RSSSuzuki: private automobiles are unsustainable
Sep 03
Good article by David Suzuki: David Suzuki: Our obsession with private automobiles is unsustainable.
I completely agree, but unfortunately it seems most North American urban areas are designed on the assumption that you drive, so it’s difficult to live car-free unless you’re really committed and willing to make some sacrifices. That’s not to say there aren’t benefits, though.
For example, when I lived in Austin, Texas, there are entire new areas of town up north being built without even sidewalks, let alone bike lanes. It doesn’t take many large SUVs speeding by, inches from your shoulder as you try to walk beside the road, to make you think twice about walking there.
Biking is somewhat more feasible there, but as another example, there was only one way to get to where I worked, along a very busy highway. Hardcore bikers would go on it, but I would have preferred streets to do it, myself. There were zero buses going to that part of town, too.
Where I live now is not so bad, but to really reduce our dependence on a car we’d have to move somewhere closer to everything.
Sep 03, 2010 @ 09:19:31
One way Austin attempts to combat this problem is with the Car2Go program, which allows timesharing of compact low-emission vehicles:
http://www.smartusainsider.com/profiles/blogs/2029424:BlogPost:350878
Public transportation is expensive when it’s on rails. Subways, light rails and monorails take forever to build and have rigid paths that aren’t convenient for everyone. There is now a commuter rail service from the suburbs through north Austin and into the city. But after all the expense of building it, they found noone wants to use it. I see empty train cars passing every day. It’s a shame, because it could doom the commuter rail service to an early grave. I guess t takes time to change people’s habits.
Besides, why would I want to use any form of transportation that leaves me at the mercy of someone else’s schedule? Buses have more flexible routes, but when you wait half an hour in the rain for one, you start shopping for a car. The buses in Austin stop around 10pm, which is just late enough to drop people at the bars downtown but not late enough to bring them back, so drunk driving is still a problem. Why even have buses at all?
What about electric cars? If everyone switched to electric, wouldn’t that be ok? As Suzuki says, it depends on where your power comes from. In much of the US, it still comes from burning coal, so your electric car only hides the burning of fossil fuels, it doesn’t remove it. In Canada, nuclear and hydro power are more widely available, so the benefits of electric cars are higher.
Even if there was a great public transit system, there will always be a need for trucks, vans, bulldozers, cranes and other heavy vehicles. Someone’s got to manufacture these vehicles, and they’ll promote the private automobile culture for profit.
I like the HumanCar idea, maybe with foot pedals, like a land-based paddle-boat. No emissions, fewer oils and fluids to leak out. And you never run out of gas, or use any, which has implications for foreign affairs. To keep the freedom of private ownership, I think this looks like the best bet.
Here’s another idea: Make all cars self-drive. We have the tech for that. Make cars that never exceed the speed limit or run yellow lights. They change lanes and parallel park automatically. Remove the horn. Remove anything that makes driving fun or risky. People would hate these cars because the take the fun out of private ownership. Then maybe people would consider taking the train.
Sep 03, 2010 @ 20:27:31
I agree. I’ve never understood the purpose of stopping public transit before the bars close. That takes away many of the cases where I would reliably use it.
Sep 04, 2010 @ 06:08:02
@David,@Randy,@nthier
I disagree 100% with you 3 on one important point. You claim that an electric car powered by electricity from a coal-burning plant is as bad as your typical gas guzzler. I disagree for 2 reasons:
1) Coal-burning plants are not as inefficient as you imply. Even without scrubbers, these plants produce more power per unit of fossil fuel than your car does. The coal needed to fuel your electric car is far less than the gas you’re putting in.
2) A power plant centralizes advancements in efficiency. Install scrubbers, every car is now more efficient. If I now replace my coal plant with a hydro plant, 100% of the electric cars on my grid become nearly carbon free. Whereas if I invented a new carberator that makes cars use gas more efficient, it’ll be decades before every car on the road benefits.