The future of transportation isn’t the #Hyperloop or self-driving cars. It’s the bus, the bike, and the elevator. Via Slate. AND it’s much better land-use and infrastructure decisions, reprioritizing space and budgets, accessible streets, and smart pricing mechanisms. slate.com/technology/2... - ThreadSky

brenttoderian.bsky.social • 145 days ago

The future of transportation isn’t the #Hyperloop or self-driving cars. It’s the bus, the bike, and the elevator. Via Slate.

AND it’s much better land-use and infrastructure decisions, reprioritizing space and budgets, accessible streets, and smart pricing mechanisms.
https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/future-of-transportation-bus-bike-elevator.html

Comments

brenttoderian.bsky.social•145 days ago

Never forget, the electric car is here to save the car industry, not the planet.

wklumpen.bsky.social•145 days ago

Hey Brent,

Lines up pretty well with my thoughts. Here they are in the Globe and Mail.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-electric-cars-emissions-climate-change/

sv-rub-a-dub.bsky.social•145 days ago

Also never forget that automotive shills are so lazy they don't even check to make sure their AI-generated articles have an AI-generated picture that makes anything remotely close to an modicum of sense.

Count the charging cables. I dare you.

dewline.bsky.social•143 days ago

True.

If it does help with both of those things, I doubt anyone will complain.

brenttoderian.bsky.social•144 days ago

So I’ll repeat —we DO need to replace the current number of ICE vehicles with a LOT FEWER EVs.

BETTER & FEWER.

It’ll take LOTS of work on infrastructure including the transformation of millions of private parking spaces. Unlike driverless cars, it IS part of the solution & needs to happen quickly.

paulloewen.bsky.social•141 days ago

The fastest way to convince people that fewer cars is the way is through autonomy.

brklynmind.bsky.social•143 days ago

Call me when they make an EV under 2500lbs and under 145“ in length. Until then I'm not interested.

brenttoderian.bsky.social•144 days ago

As I put it a few years ago in my blunt advice to Irish cities, “Your goal SHOULDN’T be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with a million electric vehicles. It should be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with 250,000 electric vehicles. The main answer MUST be FEWER cars driven LESS."

ageethv.bsky.social•138 days ago

In The Netherlands, almost everyone who used a bicycle for daily transport within the city has an ELECTRIC bicycle now. We are heading backwards.

jenskrabbe.bsky.social•138 days ago

No. Adding electric power to bicycles primarily enable riders to have a longer commute, thus replacing more car journeys.

ageethv.bsky.social•138 days ago

Ha, thank you Jens. I never thought of it that way.

ambuss.bsky.social•56 days ago

Or far fewer cars than that even, but utilized a lot more

brenttoderian.bsky.social•141 days ago

The transportation portion of climate-changing emissions has grown by 54% since 1990, in part because people have been driving more and buying bigger pick-up trucks and SUVs. SHIFTING TO EVs IS NOT ENOUGH. Car dependency is the deeper problem. Via @parismarx.bsky.social
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-electric-vehicles-car-dependence-1.6534893

boatdesigner.bsky.social•39 days ago

Alluded to in your thread is one issue that is forgotten. Making cars, however they are powered, takes resources and energy. Mining metals and using fossil fuels to make plastics etc. Arguably every old car on the roads has already made use of these resources whilst new ones need new resources.

txemacg.bsky.social•137 days ago

📌

2bgreener.bsky.social•38 days ago

Thank you for this thread, Brent!

jp7f.bsky.social•123 days ago

Yes. Car dependency creates city hellscapes. We can learn a lesson from cities in the Netherlands and in China, where urban planning prioritises bikes and public transport and a car is just a handicap to anyone wishing to get around a city efficiently.

aitch-el.bsky.social•138 days ago

YES!
YES!!!
And I am pretty sure you’ve been making this same argument for 10 years (in the Bad Place).
As a species, we can’t afford to be so simplistic and reductive in the face of a hugely complex and intransigent problem. A problem that is an imminent existential threat.

