So suppose we don't like cars and want to not need them. What are the transportation alternatives for rural areas? Are there viable options?

Edit:

Thank you all for interesting comments. I should certainly have been more specific-- obviously the term "rural" means different things to different people. Most of you assumed commuting; I should have specified that I meant more for hauling bulk groceries, animal feed, hay bales, etc. For that application I really see no alternative to cars, unfortunately. Maybe horse and buggy in a town or village scenrio.

For posterity and any country dwellers who try to ditch cars in the future, here are the suggestions:

Train infrastructure, and busses where trains aren't possible

Park and rides, hopefully with associated bike infrastructure

No real alternative and/or not really a problem at this scale

Bikes, ebikes, dirtbikes

Horse and buggy

Ride share and carpooling

Don't live in the country

Walkable towns and villages

Our greatgrandparents and the amish did it

A lot of you gave similar suggestions, so I won't copy/paste answers, but just respond to a few comments individually.

  • Trekman10@sh.itjust.works
    131·
    1 year ago

    On isolated, super rural areas where you’re the only person on a dirt road for miles, I think it might be unavoidable during parts of the year or if the road is really intensive to bike (steep, sharp curves for example) BUT that’s where you should be able to drive to your village or town center and pick up the 15-30 minute regional train.

    Likewise that would mean the people closer to town who might already be walking to the barber or liquor store would also be able to walk to the station if they needed to go farther.

    • feck_it@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      41·
      1 year ago

      Aren’t dirt bikes a viable alternative unless it rains? They are made for difficult dirt roads if I am not wrong.

    • kingludd@lemmy.basedcount.comOP
      11·
      1 year ago

      I really wasn’t thinking personal transport. People in my area don’t really need that except maybe once or twice a season. What we here really need is to pick up livestock feed, and we get groceries maybe 4 times a year.

      We need to be able to haul large quantities (like, by the half ton at least).