, significantly less if you’ve got space for them. Plus, ride the same route to and from the bar and they’ll memorize it- your own personal designated driver who like tips in apples!
Technically one could in my state, but there was a case (granted, 20+ yrs ago) where an old timer got it tossed out because despite being drunk af, he wasn’t on the road but off on the shoulder and there were enough witnesses and history to testify the horse consistently took him home without posing a danger to road safety. A lot of factors went in to that win, old timer, small town, everybody knew him, judge didn’t see him as an issue, so I wouldn’t suggest it for everybody in every situation.
That shoulder point seems like a moot point IMO. If I’m drunk in my car, i still can’t drive on the shoulder. It is also common for people on off road vehicles like atvs and snow mobiles to get DUIs. This 100% sounds like a small town grace thing.
I would guess the case could be made that any motorized vehicle doesn’t operate without a human actively making the choices about what the vehicle does, whereas a horse can take direction but will still “operate” even if the rider is blackout drunk. If you’re not on the road and not “operating” the horse, I think you could attempt to argue down to public intoxication or some other nuisance charge, especially if the horse was out of traffic and could be shown to reliably get you home without causing a disturbance. I’ll be interested to see how the courts deal with DUIs when a self-driving car is involved.
Yes, but what’s included for the horse? Food? Vet? Horseshoes? Grooming? Insurance? Apples? Do I still have to visit it daily or for $11/k there’s someone there taking care of him when I’m away?
Food, ferrier, routine healthcare, housing. Your biggest cost is housing, and the cost of that varies wildly by how fancy you want to get with it. I went with the low-mid end of decent amenities, similar to dog boarding. The horse has protection from elements, a bit of human interaction, space to be outside. I did not include insurance. However, ime, horse vets can be drastically less expensive than small animal vets for similar procedures. I have always gotten the impression this is because dog/cat healthcare is a much bigger industry and like human healthcare it jacks up the price because it can. I also didn’t include tack, but that’s also one of those things where the cost is dependent on how fancy one wants to get with it.
That does sound pretty cheap. In southern Spain I see people horse riding all the time. I live very close to a big city and I still pass people on horses on public roads from time to time. I think the biggest issue would be carrying my groceries. I would probably need a donkey too.
I have always gotten the impression this is because dog/cat healthcare is a much bigger industry and like human healthcare it jacks up the price because it can.
I learned from Rick & Morty that it’s because horses have bigger organs so less qualified surgeons can operate on them.
Western US here. I’m in an urban area where a lot of the farmland that turned into housing in the mid-1900s didn’t become modern subdivisions, so we still have sections of the city where people have enough land to keep their own horse, plus stables on the outskirts. Haven’t seen a horse in downtown in a while, but still see them on side roads, on the walking path along the river, and a lot in the hiking trails that run north of the city, which are basically an extension of the town at this point. When I was a kid in the 80s/90s there was a bar in the farm town about 6mi outside the city that had a hitching post out front and the cowboys still rode there to drink.
I could ride a NYC subway or bus 16,666 times for that, assuming I never do more than 12 rides in a week to trip the “rest of the week is free” condition.
“Make cars cheaper” is a stupid solution that won’t scale well. Cars do tremendous damage to the environment and our society. But I expect everyone subscribed to “Fuck Cars” already knows that.
You can get a decent older, nothing fancy, riding horse for ~$3k and pay about $11k/yr for upkeep, significantly less if you’ve got space for them. Plus, ride the same route to and from the bar and they’ll memorize it- your own personal designated driver who like tips in apples!
In some places you can still get a dui on a horse
Technically one could in my state, but there was a case (granted, 20+ yrs ago) where an old timer got it tossed out because despite being drunk af, he wasn’t on the road but off on the shoulder and there were enough witnesses and history to testify the horse consistently took him home without posing a danger to road safety. A lot of factors went in to that win, old timer, small town, everybody knew him, judge didn’t see him as an issue, so I wouldn’t suggest it for everybody in every situation.
That shoulder point seems like a moot point IMO. If I’m drunk in my car, i still can’t drive on the shoulder. It is also common for people on off road vehicles like atvs and snow mobiles to get DUIs. This 100% sounds like a small town grace thing.
I would guess the case could be made that any motorized vehicle doesn’t operate without a human actively making the choices about what the vehicle does, whereas a horse can take direction but will still “operate” even if the rider is blackout drunk. If you’re not on the road and not “operating” the horse, I think you could attempt to argue down to public intoxication or some other nuisance charge, especially if the horse was out of traffic and could be shown to reliably get you home without causing a disturbance. I’ll be interested to see how the courts deal with DUIs when a self-driving car is involved.
That’s a lot. What’s included?
A horse mostly, they are expensive to keep around nowadays.
Yes, but what’s included for the horse? Food? Vet? Horseshoes? Grooming? Insurance? Apples? Do I still have to visit it daily or for $11/k there’s someone there taking care of him when I’m away?
Food, ferrier, routine healthcare, housing. Your biggest cost is housing, and the cost of that varies wildly by how fancy you want to get with it. I went with the low-mid end of decent amenities, similar to dog boarding. The horse has protection from elements, a bit of human interaction, space to be outside. I did not include insurance. However, ime, horse vets can be drastically less expensive than small animal vets for similar procedures. I have always gotten the impression this is because dog/cat healthcare is a much bigger industry and like human healthcare it jacks up the price because it can. I also didn’t include tack, but that’s also one of those things where the cost is dependent on how fancy one wants to get with it.
That does sound pretty cheap. In southern Spain I see people horse riding all the time. I live very close to a big city and I still pass people on horses on public roads from time to time. I think the biggest issue would be carrying my groceries. I would probably need a donkey too.
I learned from Rick & Morty that it’s because horses have bigger organs so less qualified surgeons can operate on them.
Western US here. I’m in an urban area where a lot of the farmland that turned into housing in the mid-1900s didn’t become modern subdivisions, so we still have sections of the city where people have enough land to keep their own horse, plus stables on the outskirts. Haven’t seen a horse in downtown in a while, but still see them on side roads, on the walking path along the river, and a lot in the hiking trails that run north of the city, which are basically an extension of the town at this point. When I was a kid in the 80s/90s there was a bar in the farm town about 6mi outside the city that had a hitching post out front and the cowboys still rode there to drink.