Business Insider: ‘Electric Vehicles Won’t Save Us — We Need to Get Rid of Cars Completely’

Reposted from Climate Depot

Paris Marx writing in Business Insider: “Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes would not only encourage its use and create tens of millions of jobs, but could begin to transform our relationship to mobility. … There was a moment during the pandemic where it felt that change was not only possible, but was happening in front of our very eyes. Streets were closed to vehicles so people had space to move, and temporary bike lanes were thrown up to encourage cycling. …

We should seize this opportunity to challenge the past century of auto-oriented planning and emphasize walking, cycling, and transit use over driving. Not only would people’s quality of life improve, but if we’re serious about taking on the climate crisis, we need to significantly reduce the number of cars and SUVs on the road — regardless of what powers them.”

#

You Were Warned!

Flashback: Dem presidential candidate Andrew Yang: Climate Change May Require Elimination of Car Ownership – Suggests ‘constant roving fleet of electric cars’– “We might not own our own cars.”

UK funded 2019 report ‘Absolute Zero’ urged climate lockdowns: ‘Stop flying…no new roads, airport closures…stop eating beef & lamb…stop doing anything that causes emissions’ – Regulate CO2 similar to ‘asbestos’Climate lockdown: ‘It’s Time To Ban The Sale Of Pickup Trucks’ – ‘Shift away from relying on private vehicles entirely’

By: Marc Morano – Climate Depot

https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-vehicles-wont-save-us-get-rid-of-cars-2021-11VIA Business Insder: By Paris MarxNov 22, 2021,Electrifying heavy cars like trucks and SUVs causes other issues like air pollution and traffic deaths.Excerpts: 

  • World leaders are focusing on electric vehicles to reduce emissions and combat the climate crisis.
  • But electrifying vehicles is simply not enough — especially given their large production footprint.
  • To really make a difference, we need smaller cars, less cars, and more transportation alternatives.
  • Paris Marx is the host of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and author of the forthcoming book, Road to Nowhere, about the problems with Silicon Valley’s future of transportation.

Transportation accounts for 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and more than half of that comes from passenger vehicles. Since taking office in January, the Biden administration has taken steps toward electrification, but also failed to sign onto a pledge announced at COP26 to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040.

Electric vehicles are one piece of a strategy to slash transport emissions, but they tend to receive far more attention than proposals to cut car use. The electrification of transportation is essential — there is no doubt about that — but just replacing every personal vehicle with a battery-powered equivalent will produce an environmental disaster of its own. Such a strategy also denies us the opportunity to rethink a near-century of misguided auto-oriented city planning.

While fuel economy standards have improved over time, the shift from sedans to SUVs and trucks has partially offset the emissions reductions that should have accompanied those improvements. Plus, when you look at the global picture, SUV sales have also taken off to such a degree that they were the second largest contributor to the increase in global emissions from 2010 to 2018. The commonly stated solution to this problem is not to address the growing size of vehicles or the mass ownership of personal vehicles of any kind, but simply to electrify them. That isn’t good enough.

Ahead of COP26, the International Energy Agency released its latest World Energy Outlook that estimated achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require six times more minerals by mid-century than is necessary today. Yet the majority of those minerals are required for electric vehicles and storage, whose mineral demand is projected to increase by “well over 50 times by 2050” as the demand for batteries to power them grows substantially. As a result, the United States is assessing its own mineral supply chains and working with Canada to expand mining activities to supply battery makers. But all that mining comes with consequences.

As leaders at COP26 were focused on electric vehicles, a network of mayors and the International Transport Workers’ Federation released a report arguing that public transit use needs to double by 2030 in order to meet emissions targets. Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes would not only encourage its use and create tens of millions of jobs, but could begin to transform our relationship to mobility.

There was a moment during the pandemic where it felt that change was not only possible, but was happening in front of our very eyes. Streets were closed to vehicles so people had space to move, and temporary bike lanes were thrown up to encourage cycling. In some cities, those efforts were expanded as the worst of the pandemic lifted so people could leave their cars at home and commit to using bikes or transit. But in other cities, the push to go “back to normal” swept away those spaces, and the SUVs returned.

We should seize this opportunity to challenge the past century of auto-oriented planning and emphasize walking, cycling, and transit use over driving. Not only would people’s quality of life improve, but if we’re serious about taking on the climate crisis, we need to significantly reduce the number of cars and SUVs on the road — regardless of what powers them.

Full article here: https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-vehicles-wont-save-us-get-rid-of-cars-2021-11

#

Every article about the total elimination of vehicles is written as if 7 billion people live within 5 minutes of a single urban area, & only use cars to get to work and back. And the authors are 20 or 30-somethings who all have pictures of themselves jet-setting around the world https://t.co/HQdk0ECMmK pic.twitter.com/6s176vqz8Y

— TheTruth (@CTruth1965) November 29, 2021

4.2 17 votes
Article Rating

Discover more from Watts Up With That?

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

255 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
November 30, 2021 6:08 am

Urban parasites.

Vuk
Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
November 30, 2021 6:53 am

Let’s get back to horse and cart renewable transport.
“On average a horse will produce between 15 and 35 pounds of manure per day, so you can imagine the sheer scale of the problem. … This problem came to a head when in 1894, The Times newspaper predicted… “In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.”
The great horse manure crisis of 1894 refers to the idea that the greatest obstacle to urban development at the turn of the century was the difficulty of removing horse manure from the streets.”

DwWm_ECUwAE6FXS.jpeg
Vuk
Reply to  Vuk
November 30, 2021 7:18 am

Note: Every single person in the photo is wearing a cap or some kind of head cover, most likely winter time in London.
“The winter of 1894–1895 was severe for the British Isles with a Central England temperature (CET) of 1.27 °C or 34.3 °F. Many climatologists have come to view this winter as the end of the Little Ice Age and the culmination of a decade of harsh winters in Britain.”
There it is in black & white (does that sound racist?), the LIA was ended by the ‘Great horse manure crisis’, proof that methane is not an evil GH gas.

Bryan A
Reply to  Vuk
November 30, 2021 9:54 am

Hats were in Fashion then. Many men wore hats and Most women wouldn’t venture out without a matching/complimenting hat for their dress. Hats today are worn mostly by Cowboys and Utility Workers.
It’s good to see though that THEY are finally starting to realize that Mining will still be required regardless of power source.
Coal mining especially for strengthening steel and purifying Silicon,
And Oil/Gas for the petrochemical industry manufactured goods

Reply to  Bryan A
November 30, 2021 1:33 pm

Hats today are worn mostly by Cowboys and Utility Workers.”

My guess is that you work in a clean office environment every day. Lots of people still wear hats that don’t work in that kind of environment. Anyone that works outside today probably wears a hat of some kind or another.

The Saint
Reply to  Tim Gorman
November 30, 2021 6:09 pm

The ideas in this article would be great – if there really were a climate crisis caused by man, but there isn’t.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  The Saint
December 1, 2021 9:29 am

Well, agree about the imaginary “climate crisis,” but their ideas are essentially nothing but dictatorship. So not so good. I’m not interested in living where and how the government dictates, nor am I interested in the government telling me how to get from one place to another.

Especially when you KNOW the rich, powerful and politically connected will all find a way to be “exceptions” to the “rules.”

