Funny, as someone who works intimately with them I find myself distrusting them. They are great at putting on the "old timey, super genuine sweet Christian folk" persona but don't get it wrong. Their ideology spreads like a cancer around here. They breed like crazy, buy up all the private land, displace other locals with their farms, eschew environmentally friendly agricultural practice to save money, their buggies destroy the roads and cause terrible fatal accidents. It's not to say they're all bad but they're absolutely a highly insular cult and they have no problem turning on outsiders to further their society.
buggies destroy the roads
How? I'd always heard that heavier vehicles do more damage to roads, so I'd expect buggies to be on par with bicycles or maybe motorcycles.
cause fatal accidents
I'm curious about this one, too. Do they tend to drive erratically? I'd think their slower top speeds would make it easier to avoid accidents.
Many Amish churches ban rubber tires and the buggies will at best use hardwood wheels, and otherwise they'll be steel. Weight is of some minor concern but more principally the hard materials as well as the shoed horses wear away at the road. In high density Amish areas it's common to see two deep grooves in the road from buggies.
Buggies are not designed for modern roads. They have very little safety features (in fact they only begrudgingly even put reflectors on them, and maybe occasionally flashers for at night), and their bulky, dense bodies and slow movement make them pretty devastating targets to hit. They don't crumple like a modern car. They explode. Car-on-buggy accidents are very frequently fatal. I know plenty of Amish who have lost family to accidents at relatively slow speeds.
displace other locals with their farms, es
Meh I am not sure how people stuck on old tech are so much better at farming that they can outcompete modern farms. How bad at your job can you be to have your ass handed to you by the 17th century?
Kinda getting tired of the whole "my life sucks because I am lazy let me get angry at people who are actually successful". Tall poppy syndrome is running rampant, especially in rural America. You can thank me for paying for your roads btw.
Funny, as someone who works intimately with them I find myself distrusting them. They are great at putting on the "old timey, super genuine sweet Christian folk" persona but don't get it wrong. Their ideology spreads like a cancer around here. They breed like crazy, buy up all the private land, displace other locals with their farms, eschew environmentally friendly agricultural practice to save money, their buggies destroy the roads and cause terrible fatal accidents. It's not to say they're all bad but they're absolutely a highly insular cult and they have no problem turning on outsiders to further their society.
How? I'd always heard that heavier vehicles do more damage to roads, so I'd expect buggies to be on par with bicycles or maybe motorcycles.
I'm curious about this one, too. Do they tend to drive erratically? I'd think their slower top speeds would make it easier to avoid accidents.
Many Amish churches ban rubber tires and the buggies will at best use hardwood wheels, and otherwise they'll be steel. Weight is of some minor concern but more principally the hard materials as well as the shoed horses wear away at the road. In high density Amish areas it's common to see two deep grooves in the road from buggies.
Buggies are not designed for modern roads. They have very little safety features (in fact they only begrudgingly even put reflectors on them, and maybe occasionally flashers for at night), and their bulky, dense bodies and slow movement make them pretty devastating targets to hit. They don't crumple like a modern car. They explode. Car-on-buggy accidents are very frequently fatal. I know plenty of Amish who have lost family to accidents at relatively slow speeds.
Meh I am not sure how people stuck on old tech are so much better at farming that they can outcompete modern farms. How bad at your job can you be to have your ass handed to you by the 17th century?
Kinda getting tired of the whole "my life sucks because I am lazy let me get angry at people who are actually successful". Tall poppy syndrome is running rampant, especially in rural America. You can thank me for paying for your roads btw.