Do we want a car that burns a different fuel? Or do we want to vastly improve the world around us?
Some of us want to do the latter. Some of us recognize that the ills our society faces is much more than just changing one kind of car for another.
Back in the late 90’s when I first got interested in electric cars, I lived about 35 miles from my job. In the best of circumstances that means a 40+ minute commute each way, a bit long but not too bad. But the commute went through some of the most crowded traffic corridors in the SF Bay Area, meaning I had a lot of time each day sitting in traffic that’s going 10 miles/hr and backed up for miles and miles.
I had this realization sitting in the car that changing out these cars for electric cars won’t solve for problems like gridlock. It’ll just mean that when we’re stuck in gridlock, that the air won’t be poisonous. While that’s important, gridlock is a seriously bad problem. The cure for gridlock is mass transit, and walkable cities, not electric cars.
I wrote a set of blog posts last summer about the value of walkable cities, local food, etc.
In any case, the following video is from Ford and tries to connect with the meta issues. It shows a woman who’s apparently one of the urban agriculture entrepreneurs in Detroit. It shows her discussing the value of local food production – and I really love what she has to say.
It ends with her getting ready to drive a Ford C-MAX Energi and talking about choosing a car that fits the ideals she has for protecting the planet.
But – again, is changing out one kind of car for another kind of car the real solution we all need?
- Highway design could decrease death and injury risk, if “we” chose smarter designs - March 28, 2015
- GM really did trademark “range anxiety”, only later to abandon that mark - March 25, 2015
- US Government releases new regulations on hydraulic fracturing, that some call “toothless” - March 20, 2015
- Tesla Motors magic pill to solve range anxiety doesn’t quite instill range confidence - March 19, 2015
- Update on Galena IL oil train – 21 cars involved, which were the supposedly safer CP1232 design - March 7, 2015
- Another oil bomb train – why are they shipping crude oil by train? – Symptoms of fossil fuel addiction - March 6, 2015
- Chevron relinquishes fracking in Romania, as part of broader pull-out from Eastern European fracking operations - February 22, 2015
- Answer anti- electric car articles with truth and pride – truth outshines all distortions - February 19, 2015
- Apple taking big risk on developing a car? Please, Apple, don’t go there! - February 16, 2015
- Toyota, Nissan, Honda working on Japanese fuel cell infrastructure for Japanese government - February 12, 2015
