The biggest trick the car industry ever pulled was convincing the world “freeways” means they are “free.”
Second biggest trick was convincing Americans its normal to spend $10,000 a year to provide the vehicle you have to have in order to use the highway you already paid for.
One reason I love trains is, the transparency of it all: It costs x to build, then you pay a small user fee, and here is the schedule.
With cars: “Oh who knows what it costs, and who cares?!? Vroom vroom! That SUV makes you look skinny!!”
“Oh, you were on a tight schedule? Yes, well. Have you checked out our in-dash movie options?”
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Someone on here posted an amazing piece a few weeks ago about how US environmental movement would find itself increasingly hog-tied by the rules it helped establish.
On one hand, you have a massive push from environmental movement to electrify cars; this faction is doing little to promote transit and land use reform.
On the other hand, you have a massive push from environmental movement to protect sensitive habitat; this faction is ... same
Gordian Knot: "An intractable problem (untying an impossibly tangled knot) solved easily by finding an approach to the problem that renders the perceived constraints of the problem moot"
America's largest source of climate pollution is cars, and it's set to worsen for ~ a decade as carmakers wind down Giant Truck SUV-palooza.
Carmakers have set up situation where it's already too late to address car pollution w/ EVs alone.
So, a significant & growing share of the things we need to do to solve cars for climate requires less driving: Literally, we have to reduce the absolute number of miles people drive, regardless of drivetrain.
AND every car sold has to be an EV, ASAP. But ASAP is, like 2035.
The deep challenge in transport decarbonization: The car industry is like the defense industry. It has established manufacturing centers in states that look like a map of states we all hate to watch for electoral college: Ohio. Michigan. Pennsylvania. North Carolina. Wisconsin.
Count the number of lies the CEO of Virgin Hyperloop tells in this video
My brain broke at "on demand" and "high capacity" and "flexible the way you want to live your lives" and I puked at "first new transportation technology in 100 years"
Just in case you hadn't heard, housing policy is climate policy. But it's not enough to change land use patterns to reduce pollution from cars. We're going to have to re-build a whole bunch of civilization away from climate impacts.
We've all been in those climate meetings (I'm thinking late 2000's in particular) where someone brings up need to integrate "adaptation," and is immediately shushed by VSPs and funders.
The time for shushing is long gone. We have to adapt. We can't live the way same anymore.
What does adaptation look like? Well, in immediate, it looks like ... losing entire communities to fire/flood, then kluging together a place for displaced people to live.
But *planning* doesn't wait for catastrophe. Changes to built environments take *lots of time and money.*