Post #2583841

2026-03-23 23:29 UTC

I think it’s possible to accept that, while a city without cars obviously preferable, the electrification of vehicles is still a net positive given the enormous inertia of car culture.

Replies (4)

@jtrek@startrek.website 2026-03-23 23:47

Is it? I think if you include opportunity cost and "well i switched to an electric car now i falsely believe the problem is solved", not so much. It's just easier, in some ways, because it's a smaller change.

Open ##2583857
@nuko147@lemmy.world 2026-03-24 09:12

The only problem they will solve is air/noise pollution and maybe power efficiency. But for urban planning the space usage is the same, and traffic jams are the same. Also they move the same ammount of people. They are a small upgrade in general (maybe more for cities with high air pollution).

Open ##2583858
@freebee@sh.itjust.works 2026-03-24 06:47

It embeds the existing dominant individual, resource-wasting mode of transport even deeper into the culture (and urban planning). That makes it a negative for urban environments. Bit different story in very sparsely populated areas.

Open ##2583859
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2026-03-28 17:14

the key thing that makes it an actual positive is bundling electrification with smaller sized vehicles. If we could have all the new electric cars be smaller and lighter than existing combustion cars then it would actually be an unqualified improvement. And ideally we could even get people to switch to things that barely even qualify as cars, stuff like the renault twizy

Open ##2583860