EVs always feel silly when I ride my ebike next to them. They’re the least-offensive kind of car, but that’s so much metal/infrastructure/space going into doing the same thing my bike does. All of that is hostile to the environment in so many more ways than just fuel consumption.
Fundamentally you can’t really out engineer yourself out of the fact that using about 2 tons of metal to drive an average of 1,2 passengers somewhere is just inefficient
also still has the same rubber pollution from tyres breaking down as a combustion car
most bicycles also have the tyre problem, but obviously significantly less as the tyres are smaller and experience less wearEVs have worse rubber and brake pad pollution because they are a lot heavier. Some of that might be, theoretically, offset by regenerative braking but that is trusting multiple million people to not drive their car like fast & the furious brained dicks.
Anyhow, your average marathon schwalbe puncture superproof, among the heaviest tyres, weighs about 750g a pop, so 1,5kg for a bicycle. Your average car tyre weighs about 8kg. If we assume you ride both of them just into the fucking ground, like near rim on asphalt type situations, you can do this 21 times over for a whole bicycle before you get one car of tyre wear.
EVs have worse rubber and brake pad pollution because they are a lot heavier.
good point, i forgot about the weight difference
Anyhow, your average marathon schwalbe puncture superproof, among the heaviest tyres, weighs about 750g a pop, so 1,5kg for a bicycle. Your average car tyre weighs about 8kg. If we assume you ride both of them just into the fucking ground, like near rim on asphalt type situations, you can do this 21 times over for a whole bicycle before you get one car of tyre wear.
yep, even at the extreme less tyre means less broken down rubber to fuck up the environment
That’s only if you don’t burn rubber on your bicycle. Put the trucks and sports cars to shame with your 2 calfpower speedster.
There are non oil bike wheels made of natural rubber. Haven’t tried them yet
It is worse than that. They use some rare earth minerals too and thus, they release around 50 tons of carbon dioxide per car compared to 20-30 tons of carbon dioxide per combustion car
bollocks to that, EV cars are enviromentally better. Sure, there’s problems there politically as per the idiotic plans to junk 8 gajillion ICE cars and replace them with new ones and such, but the concept is sound in the sense that it’s the least worst car. It’s just that least worst car is still pretty bad considering how they’re used and the whole endeavour about the EV car revolution is not about saving the planet, it’s about saving car sales
The upfront cost is higher but they win out over time and distance driven. They’re still bad for all the reasons cars are bad but they’re better then ice cars
Yup, I have colleagues who live closer to the office than me who take 50% longer to get in because they’re competing with a train and a commuter scooter.
Literally paying for a vacation with the cash it saved me, and I’ve managed to read a dozen books and play tons of retro games. I love cars and car culture, but fuck me it’s so dumb to use a car when there’s other options. Like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
I think we should pay attention to the general trend of small form factor EVs in China. Yeah, the cars they make are cool, but they also have tons of small electric cargo scooter/moped things. And plenty of places to charge them for practically free.
That sounds amazing, fuck I wanna live in the 21st century so bad
One question, asking mostly out of ignorance. Aren’t EVs not supposed to be a long term solution, because of all the rare earth materials going into the batteries (lithium neodymium etc) I know they’re still used for other things, and they’re less polluting than fossil fuel vehicles, but aren’t there better options?
There is no long term plan, there’s barely a short term plan.
Have to hope EV’s are a stop gap to real public transport and city design (highly unlikely) or that batteries that don’t require rare earth materials are developed (possible but not given).
I’m not entirely an expert, but I think there are definitely issues in the modern supply chain. The worst is probably cobalt, which is necessary for the main types of Li batteries and is almost exclusively mined by child slaves. This is because of imperialism though and not a fault of the technology. There are also alternatives to cobalt although again the most widespread and easy to make now do rely on it. Its still relatively rare of a metal that alternatives are necessary.
Rare earths are not so rare as to impede widespread adoption. They are mostly controlled by China which is one of the problems for the US right now, and why trump wants to annex or somehow control any piece of land that he sniffs rare earths at (Ukraine, Greenland are said to have deposits).
Long term, learning to recycle these components is essential. I’m sure China is doing the most research in these regards.
EVs are only one part of it. Mass transit is the best way to cut vehicle emissions. But small form factor EVs like this use very little energy and efficiently accomplish tasks like local delivery compared to a car. And even with some of the supply chain issues for EVs it is still essential for the climate that we get to net zero, yesterday.
