Electric cars 'will not solve transport problem,' report warns (but no mention of PEVs)

[Jonathan Tolhurst]

Electric cars 'will not solve transport problem,' report warns

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48875361

 

[The Fat Unicyclist]

Definitely!

It may be a "greener" solution, but if every person demands that they occupy a car sized space, things will never get better.

I was amused last week when I did a 12 km commute at peak hour - the congestion was so bad that I was the fastest thing on the road!      Now if 20% of the drivers either car-pooled or (even better) found a PEV that suited them, how much smoother would everything flow?

[LanghamP]

I don't quite agree with the article; I mean I agree with autos of any sort not solving transportation problems, but I also disagree that people banging their heads against a wall should be stopped before it hurts too much. Rather, let them bang their heads against the wall until the pain makes them quit.

Have you ever taken a pedestrian bridge across a six lane highway? The pollution is intolerable, as one chokes and eyes water going over it. Electric cars, let's say we ban all IC cars, would immediately pollute less, although the dust kicked up by them would be bad, but also easily controlled by reducing the highway speed limit from 65 mph to under 18 mph (the average speed during rush hour, presumably even less because I depressingly pass all of them on my bicycle on the parallel road).

I say, simply let people drive cars as much as they want but do not subsidize them.

--No on-street parking.

--No public parking.

--No minimum parking requirements of stores. The size of the parking lots is left to the stores.

--Make autos cause equal damage to their occupants as they do to the bicyclists and pedestrians they hit. I'd argue people would be far more polite if we hooked up super-sized shopping carts to 400 hp engines, and forbid airbags, safety belts, and roofs in them.

--Stipulate that autos not drop their hydrocarbons wherever they want like badly trained puppies.

This is a good overview of subsidies.

Plus, and importantly, do electric cars make us more polite when we drive our cars? This is a good example of two people being impolite to each other, and doing an excellent job of teaching each other a lesson.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-toddlers-critically-burned-after-road-rage-shooting-sets-off-fireworks-in-family-truck

Two toddlers in Texas were critically injured late Thursday night after someone opened fire into their parents’ vehicle, igniting fireworks inside, police said.

Gonzalez said a family of four – a mom, dad and 3-year-old and one-year-old kids – were driving along when they got into a dispute with another driver. The two vehicles pulled into a gas station and both male drivers reportedly got out and exchanged words. When the suspected shooter showed a firearm, the father got back in his vehicle and started to leave. But the other man allegedly opened fire on the truck, setting off fireworks the family had just purchased. 

The toddlers in the vehicle sustained major burns and had to be airlifted to UTMB Galveston. Both were in critical condition Friday morning, Gonzalez said.

I can say, with confidence, to the shooter, "good job, you have just guaranteed those people you shot at will never ever dispute your right to road ever again!"

[LanghamP]

Electric cars still give off about 85% of PM2.5 pollution that IC cars do, because the majority of such pollution comes from the car tires kicking up very fine dust. However, that only supposed speed limits within populated areas stay the same; by simply reducing speed limits to 20 mph such pollution can be greatly or entirely reduced (such a a wake versus wakeless lake speed limit).

Autopsies of children and young people shows air pollution to be much worse, and much strongly linked, than previously thought.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/08/choked-beth-gardiner-smog/592759/