The solution is that Bob isn’t 10 miles away because the town is more dense. And carrying an umbrella to the tram or train stop 3 blocks away is easy

10 miles is fine, you can have friends everywhere and you can’t expect everyone you know to live in the same urban sprawl.

Use public transport, take a cab if you need to or use a car club (shared vehicles use less resources than owning a car), ride a bike, walk the 10 miles. Infrastructure helps to reduce personal car use.

This isn't right. 10 miles is a fine distance. I met up with friends 13 miles away today. As long as there's good public transport it's not a big deal.

> Public transportation still requires you to go to the bus stop in the rain.

“But my quality of life!”

> Public transportation still requires you to go to the bus stop in the rain.

An umbrella solves that at minimal cost.

For the record, I don't think all car use is wrong, but the example of visiting a friend 10 miles away isn't a very good one. Someone shouldn't be expected to buy a car and its associated maintenance, tax, and externalities, just to visit someone that nearby.

If people aren't willing to the nearest bus/tram/train stop while holding an umbrella and/or wearing a raincoat, we're all fucked.

If rain were a major impediment to functioning Ireland and NL should be abandoned. But it isn't. Rain is a minor nuisance. As for your friendships: in the past people would usually be good friends with people living close to them because they lacked transport. I have friends all over the world on account of the internet and I'm well aware that going to visit them is in many cases out of the question. That's much easier to decide when they are 100's (or even 1000's) of km away but the principle remains.

In fairness Ireland is annoyingly car dependent for Europe (and I'm writing this on the Luas!)

It's just unreasonable to suggest people not visit their friends within the same metro area

If a bit of rain would stop you then that says a lot. I bike thousands of km per year and get caught in the rain frequently, it doesn't even factor into the decision of whether or not I will go because when you bike a longer distance in NL the chances of getting rained on approach certainty.

i don't think a disinterest in cycling for 45 minutes in the rain each way says anything negative about me. i have a bike and use it when it makes sense. that doesn't make sense

No, but it means that you also have a car. Plenty of people don't. And rain usually doesn't stop them from doing what they want to do.

> Public transportation still requires you to go to the bus stop in the rain.

I want to say here that this comment sounds extremely alien to me, to the point that out of context I would have taken it as satirical.

I know you're serious, but there's probably a big portion of people to whom discussing the problem of walking in the rain to the bus stop sounds completely ridiculous, in any context, and as as something we must consider when talking about climate change policy, well, even more ridiculous.

I've lived in rainy places, and you just wear a raincoat, boots, maybe an umbrella (not always), and carry on.

This kind of disproportionate weight assigned to even the smallest levels of personal discomfort, when discussing these problems, is what most people are denouncing here. And this bias might be what pushes people towards techno-solutionism that doesn't have a chance of actually solving our problems in the time frame that we need.

You keep saying 10 miles. Good cities are maybe ten miles across tops. Or huge enough for extensive metros.