4 ms·

You didn’t rebut any of my points. First, can you not buy an electric car and advocate and enact organizational or systematic change? They’re not mutually excl

by Denzel 7y ago

You didn’t rebut any of my points. First, can you not buy an electric car and advocate and enact organizational or systematic change? They’re not mutually exclusive. Second, how do dynamic systems composed of many independent, self-directed agents change? Instantaneously or over some period of time? How long is that period of time? Probably much longer a period of time than it takes to purchase an electric vehicle (< 1 minute) and reduce your emissions immediately.

michaelt 7y ago
They’re not mutually exclusive. Well, you can only spend a given dollar once. So if for example the government spends $$$$ to put an EV charging point in every street light, that's $$$$ they didn't spend making busses more appealing.
- zip1234 7y ago
  Except the government does even need to do that. The government could actually make money by leasing spaces/taking a cut of revenue to put chargers and letting private industry install them and manage them.
  - nguoi 7y ago
    >Except the government does even need to do that. And perhaps it won't, if enough of the people that make it up read articles like this to ignore the very powerful automotive lobby
  - usrusr 7y ago
    The reality of many governments however is that they are handing out money to the few people who frequently buy new cars for making those cars fractionally less unsustainable, while those who don't drive get pushed aside by even heavier and wider cars (using current "3" by BMW and Tesla as a comparison sample)
  - notJim 7y ago
    There are problems there though, because adding parking spaces makes driving more desirable for both EVs and non-EVs, and parking spaces tend to compete with bike lines in US cities. And as long as US cities remain car centric, having parking be expensive enough to be a deterrent to driving (or a major revenue source) is going to be a 3rd rail for local politicians.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  That assumes that the lack of appeal of buses has anything to do with money. Until buses can: * Deliver me from point A to point G without stopping at B, C, D, E, and F along the way * Provide room for more than a handful of cargo/luggage and park / wait around while I load/unload it * Actually stick to a goddamn timetable (looking at you, Muni) Then no amount of money will make buses more appealing to me than a car. Trains have these same problems, minus the inconsistent timetables, and have the added benefit of typically going at least a little bit faster.

by Denzel 7y ago

michaelt 7y ago

They’re not mutually exclusive. Well, you can only spend a given dollar once. So if for example the government spends $$$$ to put an EV charging point in every street light, that's $$$$ they didn't spend making busses more appealing.

zip1234 7y ago
Except the government does even need to do that. The government could actually make money by leasing spaces/taking a cut of revenue to put chargers and letting private industry install them and manage them.
- nguoi 7y ago
  >Except the government does even need to do that. And perhaps it won't, if enough of the people that make it up read articles like this to ignore the very powerful automotive lobby
- usrusr 7y ago
  The reality of many governments however is that they are handing out money to the few people who frequently buy new cars for making those cars fractionally less unsustainable, while those who don't drive get pushed aside by even heavier and wider cars (using current "3" by BMW and Tesla as a comparison sample)
- notJim 7y ago
  There are problems there though, because adding parking spaces makes driving more desirable for both EVs and non-EVs, and parking spaces tend to compete with bike lines in US cities. And as long as US cities remain car centric, having parking be expensive enough to be a deterrent to driving (or a major revenue source) is going to be a 3rd rail for local politicians.
yellowapple 7y ago
That assumes that the lack of appeal of buses has anything to do with money. Until buses can: * Deliver me from point A to point G without stopping at B, C, D, E, and F along the way * Provide room for more than a handful of cargo/luggage and park / wait around while I load/unload it * Actually stick to a goddamn timetable (looking at you, Muni) Then no amount of money will make buses more appealing to me than a car. Trains have these same problems, minus the inconsistent timetables, and have the added benefit of typically going at least a little bit faster.