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Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

washingtonpost.com

41–50 of 595 posts

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#41

It makes sense now why they burn cars every protest (besides being fun). Pollution for a day, clean air for a lifetime

I am highly confident that a sufficient percentage of those whose cars are burned go on to buy another car that the net impact of the act you describe is negative on all counts.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#42
post #25

Those are some really awesome changes. If only we could get more of that for cities in the US.

Right when covid started I drove around Austin to pick something up. There were hardly any cars on the road and the air looked pristine after several days of people mostly staying at home.

Same thing in LA. It was nice!

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#43
post #38

Don't have to ban cars - the UK has adopted a speed limit of 20/30 mph in cities and I'm sure it helps. Surely helps with the noise and the safety

A lot of the problems occur where you couldn't go 20 mph.

The City of London famously has a congestion charge, which also helps lot. A similar plan just got started in Manhattan and already has big wins.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#44
post #39
post #31

Cars in cities, let alone designing cities around cars, is one of the greatest tragedies of modern life.

It is, though the problem predates the cars. At the time cars were seen as a huge win over the vast piles of horse poop. Cities do need to be reconsidered for more public transit and more opportunities to walk, but other issues (delivery, emergency, disability, etc) have to figure in.

Not just horse poop, but dead horses that were quite the chore to remove back in the day, and the danger posed to pedestrians by a bunch of quite large and easily panicked animals.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#45
post #7

"Ban all the cars" does have noticeable effects. I wonder if something less all / none might have nearly the same effects with far less drawbacks otherwise. E.G. What if only emissions testing certified low emission vehicles were allowed? What if only electric? How about requiring quiet utility trucks for garbage / freight / etc? For cities that large / dense, adding in Caves of Steel like people-mover belts might be…

In modern cars, including EV, polution and noise come from weight and tires and breaks; the polution levels are a sharp funxtion of speed, but the speeds at which they dont matter much, dont offer benefits either. If we had magnetic/levitated cars maybe some simple solution could be found, but with the current designs where the tires hit the asphalt it seems hard to make things environmentally friendly in a city other than reducing or banning cars.

I like the idea of people-mover belts. Maybe fast surface belts and escalators could help larger cities if cars were out of the way. Subway systems almost feel like people-mover belts sometimes, but their noise levels are incredibly high and they do damage metalic rails during breaking so not sure how low the contribution to air polution could be.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#46
Since then, many city have enforced the same kind of rule where polluting car are banned from center of town.

2 week ago, deputies were discussing the global ban of 'car free town center' because it doesn't really work and it exclude part of the society...

https://www.lefigaro.fr/automobile/zfe-50-deputes-defendent-...

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#47

It makes sense now why they burn cars every protest (besides being fun). Pollution for a day, clean air for a lifetime

Er, aren't the cars in question electric cars?

That has little to do with the pollution or traffic, and more about the extreme actions of their manufacturer. It's symbolic, albeit largely ineffective and ignored by the target.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonder if anyone is working on ways for breaks and tires to be less harmful, or polluting?

Lighter cars, really, that's it. Make vehicles that match the transportation case in question instead of palaces on wheels that carry battery sized for solving some once in a year use case. And/or make them go slower.

You can use harder rubber compounds but that's a non-starter because longer stopping distances.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#49

It makes sense now why they burn cars every protest (besides being fun). Pollution for a day, clean air for a lifetime

Ah yes, the joy of destroying your neighbor’s property just for fun. Is he a working-class guy, struggling to pay his bills? Too bad. Because nothing says “let’s build a better future” than a riot.

I will note that car burning is rare during protests. It mostly happen during riots, which are quite rare (i think 2005 were the big ones, and some light ones started last year). What can happen is a luxury car finding itself on its own roof (those racing cars are light).

During the yellow vest protest, "unsafe" property destruction started, destroying an apartment and putting in danger bystanders (the only death was due to a police grenade shot trough an open window, but the protesters put in danger bystanders too, and only luck prevented any deaths). Which triggered an interesting response from old punks/antifas (and also active ones): They joined facebook yellow vest protest groups to teach "how to" destroy property properly: spot danger points, how to find a target, how to avoid side effects, when to avoid using fire (99.9% of the time), when not to, how to deactivate teargas grenade (it is surprising, but a lot of people do not know how to), and instilled in some very theoritical points about secrecy and compartmentalization that were passed down from like the "groupe Barta", which, to be honest, is quite funny.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#50
post #39
post #31

Cars in cities, let alone designing cities around cars, is one of the greatest tragedies of modern life.

It is, though the problem predates the cars. At the time cars were seen as a huge win over the vast piles of horse poop. Cities do need to be reconsidered for more public transit and more opportunities to walk, but other issues (delivery, emergency, disability, etc) have to figure in.

Let's be real here, a huge chunk of car traffic in cities is purely for convenience.

Once that's reduced by say, 50%, everything becomes much better, but nobody gives up convenience voluntarily.

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