You’ll need to invent an air conditioned bicycle if you want me to ride
this is carbrained in the sense that the article is proposing much needed vast changes to urban transportation and the first inclination is “but what about meeeeeeeeeee”
I mean god’s sake the byline is “Active travel can help tackle the climate crisis earlier than electric vehicles – even if you swap the car for a bike for just one trip a day.”, figure it out
meme ememe mem em em ememe meme mem emem mee
none of this is convincing me to get on a bike
I’m not trying to
Do you live in an inhospitable desert or something?
I’ve lived in a desert my whole life and biked year around. 30mi bike commute is a lot tho. The most I’ve done regularly is 10.
I like sweating though, after a while you get a lot of smelly junk out of your system. Its nice. Dealing with sweaty long curly hair is a whole thing, but so worth it.
Americans are truly going to kill us all
Once you hit about 15 mph on an e-bike, the breeze it pretty much equivalent.
Wear a crop top for better airflow
have you considered that the buses run better with fewer cars and more bikes, and not just like, whether this poses a moral quandary to you personally?
Have you considered that you’re making up a guy in your head and arguing with him about some shit that i didn’t say and offered no opinion on
whether this poses a moral quandary to you personally
You’ll need to invent an air conditioned bicycle if you want me to ride
no one asked you to ride a bike, what the actual fuck are you commenting if you don’t have an opinion to express. we’re talking about the death of millions from climate catastrophe in the next hundred years and you’re being myopic.
we’re talking about the death of millions from climate catastrophe in the next hundred years
Wild levels of optimism on hexbear today.
figured i’d rather wildly underestimate than check the presumably more horrifying real numbers.
Active travel can help tackle the climate crisis earlier than electric vehicles – even if you swap the car for a bike for just one trip a day
I said Im not gonna do that
we’re talking about the death of millions from climate catastrophe in the next hundred years and you’re being myopic.
It’s gonna happen anyway
no one asked you to ride a bike, what the actual fuck are you commenting if you don’t have an opinion to express
No one asked you to comment on me commenting that I’m not gonna ride a bike
you’re on the urbanism comm, c/doomer is that way. you’re getting push back because being a nihilist is profoundly antisocial, and this is a comm about making urban environments better in our society.
ok guy
I said Im not gonna do that
Why not?
gestures around the sweltering heat, visibly shimmering over the asphalt
it’s hot
I live 30 miles from work
It’s not going to change anything re: climate change (this is the vote with your wallet of hexbear)
gestures around the sweltering heat, visibly shimmering over the asphalt
How come there’s so much asphalt?
It’s not going to change anything re: climate change (this is the vote with your wallet of hexbear)
Why do you feel adressed by an article that proposes changing urban transportation if you live 30 miles from your work?
see, this is where a train would come in. A quick bike ride to the station then 28mi on an air conditioned train and another quick bike ride to work. Putting cars at the end forces a lot more asphalt and parking problems, but a shuttle or local bus route could help if its really too hot to spend a few minutes on a bike to get from the stations to your destination.
an electric scooter could also help if you just really hate the bike form factor. any light or ultralight EV is going to be better than driving around in a wagon.
i would also add that aggregate decisions do matter, but only in aggregate. you riding a bike, individually, won’t change shit, but everyone collectively using cars or not using cars makes a huge difference in air quality, carbon emissions, and pollution levels.
Have you considered that you’re making up a guy in your head and arguing with him about some shit that i didn’t say and offered no opinion on
well what is your point, comrade? Lay it out for us
Shitposters on a shitposting site sure get mad over shit posts
coward
you’re right i am afraid of sweating to death on a bike on the highway
quick question, what would improve your experience on the highway?
if you keep using air conditioner, eventually even air conditioner won’t work
on the other hand 90F temps are very survivable if you drink water
you just have to shame the cattle into accepting sweaty people in the summer
also pie-in-the-face anybody who wears a suit in public. that shits for england where the record high is 77F. not here
If you ride fast you provide your own air conditioning
I can assure you and the other person that when it’s hot and humid enough that doesn’t work
Just need to ride faster
rip to your clothes but i’m built different.
i can respect being built different
With anti-veganism banned, cars are the last remaining thing that gets hexbears to post like federated users
ride in underwear
Trying using busses
Have you considered that you wouldn’t have needed air conditioner if it wasn’t for cars (OK there are exceptions places for this)
Oh Lisa you can prove anything with facts
Too bad westerners are deathly allergic to bicycles and building competent bicycle infrastructure
