>>1198212Cars and their infrastructure are the most expensive way to get around, battery technology’s not getting anywhere near the point where all cars are going to electric-only any time soon, and you’ve still missed the point that highways are incredibly expensive to the public budget. What you and this article’s author don’t realize is that the federal government has subsidized cars over every other mode of transport for about 75 years now. Cars did not become dominant in America simply because of consumer preference.
We have built a model in the real world which is not sustainable and electric or self-driving cars would not make it sustainable on their own. They still have to be stored, parked somewhere, maintained, insured, powered, have road networks built for them, etc.
However, development markets have shifted over the last 10 years towards building stuff that’s walkable and not car-dependent. This is where it really becomes necessary to have alternatives to a car because the need for parking really screws up how cities can be laid out and what transport and development options can be feasible in an area.
https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/Also, besides being a bad use of space (it sits empty 90% of its life and is widely considered the “worst investment in the world”) it’s just a poor use of energy, no matter where you get your energy from.
No one’s saying get rid of cars, just offer alternatives and stop subsidizing them over everything else.
