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It’s difficult to take your bet as anything other than disingenuous grandstanding considering the appetite for such public policy changes is pretty weak. It’s i
by comte7092 3y ago
It’s difficult to take your bet as anything other than disingenuous grandstanding considering the appetite for such public policy changes is pretty weak. It’s impossible to distinguish what is a matter of will and what is a matter of actual possibility.
To your points about China. You can’t point to the size of any of chinas markets without normalizing for the size of the population. Yes, Chinas automotive sales are twice that of the US and frowning but their vehicle registrations [0] per capita are less than the quarter of the US total, which is the real relevant number: the actual number of cars on the road.
Further, while true that China has engaged in very large scale urban planning and mass transit projects. I wouldn’t say it’s fair to call them some sort of anti car utopians. If anything they limit cars from the standpoint of transit efficiency. They actively promote their own industrial development in the automotive market and consider EVs to be a competitive advantage.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_per_capita?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...
- toomuchtodo 3y ago> People make purchasing decisions based on their environment, and that environment is heavily influenced by public policy. > It’s difficult to take your bet as anything other than disingenuous grandstanding considering the appetite for such public policy changes is pretty weak. It’s impossible to distinguish what is a matter of will and what is a matter of actual possibility. These are both your statements. I've done my best to argue in good faith with a genuine offer to be accountable to my thesis, but you can't both say "public policy will change purchasing decisions" and "appetite for such public policy changes is pretty weak." Either you believe public policy will successfully encourage mass transit and urban planning outcomes that provide superior benefit to vehicles or you don't. I believe EV deployments will be superior based on, as you say, lack of public policy appetite (which is literally the foundation of my thesis; there is no appetite for what you put forth is the superior solution while EV manufacturers have nothing to stop them, there is no speed limit). Appreciate the conversation regardless.
- comte7092 3y ago> you can't both say "public policy will change purchasing decisions" and "appetite for such public policy changes is pretty weak." Fortunately I didn’t say that: > People make purchasing decisions based on their environment, and that environment is heavily influenced by public policy. Your editorializing of public policy has an impact in general, to public policy will move in this direction is doing the heavy lifting here and is putting words in my mouth. Ultimately, policy is a choice, it isn’t something that exists as a force of nature that we can’t control. While I share your pessimism that anything will get done, that pessimism can’t be left to become a self fulfilling prophecy.