Interesting article from 2018. But nothing has changed at all. Even the electric cars I see on the road are huge.
The big problem with this transition is not whether we need fewer cars but that modern cities are not designed for alternatives. Any near term solution has to include EVs. It’s going to take a large redesign and investment at a time we can’t wait while we need to electrify everything.
Modern US cities.
Modern Australian cities too.
Electric cars are built to save the car as a mode of individual transportation. they are not built to save the environment
Yes. I’ve been saying for years that electric cars and self driving cars are solving the wrong problem. The problem is if I need a car to get groceries. The problem is I’m not safe on the street because of all the cars.
People who have never lived someplace that doesn’t need a car are very eager to tell you how it won’t work, though.
As an electric car owner, I completely agree. We were lucky enough to go from 2 cars to 1, but still not enough transit to go to zero
more trains and busses
I got tired of waiting for EVs to become affordable and got an e-bike instead. I still drive at times when the bike doesn’t cut it for various reasons. And now my car is getting super old and in need of replacement, but I’m not sure what to do?
EVs sound ideal, but the usual logic that the higher upfront cost will come back to you in fuel savings feels less compelling in my situation. Otoh another gas guzzler? One thing I can say is I don’t see myself ever buying new again. It’s just not worth it for how little I drive. I guess I’ll leave EV/hybrid/conventional debate up to what’s available on the used market.
Would you consider something like the Bestune Pony to be affordable? It retails for the equivalent of 8000 euros after 15% VAT. I am seeing it more and more and I live in a place where petrol is 0.50 euro a liter.
I wish we had those here in the US!
Well my wife is certainly fawning over it when I showed her photos!
So unfortunately in North America, there is a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs which, oddly enough, predates Trump. In Canada specifically, they are easing this somewhat so that 49,000 will be allowed in every year before the tariff kicks in. (That number apparently reflects EV sales before the tariff was implemented.)
But yes, I would definitely consider something like that if I could actually find one here.
If you barely use your car, you might not even need it anymore. Perhaps a taxi/rental/car pooling might meet the few times you still take it out of the garage? Specially when you put the numbers down and see how expensive it is to maintain a car
You have a point. My brother gets by fine now without owning his own wheels. And my grownup kids don’t even have drivers licences.
I guess where my situation differs is that they live in big cities compared to me with all sorts of options for getting around. Also, I’m a part-time musician with a lot of gear I have to transport to gigs, particularly if I’m running sound.
Public Transport for the win!
I wish we had it in my area!
Public transport is awesome for cities but for rural areas it doesn’t suffice
I life in a rural area, I use public transport.
OK but most people live in cities so we can just fix that problem first.
Don’t you know? You have to fix every problem all at once or you shouldn’t even try. It’s the same reason we shouldn’t bother with renewables.
/s
Yes that’s true but the focus should really be on mass implementing it in cities and not on trying to force it on rural areas.
Public transport is awesome for high density population areas but a bus with 4 people in it might as well have been a car.
Except it does. It’s not “cost effective” but can still be done.
Ebikes and/or electric cars are a much better solution for rural areas.
Disagree strongly
Of course, because EVs do not address the problem and just do a misdirection.
The problem is publicly subsidised private vehicles.
When I was growing up, I was a sci-fi nerd. I loved the idea of cool little electric cars. But the ones I’m seeing around here are huge. We’re also learning that even electric cars are fucking up the environment.
What I didn’t imagine is electric bikes and scooters. So that’s been a cool thing (I have both), but it has downsides too.
I volunteer at a local hospital, and we’ve seen a huge uptick of injuries from people riding electric scooters and bikes. The reason is that more people are on them, but our infrastructure in my city doesn’t support them very well. So people are having to ride on busted sidewalks, roads with no bike lane, etc. So a lot of people crashing them (and not wearing a helmet).
So I think the only we can really reduce car usage is to make the city unfriendly to cars. But that ain’t gonna happen here anytime soon. A strip of road near me actually was finally updated with a pretty wide bike lane last month because it’s close to a school, but holy shit, people in my neighborhood are still bitching about how we didn’t need it and it was a waste of resources. smh
The pigs around me like to steal ebikes.
Of course they call it “”““impounding””“” but really it’s just legalized theft. Fucking piss buckets.
It always annoys me when people act like the e-mobility doodads are the unsafe thing, rather than the hostile infrastructure and giant speeding death boxes that surround them.
1.3m people die from car accidents globally every year… silence. One kid knocks over grandma on his escooter… RAAAAGGGEE
Exactly this! Scoot on a nice smooth safe street or sidewalk is pretty safe if you don’t go crazy fast. But add in cars all around you, fucked up sidewalks, etc… it can be a fucking dangerzone every day
I see news talking about some kid on an ebike getting obliterated by an F-950 Child Mutilator Extreme Ranch Lariat and then the newscasters going, “ebikes are so dangerous for children!”
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you first
So, the fewer humans argument is popular in countries with a low population density, or generally in the first world where populations have peaked and are projected to decline if they are not doing so already. I’m in Canada. It’s a big talking point here.
When you study demographics, though, you start getting a different picture. 1st worlders have a HUGE per capita resource footprint compared to 3rd worlders. Like 10x or more. Our 40 million punches like 400 million in the developing world, which is not something to be proud of.
The point I’m trying to make is that anything we do in wealthier countries that reduces per capita consumption has an outsized effect globally. A car is over 10x more massive than a bike, and the costs reflect that however you measure it, be it in energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, etc.
