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
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Honestly, I think it would be a great idea in urban settings to take steps to encourage less car and truck usage.
But those are just steps – it would do a lot for people’s waistlines and improve air quality, but it wouldn’t do squat for supposed climate change.
Look at the senior executives of your local transit authority. Most would have a million excuses why they don’t take transit.
Transit cannot replace private automobiles because of time and security. Private vehicles are similar to random access. Transit is similar to sequential access.
Both have pluses and minuses, but current technology is similar to spinning disk technology. You need solid state transportation (no moving parts) before transit can compete with private vehicles.
When politicians give up their private cars and jets…
“but if we’re serious about taking on the climate crisis”
Luckily, we’re not because there is no climate crisis. And, what’s this rant against SUVs. I have my first SUV, a Toyota RAV4. Best car I’ve ever owned.
Anyone feel like carrying 10 bags of groceries during a “10 minute” walk home?
We have them delivered in Europe!
What are they delivered in?
They will be delivered by hand. That’s part of the huge increase in employment that Paris Marx believes this change will cause.
Beyond that, who’s going to pay the delivery guy?
Griff just stop posting mate it costs electricity and you are killing the planet. For our part we are evil fossil fuel people and trying to kill the planet.
These communist idiots have already said “You will own nothing, and you will be happy”. An automobile brings about liberty, so the obvious solution is to make it so expensive so that only the elites can afford one. The best way to do that is to ban fuel vehicles and allow only ultra-expensive battery ones.
These eco-Marxists hate people. And I mean a deep down hatred. Anything that makes people happy and gives liberty must be banned.
‘The authors are 20 or 30 somethings’. That is, those fit enough to walk & cycle. Public transport needs a vast improvement before it is better than personal transport which can take you door to door, & keep you sheltered & warm as well. I remember the time before I had a car. Brrrr!
Many European cities still have large populations within them, with truly excellent public transport…
Vienna, for example – 100% accessible to disabled and less able…
In Germany certainly you could rely on public transit
Hey, griff, come visit me for a while. I’ll feed you well, and you can show me how to use public transport and not need a car.
Notice how those places with excellent public transportation are always somewhere else?
When the government comes to take away people’s cars, there will be scenes even agrier than when they come to take away their guns.
Agreed. Mr Logic therefore dictates that the government better take your guns away before they come for the cars.
The first part is right — electric vehicles won’t save us. First, they are too expensive, the grid doesn’t generate enough power and there simply isn’t enough raw materials to make wide-spread adoption possible.
The second part — getting rid of private vehicles — is the real agenda. They don’t want you to own more than an electric scooter or a bicycle. They want only public transportation so they can control where you live, where you work and where you go.
I lived in the Austin area for 2 years. The far left domininates Austin and Travis county. The progressives are smarter than us and know how we should all live. They do not tolerate those who don’t share their unserious utopian views and for years they have made travel by private vehicles increasingly difficult. Commuting in and out of Austin is a nightmare. Given growth in the area without improvements in the infrastructure, it’s going to get worse and worse for years.
If you want to know where society is headed, watch these three scifi movies.
1. Soylent Green
2. Blade Runner
3. Hunger Games
Petrol cars will be greener and viable for a lot longer if we are sensible about car design. I own two cars and both show what is possible, my Focus Ecoboost does over 50mpg and does everything you would expect a family hatchback to do, my Caterham 160 also does over 50mpg and is immense fun. I appreciate that there are many great cars with big engines but it is the clever small engines that will give IC cars a very long future (provided this is allowed).
“provided this is allowed”
There are currently around 1.4 billion ICEVs in the world. The International Energy Agency says that there were 10.2m electric cars in the world at the end of 2020 of which 6.5m were BEVs. The IEA also expects that by 2040 there will be c. 72m electric vehicles worldwide.
Even if the IEA forecast is out by 100% the overwhelming majority of vehicles are going to be ICEVs for a very long time and any democratic government that tries to ban them will face considerable resistance and soon find themselves voted out of office.
It’s a great plan to shorten life, cripple commerce and spread disease. And for what, to support a fraud forced on people without their consent.