chillluca.bsky.social•138 days ago

Absolutely!

davidsquared.bsky.social•144 days ago

not to mention replacing the power grid, roads and bridges (weight). it will never happen. why hydrogen fuel cell is the future.

midatlantica.bsky.social•143 days ago

Hydrogen will win in the end but I’m starting to doubt it will be in my lifetime

davidsquared.bsky.social•143 days ago

they can generate it out of the tar sands infrastructure but AB govt timeline is 2030, aka, BS. Would take Feds to accelerate. Japan has car filling stations in a shipping container that can be placed at gas stations. All that is lacking is leadership. So yes, not in this generation

mikealex.bsky.social•144 days ago

The bridge thing is rarely mentioned. In my local neighbourhood the bus route had to be changed when they converted to electric buses because the old route went over a bridge with a weight limit.

suddenlygarmo.bsky.social•143 days ago

never considered this tbh, much to think about

gyrogordini.bsky.social•143 days ago

The hydrogen fuel cell will NEVER be the future for cars and light vehicles. It *may* work for heavy transport, marine and aircraft. No infrastructure, difficult to handle, and readily goes bang.

malaclypse.bsky.social•143 days ago

The least dense thing in the universe can't be a good solution for a reasonably small vehicle.

bikegary.bsky.social•118 days ago

perhaps a 750,000 electric bikes?

clondoner92.bsky.social•144 days ago

Here’s a goal for reducing car usage from 1965.
https://bsky.app/profile/clondoner92.bsky.social/post/3l7sbny4a3f2p

kokorolina.bsky.social•56 days ago

What about EVEN FEWER cars driven MORE OFTEN (i.e. by different people who really need to)? It hurts me to see all the precious resources used to build a machine that stands still most of its lifetime, occupying so much space in our cities.

johnflores.bsky.social•144 days ago

I moved to a town with sidewalks and it's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

djasa.bsky.social•144 days ago

It's also a problem of how car costs and (dis)incentives are structured. I'm now evaluating getting a first private car in spite of being happy with caraharing and car rentals. The issue few high-km or high-day rentals a month drive the cost so high that a private car is cheaper. 😕

karenonbike.bsky.social•144 days ago

We've reduced to just one car, can also bike or walk to local amenities.

confounding-y.bsky.social•144 days ago

This was thought provoking, thank you!

outofthewild.bsky.social•142 days ago

It's often said but not really true.
The thing that electric cars save is our lifestyle and behaviour.
It also seriously undermines the objective reality that EV's are dramatically less harmful than conventional cars.

frpaul1.bsky.social•145 days ago

Where will federal and provincial tax on gas come from as more and more people get EVs and charge them at home? Is there a plan for that or will it be we'll just tax everyone's electricity whether the have an EV or not.
Does part of the public charging stations cost go back to province/fed as a tax?

barbaragirouard.bsky.social•144 days ago

Governments have been collecting taxes long before cars were invented and will have no problem figuring out how to create taxes for its revenues. Roads are paid for by property taxes and business taxes in cities already.

techguydave.bsky.social•137 days ago

I don't know about other states but in Ohio they charge us extra for registration of EVs.

barbaragirouard.bsky.social•137 days ago

Alberta, Canada has started doing the same thing. The conservative provincial government is very concerned about the future of fossil fuels, more so than the destructive effects of climate change.

sqwabb.bsky.social•145 days ago

Horseless carriage wasn't invented to save planet either but many historians of urban planning think it kind of did - by breaking horse > manure > disease cycle. We just overdo good things til they go bad. And electric cars have been around for 100+ yrs.

azimuthimages.bsky.social•120 days ago

I suspect they will fail on both counts.

sleepysok.bsky.social•124 days ago

I don’t give a crap if they run on fairy dust — car culture is ruining cities. Theres just too many of them.

rafaelissimo.bsky.social•141 days ago

I see buses in my city that run empty or with 1-2 people, but they always arrive on time according to schedule. Every day. Day by day. There is no one solution.

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