I would have agreed with you... up until the pandemic. If we didn't live in a car dependent country, way more people I know would have died. You -could- make the argument that we'd probably be healthier and thus, wouldn't be as severe of a risk but that's neither here nor there.
I barely leave the house. And when I do, I've mostly always taken as much precautions as I could. I get curbside pickup for all of my groceries. I can't drink the water locally, so I'm dependent on bottled water.
All of this would have been a disaster if I had to cram myself on public transit to go places (definitely would have caught COVID then) or lug a fucking case of water to my house 4 times a week.
Ähh no idea what you are talking about. There is no evidence that less car depended places have higher death rates. You can't just throw out something like that without explanation.
How many people have been saved because they had a neighbor who was one apartment below and was able to help very quickly.
I would argue to opposite of what you suggest is true. More dense less car depended places have a far easier and cheaper time getting medical care to people.
Getting medical care to some far flung subburbs is part of the issue.
> I barely leave the house. And when I do, I've mostly always taken as much precautions as I could.
Why? What crazy situation is this? Most people in most places in the world are not afraid to leave the place where they live. And that was even true for most poor cities. Locals are usually not afraid to walk to the store down the street in their neighborhood.
> I can't drink the water locally, so I'm dependent on bottled water.
That again is a problem of infrastructure. Infrastructure problems are very hard to solve in far flung suburbs and are very expensive because the amount of piping goes up per person.
So I agree, that's a very bad situation, but the solution to that is infrastructure, and not car dependency.
> All of this would have been a disaster if I had to cram myself on public transit to go places
First of all, there is this thing called walking. Also a think called, a bike.
Also talking about public transport in terms of 'cram' is funny, because often you have more space in public transit then in a car and you can work or watch movies.
You seem to have a US perspective of public transit being some dingy lower class thing.
> definitely would have caught COVID then
Funny I never had COVID and I live in Switzerland, the most public transport orient place in the world maybe.
> or lug a fucking case of water to my house 4 times a week.
I actually do that with Cola Light an it isn't that big a deal.
If you want to do really big one time deliveries for some bulk items every week, that's fine. Or you can can also get a small wood cart or some kind of wheeled transport device and carry a week plus worth of water.
I barely leave the house. And when I do, I've mostly always taken as much precautions as I could. I get curbside pickup for all of my groceries. I can't drink the water locally, so I'm dependent on bottled water.
All of this would have been a disaster if I had to cram myself on public transit to go places (definitely would have caught COVID then) or lug a fucking case of water to my house 4 times a week.