Brent Toderian Profile picture
Nov 13, 2022 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
“The Hummer EV tips the scales at just over 9k lbs—that’s some 4k more than the H3 & equivalent to around 3 Toyota Corollas…But at least the Hummer EV is electric, so it will help fight #climatechange, right? Well, don’t count on it.” Via @FastCompany fastcompany.com/90790197/yes-t…
Never forget, an electric version of an awful vehicle is still an awful vehicle.
IMPORTANT! “How many more electric cars could we build...if we just reallocated all the stuff going into that 3,000lb Hummer EV battery toward more reasonably sized cars, let alone e-cargo bikes?" —@DavidZipper.

It isn’t just Hummer EV’s that are TOO BIG! businessinsider.com/gmc-hummer-ev-…
NEW: Study finds that electrifying SUVs could actually INCREASE emissions by using up scarce battery material that could otherwise be used to electrify a lot MORE smaller cars (not to mention e-bikes etc). Via @sciencedirect @DavidZipper

SUVs are too big.
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
“Electric cars may produce less local pollution than petrol ones but still need enormous quantities of energy & emissions to make/run…car-based urbanism, electric or not, is inherently unsustainable, creating low-density, inefficient & dangerous cities.”
dezeen.com/2023/01/11/con…
REALLY IMPORTANT: “But Norway says it isn’t hoping to simply replace combustion engines with electric counterparts 1:1 but motivate people to get out of their private vehicles & walk, cycle, & take public transport” @ElectrekCo

Does YOUR country get this?
electrek.co/2022/05/17/nor…
A 1-for-1 swap — an EV to take the place of every gas guzzler — is a disaster of its own making: a resource-intensive, slow crawl toward a future of sustained high traffic deaths, fractured neighborhoods, & prioritized roads over virtually everything else.
curbed.com/2023/01/electr…
I respect and appreciate President Biden, but please, PLEASE stop doing photo ops with electric Hummers. It badly weakens any credibility the Biden Government has on sustainable, safe, equitable urban transportation, which is a shame since I know that @SecretaryPete gets it.
“Simply converting the existing U.S. car fleet to battery-powered #ElectricVehicles, for example, would require 3x more #lithium by 2050 than the world currently produces, according to new research…” @sciam

Fewer (and smaller) vehicles, & less driving.

scientificamerican.com/article/making…
“Electric cars are still cars. The focus on electric cars stands in the way of truly transformative change: better public transit and better laid-out cities that encourage active modes of getting around, such as cycling.”

Fewer cars, less driving, etc.

theglobeandmail.com/business/comme…
The problem of too many cars isn’t just about what comes out of the tailpipe. And altho EVs are better coming out of the tailpipe, their increased weight, & the potential increase in size & distance driven (due to #JevonsParadox) makes even the tailpipe comparison “complicated.” Image

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More from @BrentToderian

Nov 8, 2023
When it comes to achieving better cities for people, a BIG challenge is how little space we have for public life, given the space we’ve surrendered to cars. Barcelona’s “superblocks” show what we can fit if we took some space back. Video by @modacitylife
My favourite kind of “traffic!” A school “bike bus” planned each Friday in Barcelona a few years back, grew from an initial 5 kids when it started. Safety in numbers — do you think you could do this in your city? Via @lljunca.

See you soon, Barcelona.
@lljunca Central Barcelona is a bit of a duality. Some big streets feel like the car is still king. Many others are pedestrianized or have recently been redesigned to put people first. It feels like smart progress, but the city seems to still be debating what it wants to be.

Comments?


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Read 14 tweets
Oct 13, 2023
WATCH: If you STILL don’t understand how car-dependent suburbia is HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED by downtown & all the urban parts of your city, watch this excellent video by @notjustbikes with @UrbanThree & @StrongTowns. And then please SHARE it as much as possible. 



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HUGE ISSUE: Cities/regions all over North America & beyond have a HUGE growth financing problem. On the one hand, raising devt charges/“impact fees” for new home-building in a housing crisis seems INSANE as interest rates & construction costs continue to murder project viability.
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ON THE OTHER HAND, many cities/regions are in a nasty catch-22 since those same construction costs & borrowing conditions have BRUTALIZED the budgets of critical growth-related infrastructure projects, & in many cases housing growth literally can’t proceed without such projects. Image
Read 11 tweets
Apr 24, 2023
Your semi-regular reminder. #reality Image
Suburban Sprawl costs 38% more public money upfront & 10% more ongoing public cost than compact infill growth, with only 1/10th the created tax revenue, according to the report discussed in this @CityLab article.

#Sprawl is REALLY expensive for everyone.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
“If you want a conversation about avoiding future municipal tax increases, that’s the only way you can do it…Suburban sprawl is an incredible drain on municipal finances, & thank goodness you’ve got the inner-city and infill development to subsidize it.”
winnipegfreepress.com/featured/2022/… ImageImageImageImage
Read 5 tweets
Feb 11, 2023
You know who DOESN’T get to decide if the concept of 15-Minute Cities, which supports MORE CHOICE & LESS CAR DEPENDENCY, is good public policy?

The same alt-right conspiracy theorists & cynical opportunists who brought us truck occupations in neighbourhoods, Jan. 5th, & Brexit.
Unhinged conspiracy theorists are attacking the idea of more walkable communities & less car dependency. I for one have no intention of letting them reframe effective public policy with the equivalent of “chips in vaccines.” You shouldn’t either. Via @VICE vice.com/en/article/m7g…
If you REALLY want to understand more about the “15-Minute City” concept — what it is, what it isn’t — then check out this older thread. It’s not a new idea. What’s new is that Paris branded it better than anyone else had, so now it’s become a strategic target among extremists.
Read 15 tweets
Nov 15, 2022
One of my most interesting recent projects was working with @NSWDPE to create an innovative new way to do regional plans. The first of 2 I helped with, the Central Coast Regional Plan 2041, was recently approved with a LOT of new approaches for Australia! planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-your…
For the 1st time, we applied the “15-minute city” concept to 7 different regional contexts, & prioritized real-life follow-thru including OPTIMUM (not minimum) density targets; mandated neighbourhood mixed-use; and strategies for multi-modal transportation for EACH of 7 contexts.
It’s easy to SAY we want “15 minute neighbourhoods” with everything we need close by, but it’s a LOT more challenging to make it real across a diverse region! In the new Central Coast & Hunter Regional Plans by @NSWDPE, we determined what it would REALLY take to make it HAPPEN!
Read 4 tweets
Aug 31, 2022
THIS IS INTERESTING: 12 Ways to Reduce Cars In Cities that have ALREADY WORKED, ranked by effectiveness, identified from nearly 800 research papers. Via @KA_Nicholas in @ConversationEDU. What do u think, Tweeps? Depends A LOT on the specific case studies… theconversation.com/12-best-ways-t… Image
“Popularising electric vehicles comes with the risk of entrenching car dependency. Driverless cars may encourage more miles on the road, which could make traffic and sprawl worse.”

Fewer cars, less driving, more choices, better cities. Via @sky #FCLDMCBC smh.com.au/business/marke…
Still think making all our current cars EVs is the answer? Only 5% of cars in California are currently EVs.

Fewer cars. Less driving. More choices. Better cities. #FCLDMCBC Image
Read 10 tweets

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