Reply to  AGW is Not Science
December 1, 2021 9:57 pm

Yes!

I commuted to work in Wash DC for fifteen years. It was a two hour commute from the time I left my door to arriving in the office.

Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes”

That is an absurd notion.
That commuter transit 10 minutes away runs on a schedule? Far out in the country? Meaning that everyone must arrive at least ten minutes early and be prepared to wait 30 minutes after pickup time.

Then there is the assumption that everyone can get on the commuter transit at the same time?
Won’t happen.

Such demands make that previously 2 hour commute to be 2 and 3/4s hours instead of 2 hours.

But, despotic wannabe socialists love demanding ridiculous life plans for us peons.

Reply to  Tim Gorman
December 1, 2021 9:48 pm

Agreed, Tim!

Worked outdoors for many years in a number of jobs.
Wore a hat for every day spent outside and quite a few days inside (steel worker).

Unlike many dilettante hat wearers of today, at least I remember to doff my hat in the presence of ladies or when entering places where mixed society meet.

And, I have high quality hats for dress occasions.

I also note that East Coast urban and suburban dwellers have strange beliefs about hats, like who wears hats.

starzmom
Reply to  Vuk
November 30, 2021 7:27 am

One would think the fertilizer value to the organic farmettes that will spring up on abandoned urban lots would solve this problem. But maybe not, as eventually there is just too much of it. The Spanish Riding School in Vienna had (and still has) a problem getting rid of the waste from the 60 stallions that live in the inner city. At first they gave it away to vineyards that marketed their wine as being fertilized by manure from the famous stallions, but after a while the vineyards couldn’t take any more. Don’t know what they do now–it is still a problem.

Not to mention that it smells. The local farmers in PA were spreading manure this past week, and the atmosphere was very fragrant. At least it was cool enough that the windows were closed.

John Endicott
Reply to  starzmom
November 30, 2021 7:47 am

Very fragrant indeed. I remember one year when my neighbor used horse manure to fertilize his vegetable garden. Whoa did it stink. He never did that again, thank goodness.

Reply to  John Endicott
November 30, 2021 10:18 am

It has to be composted properly. My “neigh”bor (ha ha) kept two horses, her own and my daughter’s, and a pony. She had six large composting bins and it didn’t smell bad at all. I would even go so far as to say it smelled good even. I used it to fertilize my small pinot noir vineyard and my veg beds, and made a deep-soil and compost rose garden for my wife. Everything was magnificent, except I couldn’t keep up with the beasts. It was fun while it lasted. Good exercise shoveling too.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  philincalifornia
December 1, 2021 9:31 am

Wh-wh-wh-whilber!

Reply to  John Endicott
November 30, 2021 10:01 pm

Try wet chicken manure

Reply to  starzmom
November 30, 2021 7:49 am

Just wait till its pig, not horse, manure. The whole of Northern Germany and Denmark just stinks of pig, and rotted fishmeal.
And since the Greens are committed to making pigs fly….

Reply to  Leo Smith
November 30, 2021 8:02 am

At least it is timed before rain. And it is mixed with fertilizer.

Ever been anywhere near the sugar beet plant in Peterborough? Unbelievable – the cantines there have a menu where everything tastes exactly the same. Never eat white sugar!
Add to that the nearby Paddy Dog Food plant, and faint!

Reply to  bonbon
November 30, 2021 9:02 am

Yes I have actually, it wasn’t easy to spot

Quote:“The factory closed in Peterborough in 1991

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/looking-back-a-sweet-story-of-success-in-peterborough-3430630

Bryan A
Reply to  Leo Smith
November 30, 2021 9:58 am

I did note that the article mentioned “Beef and Lamb” but not Pork.
(Did you know that if you replaced a newborns blood with Pig Blood, the adult version might be able to accept a Pig Heart or Liver or Kidney as a transplant without rejection?) 😉

Michael S. Kelly
Reply to  Leo Smith
December 1, 2021 2:17 am

I drove through Pennsylvania (east to west, then back) during the summer a few times, back in the 1979s. The stench from pigs was overpowering for most of that very lengthy drive.

Reply to  starzmom
November 30, 2021 9:30 am

The Romans made concrete with horse manure – and very good concrete it was too, still is in places

If horses, or any other ruminant type creature is being fed its Proper Diet – their poo should not smell, stink or be otherwise ‘unpleasant’

Their Proper Diet being revolved around what we’d call ‘grass’ but they’re partial to vegetation of all sorts.
They have an instinct – they know different plants have different amounts of trace elements within them and they will seek them out.

We also have that instinct.
Young children typically – they’ll be diagnosed with something called ‘Pica’

And oh-so clever doctors & nurses will be all over them dispensing sympathy and drugs while endlessly telling the child and its parents that ‘something is wrong with the child.

No. It is they that are wrong and real actual working livestock farmers will understand perfectly

Where the inbuilt Pica inside us all comes unstuck is when addictive substances enter the food chain, especially alcohol.
Booze esp utterly & totally over-rides the mind-brain-body dialogue that should exist and there-after, everything falls apart.
Everything – even science (##)
100 years ago a very real and successful remedy for Type 2 Diabetes was practised – where is it now?

In fact, when critters like us are eating our Proper Diet (I can sense the heads exploding already).. when we eat properly, not only would our poo not stink but we’d hardly make any – witness Breast Fed Babies for any and all proof you need

Stink comes from excess protein. Period
It is the Nitrogen and Sulphur compounds created by anaerobic decomposition in our bowels that cause flatulence and stink.
Those Things Are Not Natural or Normal – nor are they funny
We Are Not Carnivores.

## It’s not just Climate Science that’s a train wreck – in fact – its a struggle to think of any human endeavour that is not now completely misunderstood

PS If anyone anywhere IMAGINES they have an excess of horse/cow poo – ship to California or Australia and bury it in, what passes for, dirt/soil in those places.
Fix The Climate

John Tillman
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 9:33 am

Horses aren’t ruminants.

Bryan A
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 10:10 am

I don’t know about yours but mine certainly doesn’t stink. (To me anyway)

Randle Dewees
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 10:35 am

Having owned many horses over the last 50 years I can tell you they have a very strong instinct for graham crackers. Just the mere presence of a graham cracker can raise a horse’s energy and intelligence by a factor of two

Martin Pinder
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 1:15 pm

Cat & dog poo stink, & they are naturally carnivores.

Rick W Kargaard
Reply to  Martin Pinder
November 30, 2021 3:32 pm

“Cat & dog poo stink”
It never seems to stink enough to prevent us from stepping in it. I sure as H stinks when on your shoe, though.

Dean
Reply to  Martin Pinder
December 1, 2021 3:40 pm

Dogs are omnivores.

garboard
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 1:16 pm

then why do we have carnivore teeth?

Rory Forbes
Reply to  garboard
November 30, 2021 3:06 pm

I don’t think we actually do have carnivore teeth. We have omnivore teeth, but lack carnassials.

Rory Forbes
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 1:34 pm

You;re right, We;re not carnivores. We’re omnivores and have the gut to prove it. We thrive on a wide range of groceries, but meat is particularly beneficial. The human brain developed due to large quantities of animal fats and protein.

John Tillman
Reply to  Rory Forbes
November 30, 2021 1:51 pm

Especially fat. The H. erectus “hand ax” was important because it allowed our ancestors to access fatty marrow after breaking long bones.

