5 ms·

During that time half the cars on the road were electric. It is truly sad to see how we have regressed. I wonder what will happen first? Extinction of the human

by mempko 9y ago

During that time half the cars on the road were electric. It is truly sad to see how we have regressed. I wonder what will happen first? Extinction of the human race because of global warming? Or half the cars being electric? ...

Aloha 9y ago
We went towards ICE vehicles because the power to weight ratio was so much better with gasoline.
- chiph 9y ago
  And the range. At the time, long-distance travel was becoming possible for the average vehicle owner. And they didn't want to stop for half a day every hundred miles. Just like today. Tangentally, I came across this film from Market Street in 1906. There's lots of different modes of transportation in use - horse-drawn carts, electric cars, gasoline cars, cable cars, electric trolleys, and pedestrians (who were amazingly casual about dodging between everything else that was moving - the accidental death toll was probably huge) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvB_ZIWtAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvB_ZIWtAg
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    >who were amazingly casual about dodging between everything else that was moving - the accidental death toll was probably huge Probably less than you'd think. Traffic now likes to forget that while the legal rules offer redundancy 99% of the time (if only one party follows the rules the other party should be able to take action to avoid a conflict if it is following the rules that apply to it) the legal rules do not supersede physics. I walk to work every day. Morons on foot cut off morons on bikes who cut off morons in cars who cut off heavy trucks. You only need to see a horse turned into taco meat once or twice to learn why you shouldn't rely on other traffic's ability to pick up the slack for your dumb decisions. People learn what to do and what not to pretty quickly when the stakes are higher than someone slamming on their brakes and honking at you.
- JoeAltmaier 9y ago
  ...and it took most of a century to get better batteries! What was the delay I wonder?
  - Aloha 9y ago
    Material Science really.
Fifer82 9y ago
I always found it also strange that in the UK, and in my small town in Scotland (and pretty much all towns around here) had electric trams installed. They were all ripped out. Now Edinburgh has them and spent god knows how many billions on it.
- bonzini 9y ago
  Trams in Milan (such as the orange ones that you can see in San Francisco, built between 1928 and 1932) have been electric since 1901. Until then they were using steam engines outside the city, where they were basically a light railway, and animals inside.
  - TomMarius 9y ago
    Same in Prague, except that they used to be horse-carried before they went electric.
- keithpeter 9y ago
  UK: Also milk floats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float Very characteristic motor sound early in the morning.
- arethuza 9y ago
  Fortunately the Edinburgh trams were "only" £776 million... :-|
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    Presumably in the future, with blockchain-style transactions, we'll be able to see where exactly the money went in such situations.
    - saalweachter 9y ago
      What makes you think contractors on public works won't use tumblers?
Kayou 9y ago
Honestly, if all car today and in the last 70 years had huge lead batteries, I don't think it would be a good thing. Battery recycling is a fair problem for today's electric cars and people at the time used to throw away anywhere what they didn't need any more, including their car batteries.
- wahern 9y ago
  Residents of southeast L.A. County rejoiced this year at news that a battery recycling plant that had long emitted lead, arsenic and other dangerous pollutants would be closed. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-exide-cleanup-story-so-far-20151121-story.html http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-exide-cleanup-story... When I worked as a stock boy at K-Mart in the 1990s I remember a whole corner of the loading dock was kept stacked with used and returned batteries, many of them leaking all over the place. I was just a kid and didn't know much, but I knew enough to not want to go anywhere near them. Thankfully only those working at the return counter and on the loading dock handled the batteries.
- patrickg_zill 9y ago
  Not sure what you mean exactly, but lead acid battery recycling is something like 95% effective in terms of what is recovered, and lead can be easily recycled multiple times. Lithium being more expensive is also well known for being able to be recycled.
  - Kayou 9y ago
    What I meant was that back in the old days, people didn't bother as much to recycle things, so lead batteries ended up thrown away in the nature. Of course today we recycle a lot more, so it would be less of a problem.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      In what geography, any evidence? Those who lived through the wars and depression(s), and baby-boomers, are notorious for their frugality and reuse.

