Pros of yacht-centric development:
- If you own a yacht, it means you are rich and therefore better than others.
- If you’re in a car, some homeless guy could just walk up to your car and beg for money (so awkward!). In a yacht, what are they gonna do, swim?
- Waterfront access is the American dream. Building roads instead of canals is literally communism.
- Yachts and canals are great for home values. Gotta keep those prices going up!
- Cars just aren’t sufficient for your average person to haul 20 friends to their weekly parties on their private islands. People need their yachts to go about these basic necessities of life!
Pros of car-centric development:
- ???
- There are no pros of car-centric development.
car centric development keeps taking away my parking lachts 😡
That has to be the best pun i’ve ever seen lmao
God-tier pun
You can fit more food from your Costco run on a boat than a car.
Yachts are the cars of water
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The electric cars of water.
And whats the bicycle? Stand up paddeling? :D
Kayak
I once wrote a semi-satirical short story for a writing contest about Norway in the future, and I haaaate how much I had to trim that story down for word count, because I had a ton of ideas for it. I was going to write at length about how rising sea levels and more frequent flooding due to extreme weather had encouraged a shift to canal-centric reconstruction of Norwegian cities. These canals were known to locals as “moats”, because their primary purpose was not to facilitate transport, but rather to hinder it: traveling around cities now required either a fancy boat, or crossing one of a limited number of drawbridges, which frequently broke down for extended periods of time in poorer areas, and universally prioritized boat traffic over foot traffic.
The growing underclass of Norway still found some use for the canals, though, as they could fish for drift-litter in the contaminated waters, which they would use for crafts and gardening and such. Meanwhile in other areas, the canal water had been purified: the parks and plazas of Norway’s cities had all been transformed into public swimming pools, leaving would-be protestors with virtually no choice but to don their favorite bikinis and swim-trunks while holding up water-proof signs.
This story is amazing. I personally thought about canal development in a more positive light, as cargo transport over seas is the most fuel efficient form of transport known to men, beats even trains. Rowing in boats is also fun! Also most landlocked countries are poorer and have less freedom, because they have 0 access to the open oceans to trade and flee opressors and neighbors.
Do you have it somewhere to share? That actually sounds really good.
Well, in the version of the story that I actually sent into the writing contest, I basically had to scrap the canals idea entirely because the maximum word count was too short for that kind of worldbuilding, so the canals unfortunately never got past the notes stage. All around I was pretty dissatisfied with how the final draft of the story came out, so I’ve been thinking of having another go at writing a full-length version of the story that goes in-depth about all the crazy worldbuilding ideas I had.
Edit: It’s also worth noting that my entry into the writing contest was written entirely in a Nadsat-inspired “future Norwegian”, which you may understand would make writing a translation a bit difficult.
Can’t drown on a road
Are you quite sure about that?
But what incentive will there be to buy yachts – something any moral, upstanding citizen needs! – if there is no threat of drowning??
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Ah yes, B.O.A.T. (break out another thousand). Perfect replacement for cars (according to boat dealers).
I like the line ‘a boat is a hole in the water you throw money into.’
Seems to me we’re just gonna transfer the car problem to boats. People worried about all those sports boats mowing over us poor kayakers and row boaters, and even worse, disregarding paddle boarders crossing at designated points, but it’s our fault because they have big boats that can’t stop, forcing us to row down small canals or risk being stranded on a narrow river arm with a hole in our hull and no flex tape to at least get to a repair shop. But maybe we’ll start getting protected rowing lanes and not just a line of buoys that tell us where to be.
But I do like the idea of the Venetian solution from another comment. Build bridges low enough to block boats from coming through but high enough to let rowers and paddlers through. And if we need a place to pass on foot on busy places, we can always build drawbridges, but those would get pushback due to the danger they’d cause distracted boat drivers.
The future is wet, but not so different.
This will happen as the climate crisis deepen
Rising sea levels flooding your land, you need to live in/on your yacht to avoid this
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Why would I sit in a car and maybe even have to drive? What if get a craving for a club sandwich?
You really expect me to ask some stranger in another car for Grey Poupon?
I gotta bring a chef and kitchen and waitstaff with me everywhere, just in case!
Now where did I put those naval mine schematics?
Ships are more fuel efficient in transporting large mass anyway. shipping is the most energy-efficient form of freight transportation. Replace all roads with river ways!! All trucks with cargo ships… and some Yachts for public transport.
I unironically think we should have more canals and barges in cities, at least those with the topography and hydrology for it. Dense urbanism centered around the canals, the barges could transport cargo instead of trucks, and the water would combat the urban heat island effect. Bonus points if there are overhead wires (like for trams and trolleybuses) for powering the canal barges.
The Venetian solution!
The critical problem is controlling water levels. These naturally fluctuate daily/seasonally/yearly. I would guess this will only get worse.
On a pedestrian level, canals have the same issues as roads in forcing chokepoints, it might even be worse.
Colder climates need to worry about de-icing or freezing protocols.
On an emotional level, I miss my kayak and skating commutes from when I could take a canal.
Are there any real world examples of trolley canal barges, thought electric wires and water do not mix well? But yeah there are some ship based public transport networks, which I think should be explored more seriously. In India there are some water Metro networks like Kochi…
There is historical precedent!
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/12/trolley-canal-boats.html
And while we’re at it, we can make all the sidewalks water slides. That would rule.
Just make the yacht big enough to build roads on for cars. That way you can contribute to climate change while contributing to climate change.
To be honest, I’d be down to a canoe or a row boat to get to and from my house. Or a floating house with a small electric motor to change neighbours from time to time.
![[meme] Name one good reason we should stick with outdated cars when we have yachts now??](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9307e011-fe3d-463a-98e9-98fdc0b93f22.webp){kind=link}