Rory Forbes
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 3:02 pm

The H. erectus “hand ax” was important because it allowed our ancestors to access fatty marrow.

I never lave home without it … also good for cracking skulls. Brains are especially prized sources of fats and protein. Ask any bear.

I have a prized Salish Indian artifact believed to be a bone cracking maul, collected years ago in the lower Gulf Islands.

Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 3:29 pm

Not true! When I have a pica for red cabbage my farts stink. Although I’m capable of eating a whole one a day so maybe it’s more of an addiction?

meab
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 5:28 pm

Pica is a mental disorder, Pica of Newark. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5). It is rare and even more rarely is it associated with a mineral deficiency. There are cataloged forms of Pica that involve ingesting sharp objects, glass, stones, hair, wood, and many other types objects having nothing to do with a mineral deficiency.

You could have done 2 minutes of research to prevent beclowning yourself once again, but you didn’t.

Horse manure stinks and it’s not just from excess protein (although that can cause it too). Many vets know that horse manure can have a particularly offensive odor owing to too much carbohydrates too.

You are fixated on soil, Pica of Newark. An unhealthy fixation. I’m guessing that you’re ingesting it too. Seek mental health care..

Travis
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 5:30 pm

horses are not ruminants. big long artical from someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about

MarkW
Reply to  Peta of Newark
November 30, 2021 7:54 pm

A pure liquid diet results in a lot less poo. And you believe this proves that people who eat solid food are eating poor diets?
Sheesh.

John
Reply to  starzmom
November 30, 2021 9:07 pm

unfortunately london was a few 100,000 people back then

Now over 20 million live inside the M25 so horses are more horse shit from the uniformed

Eric Simpson
Reply to  Vuk
November 30, 2021 2:11 pm

The horse produced huge amount of manure waste, but if our cars were all electric they would produce huge amount of toxic battery waste.

In reality, though, the Dem goal is in fact to get rid of cars altogether. Working to help achieve that end is their <b>proposed (BBB bill) $12,500 per electric vehicle subsidy, which would cause the price of ALL cars to skyrocket</b> (a feature not a bug to the Dems). Whenever the government heavily subsidizes a market it causes prices to go through the roof, as in medicine (with Medicare) and college tuition (school loans).

Reply to  Eric Simpson
November 30, 2021 9:45 pm

Dem goal is in fact to get rid of cars altogether”
Except for them. All these ‘world savers’ imagine their own lifestyle remaining high.

David S
Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
November 30, 2021 9:42 am

We have a similar problem today… removing bull manure from Washington DC.

n.n
Reply to  Shoki Kaneda
November 30, 2021 9:43 am

The urban jungle and Black Top Effect (BTE) are first-order forcings of climate change and global warming, respectively.

2hotel9
November 30, 2021 6:10 am

And yet the moron who wrote this crap jets all over the world and owns multiple ICE vehicles. Hypocritical scumbag. Wonder how she plans to transport and supply the millions of soldiers needed to enforce her dream of world domination?

John Tillman
Reply to  2hotel9
November 30, 2021 6:38 am

Fine with me, as long as cars are replaced with five-seat helicopters.

Today, single-seat helicopter kits start at 50 grand, but mass production should lower that. Four or five seaters might be doable for $300 K. Used Bell 206B IIIs go for $280 K to a million. Production stopped in 2010.

Tesla Plaid performance Model X starts around 120 grand, but of course is subsidized.

Sara
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 7:24 am

Those still burn fossil fuels, John Tillman, so you will likely have to fight like mad just to get one at all.

John Tillman
Reply to  Sara
November 30, 2021 7:46 am

They burn lots of fossil fuels, but Earth is starving for more CO2.

I suppose a one-seat electric helicopter is an option, recharged by home wind and solar, but turbines and photovoltaic cells are terrible pollution sources. Ditto the batteries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_Firefly

Or, you could commute commercially, leaving your ground EV at a nearby hump and dump heliport.

Bryan A
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 8:53 pm

At up…200mph for 45 minutes from full charge to depletion then ???Hours to recharge.
At that rate it would take 3 complete charging cycles to fly from SF to LA with 2:25 flight time and more than ?6? hours recharging time on a fast charger. No faster than driving down I-5 only practical for round trips of less than 75 miles one way or single leg trips of <150 miles

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  Bryan A
December 1, 2021 9:40 am

IOW, just as useless as all other “electric” transport.

John Endicott
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 7:50 am

“Fine with me, as long as cars are replaced with five-seat helicopters.”

I want a Jettson’s flying car. Heck I’d setting for a Goldie Wilson style hover conversion of my current car (powered by a Mr Fusion, so no fossil fuels needed!)

Reply to  John Endicott
November 30, 2021 8:05 am

Look out! They cannot even get the Presidential ´copter to work!

Bryan A
Reply to  bonbon
November 30, 2021 10:18 am

The Bird Choppers work well though

Rick W Kargaard
Reply to  John Endicott
November 30, 2021 3:34 pm

I want one of those anti-gravity vehicles from Dick Tracy times.

2hotel9
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 7:58 am

Having ridden in helicopters in all weathers and in multiple countries, ah, no. I’ll stick to my Grand Caravan and pickup and Nissan Versa. Don’t get me wrong, love riding in helicopters. Nothing in the world I love more than an extraction bird whopwhopwhopping my a$$ out of Injun Country, and yes, I have given that immortal cry “Get to da choppa!”. 😉

John Tillman
Reply to  2hotel9
November 30, 2021 8:16 am

Me, too. Two-seat cropdusters, Bells, Hueys, Chinooks, Blackhawks and Hips on five continents in four seasons (or six, if you count tropical wet and dry as separate from temperate and polar zone seasons).

It depends on how long your commute is, or how much time you have for a vacation or hunting trip. For grocery shopping, go by ground.

2hotel9
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 10:00 am

Next time I am down south one of my brothers is going to get me out to shoot hogs from a helicopter, have to get a brass catcher on my RPK before then.

This idiot woman’s ideas about everyone walking I have lived. It gets old fast, especially when everything you need to live and operate you have to hump on your back. Real old. Real fast.

John Tillman
Reply to  2hotel9
November 30, 2021 10:47 am

Texas needs all the help it can get in combating the scourge of feral swine.

Need to shoot the sows first.

2hotel9
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 11:26 am

Last I was down we shot 30 in a day, did not make a dent. That is in Mississippi, we will be going to Texas for the heli-shoot.

Robert Alfred Taylor
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 3:45 pm

“Feral swine” Start with the greenistas first?

John Endicott
Reply to  2hotel9
December 1, 2021 2:58 am

This idiot woman’s ideas about everyone walking I have lived. It gets old fast, especially when everything you need to live and operate you have to hump on your back. Real old. Real fast.”

What’s worse is the older you get, the less doable it becomes. Try telling a 80+ year old with major Knee and Back problems that they have to walk everywhere and hump everything on their backs (to visit friends and family, to shop for the weekly groceries, etc.). Just watch out for their cane when you do, because they’re gonna smack you upside your head with it if you don’t..

2hotel9
Reply to  John Endicott
December 1, 2021 8:19 am

She has the solution for that, just put down all the elderly, the infirm, young children who can’t keep up. Eliminating all the “useless eaters” is a primary part of the leftists’ Grand Design.