A 10 minute walk, would that be by a 20 year old or an 85 year old and does that include groceries or other products being carried or pulled in a wagon. Whoever wrote this should have to live it before promoting it for others. That would be both in city, small town and rural areas. Or in shorter terms mind his own business and stay out or ours.
My neighbor, an early morning riser, drives to church to early morning Mass, every morning then returns home to go about her usual daily activities. She is an avowed climate concerned enthusiast although she has difficulty walking, particularly with distance and especially in ice and snow conditions. I believe she would be dismayed to find out that her behavior was out of step with the climate alarmist community and that she would be forced to choose between walking to a yet to be built public transportation hub and attending the church of her choosing.
I’ll bet God would forgive her “no-show” at church given the very real pressing alternative climate religion.
Common uses of cars:-
You will own nothing (Or do anything) and you *will* be happy.
and you will be happy. Or else.
Or as my boss used to say. The beatings will continue until moral improves.
Everything on your list worked (by some forgotten magic???) before there even WERE cars. And yes, even before there was Public Transport. The misdesign both of our cities (only shops, restaurants, and offices but no living space) and our rural areas (people living in the country with the delusion that it is somehow better to have to drive everywhere because not everything you need outside a holiday trip is in walking distance: In any reasonable evaluation, such a house is unlivable unless you are self-sufficient by having your own cattle and vegetables and skill enough to make your own clothes and other stuff) is to blame. NOBODY can use more than one room at a time (one for the waking hours, one for sleeping), a kitchen, a bathroom/toilet, and some storage space for stuff you don’t need every day. More space is literally useless. I read people here in the comments talk about two-room city flats as if that were a bad thing and I really can’t understand that. Sometimes I still have nightmares about the much too big garden and meaninglessly many-roomed house I grew up in. Something to tend, clean, and repair every day – I shudder to think how much the maintenance must have cost my father! And all this while every one of us (like any other person I have ever encountered) were happiest when we could finally, after all day’s work was done, were allowed and able to retire in our own personal room. How happy was I when I was allowed to sleep over at my Granny’s flat in the city – you stepped out of the door and had all sorts of (for a young country boy) interesting shops and places right before your nose, and when you felt like withdrawing from the bustle, just walk a few steps, close a door behind you, and you were AT HOME. No asking the grown-ups to take you somewhere in the car, no memorizing bus schedules to make it to school (or anywhere) in time, no depending on others, no need to know in advance and explain to others what you want, just FREEDOM. I still live like that, in a city flat, just me and my loving wife. Nominally we’re in Berlin, but we have everything around us in very acceptable walking distance and sometimes months pass without us boarding a bus or the tube even once to go to another part of the big city, let alone see the touristic “attractions”. Why should we? God beware me of ever having to drive again, or live in a place where there’s no janitor and I need to clean the driveway from snow and mow the grass myself. Country life is a slave’s life.
They may have worked, but it is telling that as soon as there was a practical alternative, most everyone took it.
I’ve always found it incomprehensible the way so many people look down on anyone who chooses a lifestyle that is different from theirs.
“I read people here in the comments talk about two-room city flats as if that were a bad thing and I really can’t understand that.”
And I read people who talk about country living as if that were a bad thing (“Country life is a slave’s life.”) and I really can’t understand THAT.
Why is it so difficult to accept that different people prefer different lifestyles?
You sound like a very self involved person. No kids, no pets, no hobbies that involve others, nothing requiring repair, just a simple life. Why do you think people would need more space? How about kids and a place to play, pets, a shop for crafts and woodworking. You sound like someone who is adverse to work in maintaining an abode. Your description of what is commonly called “chores” is a dead giveaway.
What climate crisis? Mr. Marx can lead by example, dispose of your personal transport option, stop flying and stop eating meat.
PS. No car maker will stop making cars, EVER! Even with massive over capacity in the industry.
Oh lord. So I walk 10 minutes to the bus stop, wait on average 15 minutes for the bus, then walk another 10 minutes to work. My small toolbag weighs 40 pounds. Figure a commute of 12-15 miles. Bus is moving at ~15 MPH. Call it about 2 hours to get to work. Same to return. I’ve just spent 4 hours to get paid for 8 hours of work. If I were making the mythical $15/hr, it’s cut to $10/hr when factoring in transit time.
