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Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#261

Post by bryanlarsen »

domoritz wrote: post #111
bornfreddy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would also expect that EVs wouldn't emit that many particles from brakes since the brakes typically wear much more slowly than with ICE cars.

But they are heavier. Not saying it offsets the effect but it's just not straight forward to assume either way.

In the US, the average car weight and the average EV weight are basically identical. (4300 pounds vs 4400 pounds). When you compare similarly sized models the EV tends to be about 10% heavier, but gasoline cars tend to be larger than EV's.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#262

Post by Earw0rm »

rangestransform wrote: post #246
netsharc wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, imagine EVs that have removable add-on batteries that you'd only plug in for the longer trips.. Like the Thinkpads with the "bigger battery" humps: https://sm.pcmag.com/t/pcmag_ap/photo/l/lenovo-thi/lenovo-th...

This is a stupid idea because you’d have to make fasteners and high voltage interfaces that can survive an order of magnitude more cycles than they have to for a fixed pack. It would also be significantly more difficult to use the pack as a stressed member of the car structure. It’s better to just have less batteries and use them more efficiently through weight savings.

Don't the charging ports already have to do that?

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#263

Post by spockz »

Krssst wrote: post #153
carlosjobim wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be incredible if somebody invented a light car, that would transport one or two people and some groceries. Maybe with two wheels instead of four to take up less space. Hmmm why has nobody invented this?

While bicycles are quite convenient for commuting, I am not sure if there is a way for transporting groceries for an entire week for multiple people. Is there such a way? The only solution I see is doing groceries every day.

We just get the bulk groceries delivered. Only fresh vegetables and fruit we get during the week in case we need some that last a week.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#264

Post by bslalwn »

const_cast wrote: post #243
bslalwn wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The prices of cars have “skyrocketed” because the price is now closer to what they actually cost. Meaning, less is being externalized. This is false. There are no “externalities” that are now getting paid. You don’t pay for the right to drive upfront, you already have a permit for that, and that permit is what pays for road maintenance, etc. Maybe the current price is not fair, but that permit hasn’t increased in pr…

> Which wasn't a problem when everybody could afford to drive before Europe ruined everything. It was still a problem, because a lot of those people died or had reduced quality of life. The reality is driving is very dangerous. In the US, it's the primary cause of death for many age groups. And the pollution kills. And it kills pedestrians. And car-dependence is a lot like heroin. You depend on cars, so you build thi…

There isn’t a single sentence in your comment that isn’t hyperbolic.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#265

Post by frosted-flakes »

gnatolf wrote: post #213
Krssst wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While bicycles are quite convenient for commuting, I am not sure if there is a way for transporting groceries for an entire week for multiple people. Is there such a way? The only solution I see is doing groceries every day.

Plenty of Europeans have cargo bikes and make do with 2-3 supermarket trips per week for families of 4-5 peeps. Only bulk drinks (crates of beer/soda/...) are challenging. But for those, very often delivery systems are in place that surely are more efficient than individual trips anyways.

I regularly carry four cases of water (48 cans) on my standard bicycle without a problem.

Whenever I go grocery shopping I mount a milk crate to my rear rack (this takes about six seconds) and put the cases in vertically. I can also carry a 4L jug of milk in the handlebar-mounted basket.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#266

Post by Reason077 »

Krssst wrote: post #153
carlosjobim wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be incredible if somebody invented a light car, that would transport one or two people and some groceries. Maybe with two wheels instead of four to take up less space. Hmmm why has nobody invented this?

While bicycles are quite convenient for commuting, I am not sure if there is a way for transporting groceries for an entire week for multiple people. Is there such a way? The only solution I see is doing groceries every day.

In London we had multiple supermarket options within 10 mins walk. And even more within 10 minutes cycling distance.

Usually we’d just stop on the way home from work or whatever to do small, quick shops for whatever we needed.

But on the rare occasion where we did need to do a “big shop”, we just ordered groceries online for delivery the next day. All the major UK supermarkets offer this, with free or very cheap delivery, delivered by environmentally-friendly electric trucks.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#267

Post by epolanski »

flomo wrote: post #138
epolanski wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's one of the biggest promoters of inequality. I am an European who studied at OSU in Columbus for a semester and it was absurd to me how on one side there was lots of work downtown, yet you could live 20 miles of it and it would take you two hours by public transport to get there, an odyssey. People without a car, insurance, poorer parts of the society were cut off from the job market for not having a way to c…

In the USA, the working poor generally don't work downtown, and it's really the industrial areas where there is awful transit service. So cheapo used cars are a must for these folks. There is some awful HN bias here where young healthy well-paid tech workers live in some boogie part of SF/NYC/Boston/etc and enjoy the "car-free lifestyle" (and I've been there), without any idea how the other half lives.

The working poor struggles to find work and stays poor also because mobility.

By the way that's not something I'm making up, it was literally told me by several people in struggling neighborhoods, lacking a car can be easily make a difference for many between being able or not to have different opportunities in life.

Might be different elsewhere but it made sense to me.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#268

Post by frosted-flakes »

NightMKoder wrote: post #29
azinman2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don’t know about tires, but for brakes we already know how to make lower dust brakes - use drum brakes instead of disc brakes. The friction material is enclosed on drum brakes so much less of it just flies away.

Some electric vehicles use drum brakes on the rear wheels, like the ID.Buzz.

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#269

Post by rascul »

dboreham wrote: post #256
timewizard wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Wyom...

Fun fact: there are no cities in Wyoming.

There are a lot of different ways to define "city". Wikipedia list 19 in Wyoming, but I'm not sure what criteria they use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_in_Wyom...

Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic

#270

Post by flomo »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #222
flomo wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA, the working poor generally don't work downtown, and it's really the industrial areas where there is awful transit service. So cheapo used cars are a must for these folks. There is some awful HN bias here where young healthy well-paid tech workers live in some boogie part of SF/NYC/Boston/etc and enjoy the "car-free lifestyle" (and I've been there), without any idea how the other half lives.

Speaking as "the other half": this is wildly condescending, ignorant, and ironic. The irony of declaring that HN doesn't understand "how the other half lives"... ...while also declaring that "used cars are a must" for poor people (if you can afford a car in a city, you're substantially above a huge number of people, and car ownership rate goes up dramatically with wealth. It rises higher than 1 car/person once you st…

Criticism accepted, I am not trying to generalize everyone. I am an urban dweller from back in the days when that was the cheap (and less desirable) way to live. So I obviously wish we had much better transit and more affordable housing, and all of the good things. Its not like people want to spend an hour in traffic in a beater-ass car, they do it because they have to. (Because all of the shit you mention is even worse in the suburbs.) I would just like to see some real solutions which don't involve taxing the fuck out of the little guy or nuking the suburbs or the usual Cars Bad handwaving. It's a hard problem which nobody has a real good answer for.
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