Rah
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 10:03 am

Hueys, black hawks, Chinooks, Sea Knight, Pave Lows, Puma, Augusta Bell. Jumped the Huey, Chinook, and the Augusta Bell.

John Tillman
Reply to  Rah
November 30, 2021 10:49 am

Double the fun!

Although I did get airsick in my first Chinook, of the WARNG, maneuvering to give us reporters views of the steam falls and other wonders of devastation around Mt. St. Helens in June 1980.

Rah
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 11:58 am

Oh, you have not lived until you take a winters night flight in a Huey flying map of the earth through the Alps.

Rah
Reply to  Rah
November 30, 2021 12:17 pm

Map of the earth. &$cell phone.

John Tillman
Reply to  Rah
November 30, 2021 2:18 pm

Think you mean nap of the earth.

rah
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 9:06 pm

That exactly what I mean and what I friggin typed but the phone SC changes it!

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 9:10 am

Today, single-seat helicopter kits start at 50 grand, but mass production should lower that. Four or five seaters might be doable for $300 K. Used Bell 206B IIIs go for $280 K to a million. Production stopped in 2010.”

Yeah, that’s all we need. Your average idiot, who couldn’t afford the maintenance anyway, and would likely DIY, flying around in home-made and used choppers.

John Tillman
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 30, 2021 9:34 am

They’ll soon be autonomous.

2hotel9
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 9:47 am

THAT scares me more than self driving cars!

Rocketscientist
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 9:38 am

Not so long ago I was attending a NASA hosted conference where some bubbly 20ish NASA youth was giving a presentation where she quipped to the ensemble of grizzled old aerospace engineers, “When I was growing up we were promised flying cars. Where are the flying cars?”
To which a grumbled reply came from an attendee, “As most people have trouble operating and navigating in 2 dimensions, we thought it most unwise to give them 3.”

Bring on the flying cars! I foresee a boon for flying ambulance chasers.

How will they fence off schoolyards?

We call these things “A bad idea who’s time as come!”

Bryan A
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 10:12 am

And depreciates rapidly from there
2018 X $75,000
2016 X $55,000
At that rate the Model X will be worthless in 10 years (AKA when you drive it off the lot)

John Tillman
Reply to  2hotel9
November 30, 2021 7:56 am

Business Insider is a Loony Leftwing rag.

Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 8:22 am

Years ago BI had a forum and I posted there regularly but some jerk came along and posted pure garbage and ended the forum. It was fun…I would post as Hitlery Clinton and talk about how my Billy Clinton never had relations with that woman…Miss Lewinsky.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Anti_griff
November 30, 2021 8:44 am

That’s funny! 🙂

Whoever is now running Business Insider must be a hard-core Leftist.

I see several articles every day from Business Insider attacking Donald Trump in one form or another, and now we have this reporter taking a radical leftist position on the mobility of people.

There won’t be any letup in the criticism of Trump from the Left between now and the coming 2024 presidential election, because they are afraid he can win again, so they are treating him as an active threat to their socialist agenda, and he very much is a threat to their socialist agenda. That means the Left will pull out all the stops to go after Trump and anyone who supports him.

The big problem the Left has now is Trump looks so good in comparison to Joe Biden. The comparison could not be more striking. The latest polls show Trump beating Biden by 10 points, and show Trump beating all other Republicans by large margins.

This despite all the trashing the Left has done of Trump.

William Astley
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 11:47 am

Why is it that suddenly all of the Internet ‘media’ companies and traditional ‘media’ companies are controlled by super “Wok” angry Zombies.

Business Insider is not a ‘news’ company. This fake article about EVs is pure propaganda.

There is one country that is running this race to destroy our countries.

Where did all the evil left wing money come from? Why is the Democratic party headed by a guy with Dementia? Could there be a connection? Google cutting ad revenue to Skeptics Climate sites is part of the plan.

“Electric Vehicles Won’t Save Us” Sure. That part of the propaganda article is correct.
The Dem’s plan is to install charging stations. How is that going to stop climate change? Where is the CO2 free electricity going to come from to power the EVs? China is burning more coal than all of the Western countries.

Robert Hanson
Reply to  William Astley
November 30, 2021 2:21 pm

First you have to find the charging station, then drive there, then it’s (hopefully) 30 minutes to charge up to 80%. Assuming there isn’t a line for the charger. Did I mention that will cost you 50% more than an equivalent amount of gas? One of the car magazines recently had an article on EVs, and when they asked EV owners about using commercial chargers, no one they talked to had ever done it, for the reasons mentioned above.

Dave Andrews
Reply to  Robert Hanson
December 1, 2021 6:42 am

A related problem is that many EV owners in cities are paving over their front gardens so they can install personal chargers thus adding to the problem of flooding during heavy rains.

MarkW
Reply to  Dave Andrews
December 1, 2021 7:03 am

And adding to the problem of UHI.

Sara
Reply to  2hotel9
November 30, 2021 8:58 am

You all really do cheer me up! Thank you!!!

2hotel9
Reply to  Sara
November 30, 2021 10:02 am

Like sarcasm entertaining folks is just one of the services I provide, free of charge.

Steve E.
November 30, 2021 6:11 am

“Every article about the total elimination of vehicles is written as if 7 billion people live within 5 minutes of a single urban area, & only use cars to get to work and back…”

and don’t forget that all those 7 billion live where it is always a nice comfortable temp and never rains or snows,

Sara
Reply to  Steve E.
November 30, 2021 7:25 am

Really? (sarc) Can you then please explain the 28F temp and snow on my front steps this morning? (sarc again)

I believe the term you are searching for is “oblivious to reality of the real world”.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Sara
November 30, 2021 8:50 am

You are just a little too far north of the jet stream right now, Sara. That should change soon, and you will get some of the warmer air to your west coming in.

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/500hPa/orthographic=-95.23,42.55,350/loc=-83.166,46.880

I marked where I’m guessing you are located.

That dip in the jet stream should be moving to the east, away from you, taking the cold air with it..

Sara
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 30, 2021 8:56 am

Thank you, Tom Abbott! I needed that laugh! Cracked me up! I’m about 8 miles south of the WI/IL state line, west of Lake Michigan, the coldest nastiest lake in the world, worse than that lake in Siberia. 🙂

We’ll get whacked soon enough, but both Almanacs have forecast a cold, dry winter for my AO, which means low snow and deep cold. Yeccchhhhh!

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Sara
November 30, 2021 9:18 am

I visited my Grandfather in Manitowoc, WI in 1983, when I was stationed at Ft Riley.

I drove my crappy Dodge Power Wagon (4×4 pickup) from Kansas to WI, it was around Xmas.

Bitter cold the whole way, until I hit the Chicago area. Got a bit warmer, and wetter. My carb froze up more than once with all the moisture from salted roads re-freezing.

By the time I got to Manitowoc, there was 3 feet of snow on the ground (but they know how to clear the streets there). The actual temp was probably 20 below, and the wind chill was supposedly 80 below.

My truck wouldn’t fit in his garage, so I had to scrounge for a dipstick heater for my engine, so I could get home later.

Ah those were the days.