Now do this in a Houston summer, with temps around 95 degrees. Damn right. I’m gonna bum a ride with a neighbor, throw my tools in the bed of his F150, and climb into the air conditioning. I’ll buy a six-pack on the ride home, and still come out ahead.
My workday has been more productive (due to not showing up already exhausted), I’ve saved 3 1/2 hours of transit time, and had an enlightening conversation about classical music. Skynyrd v Allman Bros. Molly Hatchet v Marshall Tucker. (For the record, Skynyrd for city driving, but Allmans for the Interstate. Be told!)
Why don’t you live near the place you are working? Commuting by bus is idiotic, I agree, just like commuting by car. The artificial and unnatural separation of living and working quarters is the problem. In the old days, people lived close to the shops, offices and factories they worked in. Blocks of workers’ flats were often integrated into industrial complexes, while shopkeepers, craftsmen, and other single-person or family business usually lived upstairs from their shop or office. They wouldn’t have dreamed of wasting their precious lifetime going from A to B and back again every day! Cities used to function because there was a balanced amount of workplaces, retail shops and living spaces in every quarter (and these quarters no larger than could be easily negotiated on foot). Today we have swathes of streets in the city with ONLY posh boutiques or offices (but no flats, and they wouldn’t make sense as there’s no supermarket, no apothecary, no doctor, no bank, no post office in sight, just useless luxuries), while the factories have been moved away from all human life into the barren wilderness, forcing all those who work there to willy-nilly share their pay with the automobile and gasoline industries (probably the largest factor why wages had to become so astronomic, and why so much industry has migrated to Asia where the healthy and commonsensical neighbourhood of living and working quarters is still intact).
Property and rent costs near places of work are high. Gone are the days of housing for workers. Sydney, here in Australia, I live 30-40 mins from my place of work by train and I pay AU$550 per week. If I lived nearer to work rent would be near double that. Then add living expenses.
So you want to go back to a time when everyone was dirt poor and had little to no options in how they lived, worked, or ate.
“Why don’t you live near the place you are working?”
In many cases it’s simply too expensive to live close to work.
Notice the toolbag, tool. I work where the work is, not where you think it should be, you idiot.
FUATHYRIO
So …. the solution to a nonproblem is to go back to the stone age but this time with wheels but nothing to turn them?
“Making transit available within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes.”
Went to our nearest Walmart today, a 32 mile round trip. Didn’t even buy a full weeks worth of groceries. Took four trips, vehicle to kitchen, to get the items inside. So, a 10 minute walk? Even if the ‘transit vehicle’ stopped in front of the house – and waited while we unloaded, and the other passengers waited….. Stray thought – didn’t buy ice cream today, but did get milk and butter – placed in a 12 VDC refrigerator. It does get warm in Arizona.
Frankly, I just can’t see it happening.
(No, Walmart wasn’t the only ‘stop’ we made. Chiropractor, bank, Harbor Freight, two restaurants for ‘to-go’ food, post office, a photo studio, and a thrift store before we got home. Any trip ‘to town’ must have at least three ‘reasons’.)
What’s his name, Karl Marx?
Once again around the circle we go. First time was from walking to horses to ICE powered vehicles, with bikes playing a small role. This time around will be from ICE powered vehicles to bikes to powered bikes back to vehicles powered by something, likely electric. Cars aint gonna go away. Their nature will change a bit over time, but then they always did. Cheers –
I need my 2007 F250 to carry my bicycle down to the lake to ride. Round trip about 15 miles. The thing gets like 8.5mph going downhill with a tailwind. Good times.
How do I get my 8 bags of groceries home?
According to griff, you are supposed to hire someone to help you.
if you live in Paris or London or New York OK
live in a remote town in western australia
well this is just BS
50% of the population may live in battery hen cages and walk to a tin tube
the rest live in rural communities and need to get goods etc to the house / property
oh no they say only use local materials and food
then the population will starve
Now they are talking about private closed vehicles. In a few years, they will be complaining about anything with a wheel on it. People evolved by walking everywhere, so why can’t we do the same thing now?
With free, high quality healthcare, education, organic food, affordable, sustainable housing near lush green parks and playgrounds for the children. All at affordable prices, of course.
The wheel will be the next target. Note the time.
Her article isn’t worth reading. You will never get those few minutes back.