I can hear the conspiracies already. "The anual odometer report is so they can track and control you, they're gonna limit you to whatever miles you traveled last year."
Its less about how much land is being used and more about the accessibility of that land. By suburbia being spread out so much, transportation becomes more difficult to implement. Many suburbs are so far away from a simple groccery store that walking there is unreasonable at best. Being so spread out also means we need to spend more resources to provide services. Thats more miles of roadways, water pipes and electrical lines that need to be installed and maintained.
There are other important things to consider too besides just total land area like wildlife corridors, stormwater management, and access to nature as an amenity.
Tram systems could be made that simple as adding capacity is just add another tram car to the link onto certain routes. We do also need trains but trams serve a more localized purpose, which often make up the majority of someone's trips
The fuel tank restriction could actually be dangerous for extremely rural parts of Canada. I've been stuck for over 7 hours on a rural highway in yhe winter.
Doug ford will make that illegal because motorist are worried their paint would get scratched by the armored bike instead of the blood stains from unarmored bikes.
I'm not blaming the consumer, but if consumers take more responsibility it does give us more power. We have more political and legal arguments to say we've tried what is reasonable for us to do, now its time to hold corporations to do the same. Its also good for activism morale. Even if its just a small dent the effort proves change can happen and we can push for more change, support greener options, and inspire new innovations/solutions. This is better than an attitude of "well the world is fucked anyway so why should I care?"
If everyone thinks their changes don't matter then i guess they don't, if everyone thought their changes did matter then we could see meaningful progress. Just because other sources are still producing doesn't make your efforts meaningless. There is also something to be said about secondary effects of minor changes, like inspiring others to commit to changes or inspiring new innovations or ideas to improve things.
Edit: id also like to add that new law and policy often comes with minor efforts on the consumer. Take recycling and organics bins for example. The consumer now has to sort their trash instead of throwing it all in 1 bin and I've met many people who think this is some big scam or conspiracy to control people or something.
The bigger concern is the rate that the climate changes. The climate is always changing but we have sped up so significantly that many ecosystems will not be able to adapt in time to survive.
A lot of ordinary people also say they want to do everything they can against climate change but then fail to make their own simple sacrafices like reusable cups, walking instead of driving, keeping the heat lower in winter etc. Everyone wants to end climate change but without sacraficing any modern conveniences
True. I rarely ever drink energy drinks but just the smell of a redbull nearly makes me sick, that could be due to some foggy memories of Jaeger bombs however.
Most of these speed cameras are being put on city streets, not on highways/freeways where pedestrians basically don't exist. Also good luck passing a no visible rust law without banning road salt.
I can hear the conspiracies already. "The anual odometer report is so they can track and control you, they're gonna limit you to whatever miles you traveled last year."