Steve Reddish
Reply to  Sara
November 30, 2021 9:46 am

Paris Marx did get one thing right:
“just replacing every personal vehicle with a battery-powered equivalent will produce an environmental disaster”.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Steve E.
November 30, 2021 7:45 am

Get those people off the land
I like the quality of my life improving with cleaner air, less noise, better bike paths and improved public transportation. All this is good, especially for metropolitan areas, who already have all this stuff. It’s the people living out in the country…on the land that don’t have all this stuff. And they are the target because they are not so controllable. Take away their cars and they must live in the metro areas. Moving people off the land has been happening in America since the 1980’s. Huge mistake…. read Wendel Berry. Globalism means global Urbanization, modularization, and central control, (Marxist or capitalist or corporatist the result is the same) of human life.
Brake the Birth rate
It’s much easier to urbanize and modularize 1/2 Billion lives than 7…. this is a reductio ad absurdum argument, but I still think my point is valid. Global depopulation is the subtext presupposition for Paris Mark’s new world vision. Human dystopia is the drama that is the steppingstone to save the planet for worthy elites. Actual or virtual. dystopia, (i.e., operations to create mass fear, or narrative and images, protecting pornography expansion, not enforcing public indecency laws on the internet etc.) is clearly an effective brake on birth rates. Prior to the pandemic the USA birth rate was 1.7, now it is 1.64 the lowest rate ever for the USA, well below the replacement rate. If the globalization of this trend takes hold, which appears to be the case, it won’t be long before massive depopulation takes hold. The anticipation of depopulation is one of the grand drivers of the global politique. The scramble for long-term leveraging of commodifies markets is underway both virtually and geopolitically to sustain long term profitability. Across the board long term decline in demand for commodities is expected. This is especially true for hydrocarbon fuels as energy transition will be enabled by technology advances, (the BATTERY, decentralized electrical generation, Superconductivity etc.) increasing the efficiency of hydrocarbon use, while at the same time, the accelerating global dystopic propaganda campaign is effective in inciting declining birth rates. The silly part is the elites, (Big tech/Bio Tech… Google et al) investing big money in longevity research. LOL Anyone see the Jane Pauley Longevity infomercial? Megalomaniacal plots never work in the long run, they are like a buildup on snow on a high mountain ridge. but watch out below.
Be Ultra Urbanized, don’t get married and never have babies.
It is time to cast off all fear, cast off our addiction to virtual life, ignore the idiot pundits’ liars and live our lives to the fullest and fill our homes with the joy of children. This is still America…. we are still free so be free indeed! Don’t get hooked in the age of the Grand HOOK YA.
If you are stuck with a online virtual job…. then buy some lands. Grow and raise stuff and learn how to do be productive in your own family economy. Repopulate the hinterland and learn to work hard with our hands again. Have as many children as you want and teach them how to work and be productive within the family economy. Capitalize with the New BATTERY when it finally arrives and sidestep the stupid, socialistic wasteful, monopolized grid… (WUWT is full of GRID heads). LOL. Nothing better than being at least partially independent of the supply chain. The fact that a global supply chain is affecting me out here in PA hinter land means there is a giant problem in my own local economy. We have soil so that is a solvable problem. We don’t have to be dependent on global supply chain for the essential commodities needed to live a good life…. why would we allow that to happen to ourselves or submit to it as a given?

Reply to  Jeff corbin
November 30, 2021 8:14 am

Jeff wrote, “Global depopulation is the subtext presupposition for Paris Mark’s new world vision.”

There’s a word for that in the dictionary. Using it unfiltered here at WUWT throws your comment into moderation. When it was employed in the 20th Century, it’ is now historically associated with the ruthless mass m u r d e r of of hundreds of millions (in toto) by various Socialistic and Communistic regimes in their consolidation of raw political power into the hands of a few.

That word is g e n o c i d e.

Going from almost 8 billion humans down to the Left’s maniacal desire of under 1 Billion in the next 80 years will make the 20th Century look like the warm up round for what is to come… if we stand by and let them. And the ensuing environmental destruction from the wars that will ignite will be off the scale. This has nothing to do with Save the Planet, and everything to do with power and control.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
November 30, 2021 8:35 am

Whew, I thought I used the wrong word! So,I see that mincing words is much safer but less effective. It’s not just the left. It’s us. We bought into the program long ago, (see Wendel Berry ” What Are People
For?” “Unsettling of America”. Jacques Ellul “Propaganda”, J.G. Machen J.
Gresham Machen’s The Gospel and the Modern World Skyscrapers and Cathedrals).  Now the program is analogous to having a
secret sewer pipe implanted in into the toys we love to play with the most in
all our homes filling us full of soul deadening psychological toxin. It doesn’t
kill us straight off, but our children are sacrificed to porn, sexting, virtual
life, and non-stop propaganda. Many have a sense of foreshortened future and see no point in marriage or having children. The avalanche is starting to break off. Let it fall. Some of us are going to live our lives fully, enjoy life,
have as many kids as we want.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
November 30, 2021 8:36 am

Eugenics is alive and well and now high tech, (psychological/espionage).

John Tillman
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
November 30, 2021 8:43 am

The developed and much of the developing world is already suffering declining population. The only still rapidly growing continent is Africa. Even Tunisia, the least rapidly growing, is above replacement rate. Some Asian countries are, too, but not China, Taiwan, Japan or Korea, among others.

Hence the tragedy of smuggled would-be migrants drowned in the Med or brutally encarcerated in Libya. But Europe can’t take in all who want to move there to escape poverty, nor assimilate those who do make it.

Nor can the US if the Bribem Maladministration continues to welcome over two million illegal immigrants per year, ostensibly seeking asylum, but in fact wanting to improve their standard of living.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 9:10 am

It takes a potent comprehensive long term effort to distort people’s hearts and minds into not loving each other, not marrying and not having children. You have to keep people at craving and fearing for a long time. It has to be intergenerational so the metagenetics of it sets in. Globalism is finally having an impact on populations of developing nations. You have to reduce people to stuff and lie to them for a long time. The difference now is the acceleration of the process enabled by centralizing technology since the 1970’s that enables a few to profit while brain washing the masses. It’s the tech that has accelerated the sophistication and invisibleness of the current practice of eugenics. Yet the philosophical underpinning has been there since Kant and Hegel. Ultimately, it is driven by megalomania. This is the point of Ellul, Machen and Berry… and many others that no one reads because most of us are nihilists, atheists or agnostic and prefer to live only in the political realm of the what is now.

John Tillman
Reply to  Jeff corbin
November 30, 2021 9:37 am

Demographic transition happens when parents have a high enough faith in the survival to adulthood of two kids, so don’t need to have nine to get two to care for them in old age.

Also, women must get a say in how many babies they have.

Rocketscientist
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 10:33 am

And when one son with a mechanical harvester replaced seven sons with scythes.

John Tillman
Reply to  Rocketscientist
November 30, 2021 10:51 am

Ditto less need for daughters to gather and winnow the sheaves, after combined reaper-chaff separators were invented. Nor other sons or hiired hands to bag the grain.

