@sundogplanets
I feel your pain.

One of the first things I did with both our current electric and diesel cars was to get proper spare wheels for them, and the jack and tools to change them

I've never like the idea of gunk and compressor as it assumes that the puncture is small and simple, and you don't have to drive any distance on the flat to get to a place of safety!

I am now on campus! And I have 10 minutes to come down off the adrenaline before I start teaching. HOly crap.

Option 3 was to get my very stressed out spouse to leave work in the middle of the day, help me get the shredded tire off (wayyyy beyond fix-a-flat), and then call tire shops while he drove me in to the city in his car. I got the right tire from one shop who didn't have any appointments today and another shop will install it on the rim. I really hate being so completely car-dependent.

@sundogplanets sadly I don't believe horses come with spare tires either… they're cutting corners everywhere

@sundogplanets Our newer car, which doesn't have a spare, came with an automatic patch kit. I'm actually not entirely sure how it works, but you may want to check if your car came with one, too. It's meant to get you through a sticky situation where a spare would normally be used.

@sundogplanets i have a hard time seeing the car* dependence of living in a rural area changing

*Before it was a car it was horses etc, which of course had different costs associated with them.

@sundogplanets
First thing I did when I bought my new-to-me car was order a spare tyre kit. Fuck waiting for breakdown service when I can fix it myself in less than ten minutes.

@sundogplanets horses are more expensive and less reliable than cars.

@sundogplanets yes that’s what you need to drive up your expenses, after all vet bills are so reasonable, as is the farrier and oh wait, my gelding had metabolic syndrome, which meant I went sampling hay every year to get the right mix of protein and feed value with low sugar. But the horse manure is great for gardens.

@sundogplanets was it completely flat?

@sundogplanets A category two (the one that can do 50km/h) e-bike!

@sundogplanets I am not sure that a horse is much faster than a bicycle, if the roads are in good condition. An e-bike can provide much of the energy.

@sundogplanets horse even more likely to break down, both emotionally and physically. Perhaps a nice donkey.

@sundogplanets After using public transit in more rural areas of Spain and Japan it's pretty obvious it doesn't have to be this way. Hakone for example has better public transportation than most places in the US/CA despite having only a fairly dispersed ~10k residents. It might be supercharged as a tourist destination connected to Tokyo but it still boggles my mind.

@sundogplanets The Amish buggy is probably the closest thing to horse-powered car alternatives.

Priced like a car, too. Horse not included: https://amishamerica.com/another-amish-buggy-for-fifteen-thousand-dollars/