by mempko 9y ago

Aloha 9y ago

We went towards ICE vehicles because the power to weight ratio was so much better with gasoline.

chiph 9y ago
And the range. At the time, long-distance travel was becoming possible for the average vehicle owner. And they didn't want to stop for half a day every hundred miles. Just like today. Tangentally, I came across this film from Market Street in 1906. There's lots of different modes of transportation in use - horse-drawn carts, electric cars, gasoline cars, cable cars, electric trolleys, and pedestrians (who were amazingly casual about dodging between everything else that was moving - the accidental death toll was probably huge) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvB_ZIWtAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEvB_ZIWtAg
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  >who were amazingly casual about dodging between everything else that was moving - the accidental death toll was probably huge Probably less than you'd think. Traffic now likes to forget that while the legal rules offer redundancy 99% of the time (if only one party follows the rules the other party should be able to take action to avoid a conflict if it is following the rules that apply to it) the legal rules do not supersede physics. I walk to work every day. Morons on foot cut off morons on bikes who cut off morons in cars who cut off heavy trucks. You only need to see a horse turned into taco meat once or twice to learn why you shouldn't rely on other traffic's ability to pick up the slack for your dumb decisions. People learn what to do and what not to pretty quickly when the stakes are higher than someone slamming on their brakes and honking at you.
JoeAltmaier 9y ago
...and it took most of a century to get better batteries! What was the delay I wonder?
- Aloha 9y ago
  Material Science really.

Fifer82 9y ago

I always found it also strange that in the UK, and in my small town in Scotland (and pretty much all towns around here) had electric trams installed. They were all ripped out. Now Edinburgh has them and spent god knows how many billions on it.

bonzini 9y ago
Trams in Milan (such as the orange ones that you can see in San Francisco, built between 1928 and 1932) have been electric since 1901. Until then they were using steam engines outside the city, where they were basically a light railway, and animals inside.
- TomMarius 9y ago
  Same in Prague, except that they used to be horse-carried before they went electric.
keithpeter 9y ago
UK: Also milk floats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float Very characteristic motor sound early in the morning.
arethuza 9y ago
Fortunately the Edinburgh trams were "only" £776 million... :-|
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  Presumably in the future, with blockchain-style transactions, we'll be able to see where exactly the money went in such situations.
  - saalweachter 9y ago
    What makes you think contractors on public works won't use tumblers?

Kayou 9y ago

Honestly, if all car today and in the last 70 years had huge lead batteries, I don't think it would be a good thing. Battery recycling is a fair problem for today's electric cars and people at the time used to throw away anywhere what they didn't need any more, including their car batteries.

wahern 9y ago
Residents of southeast L.A. County rejoiced this year at news that a battery recycling plant that had long emitted lead, arsenic and other dangerous pollutants would be closed. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-exide-cleanup-story-so-far-20151121-story.html http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-exide-cleanup-story... When I worked as a stock boy at K-Mart in the 1990s I remember a whole corner of the loading dock was kept stacked with used and returned batteries, many of them leaking all over the place. I was just a kid and didn't know much, but I knew enough to not want to go anywhere near them. Thankfully only those working at the return counter and on the loading dock handled the batteries.
patrickg_zill 9y ago
Not sure what you mean exactly, but lead acid battery recycling is something like 95% effective in terms of what is recovered, and lead can be easily recycled multiple times. Lithium being more expensive is also well known for being able to be recycled.
- Kayou 9y ago
  What I meant was that back in the old days, people didn't bother as much to recycle things, so lead batteries ended up thrown away in the nature. Of course today we recycle a lot more, so it would be less of a problem.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    In what geography, any evidence? Those who lived through the wars and depression(s), and baby-boomers, are notorious for their frugality and reuse.