The other sons went into factories, with daughters and kids as well.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 11:32 am

I live in a deeply Anabaptistic and Calvinist farm region in PA. Still large families doing agriculture work. It’s part of their heritage as former apple orchardists where everyone worked from age 3 to 93 and lived in vibrant families and local communities. Only a remnant is of that culture remains. They protected their farm land with covenants and empowered themselves economically just to stay on the land while every one else moved to the metropolitan areas. The discussion in this post would mean absolutely nothing to them because they don’t care.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 11:27 am

Thanks John, Interesting. Thanks for pointing me to more reading on the subject. I would like to understand it better.

Reply to  Jeff corbin
November 30, 2021 9:56 am

I discovered Ellul and Machen in the seventies but more than a century earlier there were people who noticed very troubling trends in Europe which are coming into full fruition today. The problem is not the use of electric cars and climate change fears but the inability or refusal to carefully and critically and civilly discuss the pros and cons.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Michael in Dublin
November 30, 2021 10:47 am

Good Point. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is absolutely necessary to discern truth. Unfortunately, even though I may agree with certain pundits on an issue, I find very little over arching wise analysis especially on the internet. And the discussion isn’t out in the open, it is compartmentalized and fragmented, which is the nature of the internet. It attracts those who agree and convinces few. It’s like pissing into the wind. Finally, it is very difficult to settle on an issue of choice when the context is limited by a lack of context and knowledge. Especially, when someone has already build an propaganda algorithm to ensure that all anticipated opposing ideas and objections are already dealt with and marginalized. Who really choses to not keep a smart phone in our day and age and who in their right mind would argument against owning a smartphone…the discussion is off the table even at the level one’s family. There was no discussion everyone had to have one because everyone had one. (BTW I right big post just to annoy the smartphone people).

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Michael in Dublin
November 30, 2021 11:06 am

sorry Mike for my cynical reply. Ellul, Berry and Machen were all dealing with the errors of 19th century modernity, how it has come home to roost and the risks of those errors for future generations. We are living with the outcome of uncritical choices about technology and now have been carried way by them. I am sure that you have seen the impact in Ireland. We still have choices. I am not a Luddite. I believe that infrastructure tech…especially energy tech can empower families and local economies by the decentralization of electrical generation and distribution.. providing in expensive electricity for local agriculture and manufacturing enterprises at the level of families and communities.

John Tillman
Reply to  Jeff corbin
November 30, 2021 11:43 am

My great-grandparents, born in the 1850s, managed to love each other very much, but also to have only two kids, my granddad and great aunt. They both came from enormous families, but, despite the terrible diphtheria pandemic of 1878, were willing to risk having just the two, born that year and the next. It worked.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  John Tillman
November 30, 2021 9:22 am

but in fact wanting to improve their standard of living.”

By sending all their money back to their home country. It’s called leeching.

John Tillman
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
November 30, 2021 10:34 am

Such transfers within poor farming families are preferable to government to government foreign aid, in which European taxpayers fund corrupt dictators and bureaucrats.

MarkW
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
December 1, 2021 7:08 am

Once they have earned it, it’s their choice what to do with it.

Reply to  Jeff corbin
November 30, 2021 3:38 pm

Excellent plan, now where can I find a husband.

Reply to  Steve E.
November 30, 2021 7:51 am

20 minutes walk will take me to a bustop that has two buses a day. That takes an hour ro do a ten mile journey.

The guy is bananas.

Dmacleo
Reply to  Leo Smith
November 30, 2021 9:29 am

iirc I am 28 miles from closest bus stop and thats only if I walk on the interstate.

roads legal to walk on closer to 30 miles one way.

Fran
Reply to  Leo Smith
November 30, 2021 11:32 am

Even in the city there are solid reasons for not taking public transport. For instance, in Montreal with freezing rain under an inch of snow and 2 y/o twins to lug around – my daughter’s situation yesterday. She is very sensibly trying to trade a Ford Focus for an SUV.

Sparko
November 30, 2021 6:14 am

business insider is an oxymoron personified

ResourceGuy
November 30, 2021 6:17 am

Climate Simon says…….sit….and sit…..and sit….because Climate Simon says so.

Tom Halla
November 30, 2021 6:23 am

The hard greens really want a society where they get to use sedan chairs, and the peons maybe get a new pair of sandals once a year.

Mark Broderick
November 30, 2021 6:25 am

Hey Paris Marx, have you given up your car and plane ?

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Mark Broderick
November 30, 2021 8:53 am

Any relation to Karl?

I had to say it.

John Tillman
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 30, 2021 11:35 am

Only ideologically.

Reply to  Mark Broderick
November 30, 2021 9:44 am

“Electric Vehicles Won’t Save Us — We Need to Get Rid of Cars Completely”

He means pickup trucks, too, and big diesel trucks — but is he green enough to keep on going with that and get rid of diesel fire engines and gas/diesel ambulances and those big rigs that fix downed powerlines and clear away tornado damage debris, while placing all his faith in battery-powered versions of those to get their respective jobs done? AGW believers are either all in on electric or they’re not.

Peter Wells
November 30, 2021 6:26 am

Back in 2006 I visited Glacier Bay in Alaska, and was provided a map showing the melting of the glacier which had completely filled the bay back in the year 1800 according to charts made by the ancient mariners at the time. As the glacier melted the charts were periodically updated, and they showed that the glacier had largely disappeared by the start of the year 1900 – prior to the invention of the airplane, and a dozen years prior to the mass-production of the automobile. Back then, the overall population of the earth was a fraction of what it is today.

If we caused the melting of that glacier, I challenge anyone to show how we will stop global warming today. If we did not cause it, then what did, and how will we stop that?

Reply to  Peter Wells
November 30, 2021 6:55 am

Do you still have that map?

Peter Wells
Reply to  Steve Case
November 30, 2021 8:21 am

Yes, but I haven’t figured out how to post it.

Reply to  Peter Wells
November 30, 2021 8:42 am

Your map is probably posted somewhere on the internet already. However there are some very good then and now photographs of various glaciers from various years back into the 19th century:

History Daily :
Then and Now: What Happened to the Alaskan Glaciers from 100 Years Ago?

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Steve Case
November 30, 2021 9:26 am

It’s such a shame that all those places once covered with glorious ice, are now covered with nasty trees and plants and animals.

Such a tragedy.

MarkW
Reply to  Peter Wells
November 30, 2021 12:27 pm

When you select “Reply”, there is a new feature in the lower right corner that will allow you to post a picture from your PC.

Peter Wells
Reply to  MarkW
November 30, 2021 2:12 pm

Tried it – couldn’t seem to make it work.

stewartpid
Reply to  Steve Case
November 30, 2021 1:20 pm
Doug Danhoff
November 30, 2021 6:27 am

Kiss my Tacoma pickup. You can live 10 minutes walking distance from work if you want.. I live 15 minutes driving distance away from the nearest town .. What is your plan ? Force me to move ..
Empty Green dreams from the impractical Left

Curious George
Reply to  Doug Danhoff
November 30, 2021 7:44 am

That’s because you live in an area of a low population density. Solution: Jail everybody. We will all live in a huge jail, with buses moving between 20-story buildings in very short intervals. Very comfortable. And as soon as everybody dies of famine, the global warming will no longer be a threat.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Curious George
November 30, 2021 8:54 am

“We will all live in a huge jail,”

It sounds like that’s the idea.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 30, 2021 9:30 am

Or brains sustained in a maze.. think right and you get to live. LOL

Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 30, 2021 10:33 am

I’m thinking interconnected domes, and everyone gets to play a rousing game of carousel on their 30th birthday.

