JimmyChezPants
Waitin' for people to stop being excited about paying what used to get you a house for an electric car, and start being excited about paying an extra hundred bucks a year in taxes for an amazing transit system. Electric cars are not going to make it okay to keep living like we do. It was never okay. 33 comments
Clinton Anderson SwordForHire
@jpaskaruk Every Internal Combustion engine that is replaced by an EV is a good thing. Every solo commute that is replaced by comprehensive, affordable, accessible Public Transit is even better.... Especially when that Public Transit electric.
JimmyChezPants
Given both the substances involved in the batteries, the processes and politics involved in sourcing those same substances, the heavier vehicle weight which will require more road work and more road materials carried by giant diesel beasts... I'm not convinced that building one more car is a good thing. We have a lot of them. 
Canadian Curmudgeon
@jpaskaruk https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/business/electric-vehicles-weight/index.html
Jestbill
@CdnCurmudgeon @jpaskaruk Somewhat silly article compares an electric Hummer with ... a Honda Civic. Further, EVs really don't need the range we think they do.
JimmyChezPants
It is important that apples be apples when you do these sorts of comparisons. I lost about half my respect for Penn Jillette when they did the Bullshit episode where they "exposed" hybrids, which achieve their fuel savings by charging the batteries during the frequent braking of city driving, by doing a comparison of highway miles - I'm pretty sure to a Civic again, actually. :> 
Piousunyn
@jpaskaruk Maybe people should be limited to owning one car and having one kid. Then they could cut back on parking lots and schools. /s
JimmyChezPants
The answer, it can be seen
OddOpinions5
kinda hard to be pro mass transit and live in an ultra rural area like Manitoba interlake that is my opinion
Jestbill
@failedLyndonLaRouchite @jpaskaruk I don't see the problem. ->Mass<- transit works where there are ->Masses<- of people. You may need a Park-N-Ride to go to a city.
JimmyChezPants
Non-flip answer: No idea, wish I knew. Cause mostly people don't want the bus to get there sooner and cleaner and cooler or warmer, they want a car. 
hazelnot :yell:
@jpaskaruk you mean the 4 ton Hummer EV is not environmentally friendly? :pika_surprise:
MacCruiskeen
@jpaskaruk I don't need to be amazed by public transit, I'd be perfectly satisfied by it being totally boring. Being reliable and getting you were you want to go shouldn't be 'amazing.'
Curt Thomas
@jpaskaruk
JimmyChezPants
Without a doubt, if you can manage the car-free life in this age you are so incredibly far ahead - I do know #Winnipeg people who live by their bikes and occasional bus, entirely by choice. Tough people here. I live rural and I drive, as one disgruntled upper middle class gent came to point out. A pickup, even. #hypocrite But, I now have friends with horses, and I think they are a big big BIG part of our solarpunk future. That's where I plan to focus my learning.
Curt Thomas
@jpaskaruk
JimmyChezPants
I would not ride at this age, to be sure, but enough of our ancestors drove a buggy to town that I figure I can get that sorted out. I did also learn to ride as a kid, at summer camp, and it had no appeal. But who doesn't like a hayride? Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh? C'mon.... :> I have also witnessed appalling abuse of horses, so it doesn't surprise me they sometimes take a bit of revenge, like the Orcas.
Tim Moore
@jpaskaruk it won't happen until unions start demanding we build transit trains not cars. The bottom line in our society needs to change from how much $ we put in our pockets to how much social and environmental benefits we are creating. That also means getting rid of class, because class divisions drive competition for limited resources.
JimmyChezPants
Fun Fact: #Winnipeg had been poised to become "The Chicago Of The North" at the turn of the 20thC, due to being dead centre of the continent. It wasn't cars that did us in there, though, it was the Panama Canal. 
JimmyChezPants
I can't seem to click through and view that from my server - possible some sort of defed problem? I'm also not advocating we all smash our cars just yet, and the fact of the matter is that however it ends up propelled, there will be car-size vehicles carrying car-size loads in some cases. They just might be pulled by livestock, or pedalled, or who knows.
Nonya Bidniss
@jpaskaruk Hmmm. It was a response from me to Charles Stross saying: "I often think the future of personal transport is cars as a service. Not to be confused with Uber et al., not like that. Shared fleets, a car arrives for you when you need it, goes away when you're finished. Costwise, perhaps this also leaves the poor on the curb...or, perhaps communities could provide them as part of the overall public transport system. Maybe the cars get you to the train/bus hub."
JimmyChezPants
I generally agree. I mentioned the old trains that came up where I live in the old days elsewhere in the thread - even if they came back, rapid, I'm at least half a km from the old tracks, and that would suck to walk every day, especially dead of winter. Brr. But, the omnibus that could carry me to the tracks, it could be anything, including horse-drawn. Combine with WFH being adopted where possible, we don't need the cars we think we need, we need imagination. 
Dogzilla
@jpaskaruk @nathaliaassaad Seems to me that this discussion could benefit significantly from switching the focus from what *other people* should do to what we individually have done and will do. From my perspective, I don’t need to read any more hot takes about idealized solutions. I want to see more about successful concrete steps people have taken to actually reduce their own and their communities’ carbon footprint 
Darwin Woodka
@Dogzilla @jpaskaruk @nathaliaassaad Moved to a walkable area near shopping, about a mile from hub's work, rarely drive my car at all. We rent our burb house at a sub market rate to our kidlet since they work close to where the house is. We have walkable access to the trolley and buses now and can get pretty much anywhere in the city in 20 minutes on those if we want.
JimmyChezPants
I think the idea that individuals are going to solve this through individual actions is silly. The vast majority of the pollution is done by corporations, and you cannot just decide you're not going to buy anything corporate. Likewise, my community alone cannot make a significant difference to the future even if we all went Amish. A massive and unreasonable movement is needed. I have no idealized solutions. There will be work, and suffering, more each day we no act.
Serenus
@jpaskaruk I think the problem I’m running into now with mass transit is the part that makes it effective, namely the “mass” part. The more people who get shoved onto buses and trains, the more cost effective it is, but at the same time, the less safe it is from a COVID perspective. The crowding was always the one thing I didn’t like about transit pre-pandemic (even as I relied on it), but now it’s shifted from uncomfortable to unsafe, and I don’t know how that can be addressed.
JimmyChezPants
More buses, more drivers, better ventilation, these are all problems which are solved but not implemented, because people keep voting for, you know, "winning". |
Gregory's Server
@jpaskaruk ✊ https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/111323069571782595