09-29-2021, 05:20 PM
(09-28-2021, 02:58 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(09-27-2021, 06:56 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(09-27-2021, 03:18 PM)galaxy Wrote: It's already happening, at a gradual pace that began to pick up in the early 2010s. Personally, I'm actually not that concerned and don't see it as a major future problem, though obviously it would be better if the problem were solved now.
When we run out of petroleum, and most people are priced into either immobility or means of travel that do not depend on fossil fuels, then the car culture is over.
That's basic economics. Anything can be priced so far that people are compelled to seek alternatives.
I expect the car culture to continue, as electrified. It's too ingrained, and costs come down. Used electric cars will be available, although new batteries may be needed for them. Costs will come down for those too.
Obviously those will not be cars as most people know them. We are also likely to see self-driving vehicles because the auto insurance business will price driving one's own car into the comparative stratosphere. For pleasure travel beyond a certain range (a long daily commute) we may be obliged to rent cars to fit the purpose. Scenic drive? Bubble top. Driving between Los Angeles and Dallas in the summer through the blazing desert (Dallas is almost as hot as Phoenix)? You might want to have a car that reflects off much heat.
Portable fuel (such as gasoline) is much more expensive than electric power.
Quote:The only thing that holds me back buying an electric car now, besides cost, is how long I have to wait for a charge to complete if I run low on the road. Also, road repair/towing services need to adapt to electric cars, including portable charging in their trucks. Also, I don't drive much anyway now.
How low... and where. I expect motels to become charging stations by default. With self-driving vehicles one might be tempted to let the car drive through the night, especially in hot deserts... you will want to take breaks, Just stop at a motel, and jump into the pool!
Quote:Hydrogen cars are another alternative being developed. Hydrogen will need to be available without using methane to make it, if this option is to make any difference as an alternative to fossil fuels.
It takes energy to split hydrogen from water, and we will need a huge amount of it. It is easy to generate heat from motive power but less than equally efficient to generate motive power from heat. One other way of getting hydrogen is to split it from hydrocarbons, which leaves behind large quantities of petroleum coke as a byproduct. It lacks a large market, although I can imagine it having potential in structural use. iron and steel production? .
Quote:More rail and mass transit is certainly another alternative that we need, and neighborhoods/business districts that are transit oriented. More working from home is a trend that could decrease congestion. Also, better city planning is needed, with more and cheaper housing in central cities and near industries. People need to work closer to where they live, and some industries (especially high tech) are moving out to exurbs and suburbs.
The Interstate Highway System practically killed passenger rail. Mass transit is fine if one does not need to wait... but have you ever seen the people waiting for a bus to go back to what I figure are slum apartments? Such people seem terribly downtrodden. Drive a car, and you might have a more positive outlook on life, which is good for productivity and competence.
Better city planning likely implies the replacement of post-WWI 'starter homes' that are now slums with giant apartment blocks. A warning: those new apartment blocks had better be livable. We all know about the giant towers such as Pruitt-Igoe intended as housing for people with low incomes; they dehumanized the tenants.
Caveat: many of the demolitions are not of bad housing, but instead of structures (including the cranes of a shipyard) that became economically obsolete. Of course anything that dehumanizes people is obsolete from its inception.
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Quote:Talk on a small discussion board is nice, but we need action. Contacting Senator Manchin right now, whether you live in WV or not, is the absolute necessity if we are to start making these alternatives through Biden's Build Back Better Bill (BBBBB) and suspending the filibuster to pass the voting rights acts. Without these, the odds severely decrease for any action to save our country and our world. Please contact him today; this is being decided right now. Email is easy. https://www.manchin.senate.gov/contact-joe
We liberals have a short time-frame in which to start improving America. The erratic behavior of Donald Trump may have given that to us, but we need to recognize the opportunity for what it is. If we blow it, then the Right will offer its solution of mass suffering on behalf of economic policies that create extreme wealth for a few that may never trickle down. I expect the GOP to be as ruthless in its drive for power as in 1994 and 2010; to turn up the demagoguery on behalf of the ignorant, cowardly, and superstitious; and to use power that it gets to entrench itself and establish a Corporate State much like Pinochet's Chile in which 95% of the people suffer for 2%. (The other 3% would do well in any system -- the military, police, certain professionals such as physicians and engineers, and those attorneys who willingly enforce the Law of the Jungle upon helpless people.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.