Chaswarnertoo
Reply to  Curious George
November 30, 2021 9:20 am

Gorebull warming is not a threat. Glaciation is.

Reply to  Curious George
November 30, 2021 3:46 pm

The whole world as the village.

SxyxS
November 30, 2021 6:29 am

This is what the end game is and was all about.

No matter wether the pig with make up is being sold as covid or co2.
No matter how environmental friendly and futureproof your car etc is,tomorrow it will be declared a climate polluter -end of story.
Everything individual,be it small businesses or cars (and later even rural homes)
will be outlawed as everything that does not follow the laws of total efficiency
is considered cancerous growth and will not exist.
Mass transportation,mass housing and a handful corporations and government agencies to produce,distribute and controle everything and everyone while the FED controls all bank accounts(Bidens soviet bank regulator pick Omarova has already plans for that scenario )
Then covid will no longer be needed to lock people down.
When they declare “save the climate/polar bear day” or that you have used up your co2 budget for the month than you have to stay at home.

It is about a total deindustrialisation( that’s why they don’t care that renewables are failing,it’s exactly what they want.They never were interested in adequate replacement) and destruction of individual freedoms.

Dr. Bob
Reply to  SxyxS
November 30, 2021 9:12 am

Your job will be 5 minutes from where you are assigned to live. You WILL like your job. You will pretend to work at your job and the government will pretend to pay you for your work. You will pretend to be happy and think you have a fruitful life or you will be exported to a job where you will not like your work and you will not be paid for the effort.

That was tried before and for some unknown reason didn’t work out too well for anyone.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  SxyxS
November 30, 2021 9:38 am

Yeah…like renewables are all about marketing while sabotaging the ultimate outcome by garbling salient information like you need a dang battery that doesn’t exit. As well as forgetting to mention that colossal grids are an extremely wasteful supply chain.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  Jeff corbin
December 1, 2021 10:03 am

exit ===> exiSt

Reply to  SxyxS
November 30, 2021 11:58 am

Logan’s Run!

Walter Harrell
November 30, 2021 6:29 am

They can’t keep people safe in high end retail stores in broad daylight, but they want me to start riding a bus everywhere I go? They are nuts and obviously have never used public transportation.

John Hultquist
Reply to  Walter Harrell
November 30, 2021 9:13 am

 can’t keep people safe in high end retail stores in broad daylight “

This is a much bigger problem for the USA than is global warming.
And it can and must be solved.
Retail places are moving toward hardened and secure fronts, locked doors and guards. This will further the move to on-line shopping, and decreasing visitors to urban centers.
‘Changes’ for San Francisco after ‘horrible’ night of looting — RT USA News

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Walter Harrell
November 30, 2021 9:29 am

What? You don’t want to have interesting conversations with the 10 homeless people living on the bus? Make sure to take a clothespin for your nose.

Jeff corbin
Reply to  Walter Harrell
November 30, 2021 9:44 am

I rode the bus in Philly for decades living in the city and going to work in the city and every where else. The point is not safety, (although safety is a bigger issue then ever in Philly since the summer of 2020). the point is centralization, modularization, ultra-urbanization of the masses off the land globally to garner increased power & control, maximize market control and reduce birthrates. This has been the program of globalization form the beginning. The angel of light has is the idea of uniting the world in peace. The hidden angel of darkness is megalomaniacal control.

AlexBerlin
Reply to  Walter Harrell
November 30, 2021 5:14 pm

You are witnessing the logical outcome of that toxic doctrine “all human beings / races / genders / sexual aberrations are equal”. If that is so, a mass murderer and a child molester are no different from you, and you should fully expect to be treated no better than one if you appreciate “equality”.

November 30, 2021 6:39 am

A self-described socialist with the fake pen name “Paris Marx,” the writer appears to be a gay Canadian college student who never graduated and uses the preferred pronoun “they.”

No comment necessary. Move along, nothing to see here.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Pflashgordon
November 30, 2021 9:30 am

Probably triggered by thoughts of Trump in a 20 mile radius.

PaulH
November 30, 2021 6:48 am

The Green Blob is saying the quiet part out loud. At least they’re being up-front about it.

Speed
November 30, 2021 6:50 am

We should seize this opportunity to challenge the past century of auto-oriented planning and emphasize walking, cycling, and transit use over driving.

We (US) used to be “transit oriented”. Then the automobile was invented, became affordable for most Americans and has largely replaced walking, cycling and transit (lets not forget horses) for such important jobs as getting to and from work, buying groceries and other necessities, visiting with friends and family. Replacing the automobile (waiting for us quietly in our garage or in the lot at work) with a walk in the rain or snow or 90 degree heat is just plain stupid.

While we’re at it, maybe we can go back to wired telephones, AM radio, home delivery of the news and polio.

The arrow of progress points forward. Humans are smart and adaptable. Technological regression is not in our nature. Or in our best interests.

Steve Oregon
November 30, 2021 6:56 am

The Portland Oregon region planning for decades has been the epitome of “encouraging” and “emphasizing” alternative modes of transportation.
All to an out come of epic failure. The anti car anti road agenda has choked mobility to the point of insanity while billions invested in rail transit has resulted in less transit use.
And the planners have done it with eyes wide open.
We have an additional layer of government beyond the city and county called METRO.

From former Metro Executive Mike Burton’s State of the Region Speech, 2000
“Traffic congestion is bad and getting worse.
It is a nightmare for commuters and it is choking freight mobility.
There is no more clear illustration of our inability to meet growth needs than our failure to address our transportation needs.
Within the transportation arena we are facing utter chaos.”

Yep, we have chaos.

Sara
Reply to  Steve Oregon
November 30, 2021 7:35 am

Commuter transportation: Yeah, I lived in Chicago for 30+ years. Most of that time, I took the bus to and from work because it was considerably cheaper than parking fees in the Loop parking garages and the traffic congestion was mostly on Lake Shore Drive, anyway. It was NO FUN to have to stand at the bus stop in the winter, with the wind blowing off Lake Michigan, and finding yourself nearly freezing to death because wearing practical clothing to work (thermals, e.g.) was frowned upon. Going home was even more fun, because if the bus drivers decided they didn’t want to make a full-length run, they’d dump you out at the street where Clark Street met the driveway to the bus barn and that meant grab a cab to get home – IF you could find one. And I’m sure Chicago is not the only city that has this going on.

The people (like this Soylent Green marone) who come up with this stuff never get cold, never wait at bus stops or Metra stations where the wind blows frostbite level cold air at you from the lake or the river. They never suffer the inconvenience known as waiting for the bus/train and wondering if you’re going to be held up at gunpoint by gangbangers. They’re the Cloud People, up there above it all while the Mud People are down below in the real world.

A dose of cold reality dumped on someone like that might make a difference… or not.

Speed
November 30, 2021 7:01 am

And we know that the International Transport Workers’ Federation is an unbiased observer …

As leaders at COP26 were focused on electric vehicles, a network of mayors and the International Transport Workers’ Federation released a report arguing that public transit use needs to double by 2030 in order to meet emissions targets. 

