Electric Velomobiles: as Fast and Comfortable as Automobiles, but 80 times more Efficient
solar.lowtechmagazine.com
About a quarter of the existent wind turbines would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are people.
  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    The idea of needing specialized transport as an individual beyond just walking is a failure of society. Replacing cars with “not-cars” isn’t really helping that aspect. You should be structuring society so that cars or “not-cars” have no need to exist for almost everyone.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      0·
      2 months ago

      The transition needs to be easy for adoption to happen though. I think first replacing cars with not-cars, and only then scaling cities to be more walkable makes sense.

      • howrar@lemmy.ca
        0·
        2 months ago

        I don’t see how going from car to proper city planning is any harder than going from not-car to proper city planning. This just feels like an extra unnecessary step that could be taking resources away from the city planning part.

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
          0·
          2 months ago

          If you make a city hostile to cars first, people will still have their cars and their commutes, it will just double the time it takes for them to get anywhere. You will lose support for any further changes.

          If you replace the cars first, such that no one’s daily schedules are significantly altered, and then condense the cities, then the change might be less jarring for those who can’t weather dramatic changes in their lifestyle.

          • howrar@lemmy.ca
            0·
            2 months ago

            If you replace the cars first, such that no one’s daily schedules are significantly altered,

            Is that going to happen if you replace cars with another vehicle that still requires car infrastructure?

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
    0·
    1 month ago

    We don’t need any knew infrastructure, we just need to get cars out of the way.

    That article speaks to my soul!

    Just this past weekend, I rode about 70km each way to see my folks, across 6 or 7 municipalities.

    I made it there in about 2.5 hours, across some pretty sketch “not high speed roads, but cars were going high speed anyway”, with much of that having no cycling infrastructure (or shoulders).

    What frustrated me most wasn’t the asshole who punished passed me (pickup truck, of course), or the BMW driver who stopped on a raised, protected bike lane to pick up a passenger, but the amount of time I spent at red lights. Over 40 minutes each way!

    Had there been a highway for bikes, or even just priority bike intersections, this trip would have taken no time.

    Cars suck for everyone!