Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who, exactly, would you like to monitor air quality and who, exactly, do you think should be funding it?
Someone without bias, obviously.
[flagged]
Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
431–440 of 595 posts
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#432Since 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-...
Horrible propaganda. More then anything else, cars are what excludes access.
It doesn't really work is hilarious statement when some of the cities with highest amount of tourists in the world have car free city centers. Not to mention that many off the cities ranked highest quality of live have lots of car free areas.
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#433Great that they have made parking more expensive for heavy and huge cars.
My city here offers parking free of charge for EVs, but note they are heavy, have wide tires and cost parking space.
Whats the tradeoff then?
Its wasting electric energy to move such a pile of metal for one person.
I critisized that in the forum of our local newspaper, my comment got deleted....
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they are heavier. Not saying it offsets the effect but it's just not straight forward to assume either way.
EVs have very low brake wear because you simply aren’t using the friction brakes at all most of the time. A lot of EVs even have smart “blended” brake pedals that preferentially apply regen braking when you press the pedal. Only in particularly hard stops will the friction brakes get used. An easy way to test/observe this is simply to check for wear on the brake pads of EVs compared to combustion vehicles of similar…
This little friction break usage is actually something which manufacture need to consider. They need to activate once in a while to stop rust and other problems.
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also worth noting that with modern emissions standards (and transition to EVs), over 50% of handful particulates come from tires, brakes, road surface wear, and resuspended dust: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/non-exhaust-particulate... I don't think there's any healthy level of private cars coexisting with humans in a city, without even considering the more immediate harms from crashes, etc.
What if the cars were made really light? Four bicycle wheels, as many batteries as you can safely put on something supported by four bicycle wheels, an aerodynamic CFRP bubble for the driver etc? I think such a vehicle can be better than one thinks, with acceptable range, acceptable particle emissions, acceptable noise levels; and I think they could easily get to 80 km/h safely.
This is certainly a possibility for city cars. In the Netherlands there are a lot more 45kph mini cars driving around now. They were a thing in the past with moped engines but with electric drive trains all these solutions become much more viable. With the low speeds crashes are also less dangerous so everything becomes lighter.
A similar thing is happening with electric bikes and scooters. This was all possible with gasoline but with the lower mechanical complexity this is really taking off.
This results in a wider range for bike like vehicles which replaces a lot of car trips.
The real hurdle to people getting rid of their mostly stationary cars (not everyday for work drivers) is that renting a car is a horrible experience and car shares are also bad mostly. But as the space for personal cars shrinks I suspect this will improve over time.
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
I flipped through the summary of that report, and I would think there is almost surely no way this is true, unless focusing on worst case assumptions like aggressive driving styles and very poorly maintained vehicles. Your conclusion that there is not “any healthy level of private cars coexisting” is heavy handed. There is a balance, but I suspect it’s more of a jealousy/equality issue. Heavily taxed and high quality…
If EVs don’t emit tailpipe emissions then 100% of their emissions will be those things. They’re also heavier and so have more tire wear. It seems not unintuitive to me that their emissions might push the boundaries of strict modern emissions standards. For taxing cars, you’re still leaving so much car infrastructure out there. It swallows the world. Six months ago for the first time ever I got a job where I could bik…
Cycling to work is nice. But if you are young, sitting all day in a warm office.
Think of blue collar workers that are hungry, exhausted and also people getting older.
Its fucking annoying to wait for the bus that does not show up, the stupid beeps whenever the doors open and the slow movement in general.
Lucky i am at home in half an hour, laws now require you to commute to work in up to 1.5hrs if you cant afford a car or should use public transportation.
Electric bikes are no solution, the minerals and energy must be produced to transport people like me.
I will buy a motor driven classic Vespa, fuel consumption is 2l for 80 mls and i am at home without dispruption and waiting.
Plus i got a new nice hobby to maintain it.
No new vehicle was produced, no rare earth was needed.
Fuel is produced every day for the plastics of the EV and for many other things like pharmacy and so on.
No new bike needed to be shipped from china where all that stuff is made.
Sure you are right with vegan biking, but not all folks can do it.
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#437Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
Private cars are an economic sinkhole. They make no financial sense. My town in the exurbs used to have rail service and stagecoaches. The necessity of private cars is a marketing triumph. Not a choice.
I like the freedom a private car gives me. I can go anywhere at anytime. I have nothing against public transportation and want it to be good. But you can't go everywhere at anytime. Here I'm including the country side and smaller towns.
Anywhere where a road is. Or anywhere you could park a car. This means the car does not give you the freedom but the entire car transportation network. If instead there was no car infrastructure but only public transport you would say you can't go everywhere at anytime with a car.
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're getting cause and effect mixed up. Save for a few petrolheads and train enthusiasts, people use whatever happens to be the most convenient method to get around. In North America, most cities prioritise infrastructure for private cars to such an extent that any other mode is almost useless Since private cars scale badly, you want to encourage people to take other modes, but in order to change behaviour,…
Like I said, litany of excuses. If you really don’t like cars, you’ll find a way to minimize use of them. If you really don’t mind cars that much you’ll make up stories about how if buses and trains and bike lanes were more attractive then people would use them more. I guarantee that if every American city had an ideal bus and train system, people would still find excuses and reasons to justify driving their cars.
There is literally an example of a city with great public transport and 90% of people there use it exclusively. So most people will not make excuses but just use the thing that is easy.
Re: Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic
#440Earlier 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.
Drum brakes are way more prone to fail, the heat cant be transported away, the dust still is produced and the brake power, the law requires, is way to little.
If we switch fully to trams and buses, they produce the dust amount of lets say 100 cars. If the public transportation should be capable of all inhabitants of a city, we would have up to 200 trams running every day and night.
Who should be a tram driver? Most of the younger folks dont want to work shift or at weekends and night.
My town has drivers with grey beards, between 50-60 years old. There are no younger applicants for that job so they drive even if retired to keep up the demand.
They got paid extra which making tickets more expensive.