Carlo, Monte
November 30, 2021 7:04 am

The electrification of transportation is essential — there is no doubt about that — but just replacing every personal vehicle with a battery-powered equivalent will produce an environmental disaster of its own.

Stopped reading here…what a dolt.

Ted
Reply to  Carlo, Monte
November 30, 2021 11:42 am

To be fair, the second half was completely correct.

John Bell
November 30, 2021 7:05 am

I have been studying geology the last few years, and the geologic record shows the seas rise, then fall, then rise, fall, rise, fall, rise, fall…

John Tillman
Reply to  John Bell
November 30, 2021 7:15 am

Sea rise is called transgression. Now that’s a sin.

Sara
November 30, 2021 7:18 am

Hmmm…. does this mean that when I need groceries, need to restock what i’ve used up in fixing meals and feeding the cat, I have to traipse over to Wally World and drag everything home in a golf bag?

Really, do ANY of these people do their own shopping for food? I get the impression, from some of this idiocy, that they don’t have the faintest idea about the real world and its requirements for mere survival, never mind having a decent life. No one I know wants to drag a full shopping cart home from the store, nor does anyone I know want to have to contact someone who raises chickens for eggs and food and place a weekly order (delivered). If you don’t understand what I’m describing, this is how things were in the cities before mechanized transport became available. You made acquaintances with greengrocers, butchers, people who raised chickens for eggs and meat, people who delivered firewood for the kitchen – ALL of it in the cities. Out in the country on farms, people raised their own food with household gardens and livestock and supported themselves. And even back then, plenty of people had draft horses and carriage horses of their own.

If the dopes who are leaning toward ending private transportation have their way (and let’s all hope that they are the first to suffer the consequences of it) that is what may happen. They have literally no understanding of civilization at all.

SO JUST WHAT IS IT THAT THESE MORONS ARE AFTER? Do they really think they are that superior to the rest of us? I have news for them: they are so very stupid, they don’t even know they’re alive. They need to be subjected to what they are trying to foist on the rest of us.

Rant over. I’m going to go get some cookies and milk now.

Reply to  Sara
November 30, 2021 8:36 am

Good question – see the revolver link above ¨Get Woke or go Broke¨.

November 30, 2021 7:21 am

Paris Marx? He has the right name for an idiot.

Reply to  Phillip Bratby
November 30, 2021 8:55 am

An adopted Pen name. Not her actual name.

John Tillman
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
November 30, 2021 11:39 am

Still, an idiotic name.

Karl spent a lot more time in London than Paris.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
November 30, 2021 9:46 am

If Paris Hilton and Karl Marx had a lovechild!
Our Paris sounds like she got Ms. Hilton’s brains at best. I hope she didn’t get Karl’s looks to go with it; that beard would be scratchy!

cgh
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
November 30, 2021 11:40 am

Meet Paris Marx.
Paris Marx

Just looking at what’s on his website, it’s obvious that he knows nothing about anything.

Except perhaps how to quote that malignant anti-Semitic old fraud Karl Marx.

Chris Hanley
Reply to  cgh
November 30, 2021 12:27 pm

Paris’s Instagram page shows he gets around a lot for someone who says he disdains individual travel choices.
I know, that’s almost a given with such people.

Don Perry
November 30, 2021 7:40 am

For all of you who want to “stop doing anything that causes emissions”, I have a very serious suggestion for you to contribute to that goal — stop breathing!

michel
November 30, 2021 7:40 am

I think this is obviously correct. For many years now the climate alarmists have been arguing that all we have to do is change the way we generate power and change the powerplants in our cars, and change our heating. But that otherwise, life can carry on as now.

In this vision there will be EVs, solar and wind powered generation, homes insulated to high standards and heated by heat pumps and very small amounts of energy. But we will all live, work, shop and eat pretty much as we do now. There will still be suburbs, malls, highways. Its just the different vehicles will transport us around the same places.

What’s interesting is that this vision is now coming up against reality, and people are starting to draw the logical conclusions. And are actually not afraid to do so.

So the consequence of the move to wind and solar generation is that there will be no power to charge as many cars as we have now. Nor will they have the range to travel as we do now. And they cost far more than the gasoline powered ones. So the logical conclusion is, fewer cars, more bikes, more walking.

We are not yet seeing this quantified. I think, but its just a guess, that in the UK the only way to bring about the green utopia that Boris is promoting will be reducing the number of cars to about 10% of what there are now. The shopping centres will have to close. The houses will have to be insulated at a quite furious rate – and/or people will have to move to dense energy efficient urban housing served by tram lines or electric buses.

Its a welcome start on realism. Of course, as it becomes clearer and clearer what is involved, it will also be clearer that its electoral suicide to try to implement it. We have a little time before that realization dawns in political circles. But it will.

Reply to  michel
November 30, 2021 8:35 am

Just imagine the next firm coffee break – did you cycle to work, or use your SUV, not like me?
This is auto-Wokeness! And firms like even Tesla who folded under a woke lawsuit, will fold – ¨Get Woke or go Broke¨ takes over management. It is now clear what Dieselgate was all about.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  michel
November 30, 2021 9:35 am

I just want my Mr. Fusion.

Reply to  michel
November 30, 2021 12:10 pm

I don’t know. The politicians will be caught between the rich who want to suck up the land at fire sale prices and the people who want to stay on their property.

I foresee strife ahead.

November 30, 2021 7:46 am

I have been reading Simon Ings, “Stalin and the Scientists”. The book catalogs all the things that go wrong when utopians get control of anything. People suffer and their opponents die or are sent to Gulags. Utopians, like Paris Marx, are just smart enough to make us all poor but not smart enough to solve any real problems.

Abolition Man
Reply to  Bernie1815
November 30, 2021 9:53 am

According to Cipolla’s “5 Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” stupid people damage or harm everything around them. Their level of education is irrelevant; if they are advocating for a human wasteland their are idiots, although intellectual morons seems apt as well!

niceguy
November 30, 2021 7:54 am

Mythical Parisian stores threatened because of difficulties of access by cars:

“A la veille de Noël, le directeur des Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann Alexandre Liot s’inquiète de la fréquentation et craint que les difficultés d’accéder dans Paris en voiture dissuadent les clients de venir faire leurs achats.”

Just before Christmas, chief officer of Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann is worrying about the number of visitors because of problems of car access.

The 165 years old “BHV Marais” rue de Rivoli has uncertain future.

https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/grande-conso/les-galeries-lafayette-s-interrogent-sur-l-avenir-du-bhv_780706

dmanfred
November 30, 2021 8:16 am

Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes 

What this means is force everyone to live in tiny apartments in high-rises in mega cities.

michel
Reply to  dmanfred
November 30, 2021 8:27 am

Yes, that is what it means. It means moving huge numbers of people into new energy efficient dense housing. But you have to think through the implications of that, too. It means moving businesses so they are within public transport or bike or walking access of where people now live. And it means moving shopping out of the present supermarket locations with parking lots into smaller stores serving local areas. It means walking, maybe biking, to the store and carrying your stuff home.

If you know any older people who grew up in the UK in the fifties, ask them about it. Lots of small shops, frequent shopping trips, very few consumer products.

This is the end result of the agenda. Back further, actually, back to about 1870, but with Internet.

Reply to  dmanfred
November 30, 2021 12:13 pm

The old “projects” living. Great time for everyone!

1 2 3 4