• HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Except EVs still have a significant carbon footprint from their manufacture. So do train cars and buses, but to transport everyone in cars instead of public transportation would require orders of magnitude more materials, and therefore a much higher carbon footprint. Not to mention the poor land use that car dependency causes, which both leads to deforestation and impedes reforestation, which is a further climate change contributor.

    • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      EVs also have the ability to live longer. If an average EV is usable for twice as long as an ICE vehicle, its carbon footprint from manufacturing is already down to 50%.

      • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        So can transit vehicles, in fact they last even longer so I don’t see this as an advantage for EVs. In Vancouver, Canada for example, there are fully self-driving electric trains from the 80s that are still running perfectly fine today, and the only reason they’re getting scrapped soon is because they’re loud and uncomfortable compared to newer trains, which even then I personally don’t like the transit agency’s decision to scrap them because that’s super wasteful, they could probably run another 40 years with good maintenance.

        • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Alright well that’s good. When the US shrinks down to the size of Vancouver maybe that will be a good option.

          • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            The US has in fact shrunk down to the size of Europe which has excellent public transportation.

          • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            US can’t have good transit because it’s so much bigger than a single city.

            The US doesn’t have cities the size of Vancouver, or municipal governments that can solve transit locally.

            The country is simply to big for that.