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> "And gas-powered leafblowers. Oh man, those are the worst. DC was right to ban them." agreed, but mostly for the atrocious pollution those things put out. he
by clairity 6y ago
> "And gas-powered leafblowers. Oh man, those are the worst. DC was right to ban them."
agreed, but mostly for the atrocious pollution those things put out. here in LA, they're also banned but still widely used. i can smell them, let alone hear them, through my window nearly a hundred feet away.
with electric vehicles still rising, i can't wait for the day we can relegate most (all?) gas-powered machines to well-segregated industrial areas and thereby reduce both noise and air pollution drastically in our living environments.
- stefan_ 6y agoSince we are at it, can we ban gasoline scooters? They feature the same leafblower engines, and I have the impression they have been "grandfathered" in emissions legislation so often that the entire population must have been replaced three times over. China has it right, those prehistoric things have no place anymore.
- twblalock 6y agoIf you ban gas-powered scooters I don't think it would make much difference. The people who ride them won't care.
- voisin 6y agoHow about gas powered lawnmowers? Far more prevalent, awful for both sound and emissions.
- ip26 6y agoLawn mowers at least have four-stroke engines instead of two. Although, as you say, vastly more prevalent.
- toxik 6y agoHuh, I thought most of them were two stroke.
- Spooky23 6y agoNot for a long time. My cheap Walmart Murray was like $75 and is a fairly efficient four stroke, but is incredibly weak with the emissions tech and awful engine!
- toxik 6y agoI guess it’s a question of where you live. I meant the actual lawnmowers people use rather than what is on the shelves today - I have only seen oily old two-strokers around me. Also I thought low power gasoline engines were more efficient, but I guess they tend not to have any catalytic converters
- bostonpete 6y agoAll two-stroke engines require a gasoline/oil mix, AFAIK? I've used a dozen or so lawnmowers going back 40 years and don't think I've ever used one that required a mix...
- toxik 6y agoThat’s correct. I had a scooter in Asia that took oil in the fuel port just a couple years ago.
- ip26 6y agoI'm not certain, but I think the inconvenience of premix in two strokes tipped the market to four strokes mowers.
- AmVess 6y agoThey are 4 stroke, but they put small mufflers on them. Electric lawnmowers make a lot of noise, too. Not as bad as the droning of a 4 stroke at full throttle, but still noisy. I long for the day we ban lawns. Do that, and lawn mowers and weed whackers would vanish overnight.
- UweSchmidt 6y agoMy neighbor started a new lawn. The amount of water he has been using during the last few weeks with this automated sprinkling system is staggering. There should be a more natural and robust solution, some mix of weeds and small flowers that's also walkable, but also gives bees and other insects a place to live.
- ip26 6y agoI'm big into water wise landscaping, but there aren't really any species of groundcover that are both highly tolerant of foot traffic and also very water thrifty. Mostly shaded bluegrass actually uses less water than full sun buffalograss. (And buffalograss can't handle shade) So tree plus grass is actually pretty water thrifty as well as keeping your house cool...
- morsch 6y agoDepends on where you are. Lawnmower density decreases as population density increases. Scooter density is the other way round. I'd ban them immediately. The noise and air pollution is insane. Have the government co-finance replacement electrical scooters if it helps.
- WillDaSilva 6y agoPlus a clear replacement exists: electric lawnmowers. People may argue that they're not as good, but they're certainly good enough for almost every case.
- bdamm 6y agoThe upcoming battery powered models are getting pretty good. In some cases they have even more power than you can get from a gas motor, and of course the agility, quiet, and easy starting of an electric motor.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- WWLink 6y agoAs obnoxious as they are, no. Leaf blowers are WAAAAY worse. I mean I do agree that gas lawn mowers are noisy obnoxious smokey things that blow dust around. But a leaf blower's whole purpose in life is to blow dirt around - and at full blast they're way louder than the loudest lawn mower. Plus the lawn mower takes like 10-30 minutes to mow a yard in most yards out here. Probably 15 if the person operating it is doing it quickly. Leaf blower though? I can see those jerks using those things for a good 45 minutes or so! Ugh.
- mumblemumble 6y agoLeaf blowers have always fascinated me as an example of a technology that seems to create more work than it saves. I grew up in the country, and I am pretty sure that I could rake our 2-acre lawn by hand in less time than it takes my current neighbor to chase leaves in circles around his half acre lot with a blower.
- clairity 6y agoyes, especially when the "landscapers/gardeners" just blow most of the debris into the street for it to blow right back onto the sidewalk/into the yard later. just take 5 minutes to rake that shit up and put it in the trash or compost bin! i have no idea why anyone who pays for such a service can't see, and correct, that obvious problem immediately. i see that and watering the concrete (usually by unattended sprinklers, but sometimes by someone with a hose) all the time in my neighborhood.
- mumblemumble 6y agoI'm curious how much of the USA's annual gasoline consumption is just neighbors blowing leaves back and forth among each other's yards until brownian motion eventually moves them all to the storm gutter, which promptly becomes clogged.
- upofadown 6y agoMy Yamaha 150 BWs gas powered scooter is 4 stroke and has a catalytic converter. Are 2 stroke scooters even a thing anymore?
- Tade0 6y agoThey were in the EU until 2018, when two-wheel vehicles that didn't comply to the EURO 4 emissions standard were phased out. There are still many 2017 and earlier units on the roads, but give it a few years and they'll be gone as well.
- samoa42 6y agoin summertimes there are a lot of old, loud and stinky 2-stroke scooters in german citys. motorcyles usually don't have dampening around the engine or a silent exhaust because it doesn't look/sound as cool. i'd wager to say your bike is louder as a modern gasoline car.
- lmm 6y agoThey're a lot less antisocial than cars in terms of how much space they take up, and in terms of pollution per person-km as well. We could build much more liveable places if we embraced them.
- black_puppydog 6y agoI live in the inner city of Grenoble, France, and briefly stayed in Paris too. Scooters are the worst because there seems to be no effective way to keep them out of pedestrian areas at night. I'd like to see studies of how many lost hours of sleep a single scooter ripping through a quiet night causes when it traverses the inner city here. But I do love the new generation of electric scooters. They're great!
- iso1631 6y agoOr we could embrace electric mopeds instead.
- samoa42 6y agoice-scooters are the most antisocial vehicle available. they're loud as hell, stinky, smokey _and_ slow, especially the two-cyle engine type. imo loud motorcyles are kind of 'recreational vehicle' and should be banned.
- lmm 6y agoI'm all for restrictions on loud or polluting vehicles, but they should be applied equally to cars as well. Plenty of people use two-wheel vehicles for commuting or essential journeys, and that's something we should encourage, since it's a lot less wasteful than a single-occupancy car.