Trains > busses and trams > Smaller EVs > Electric Boats > efficient gas vehicles > large EVs > innefficient gas and diesel vehicles incl boats> Airplanes
The issue with electrifying rail networks is that it’s very expensive and modern diesel-electric locomotives are already over a hundred times more efficient than trucks. So while it does reduce emissions to replace a diesel locomotive with a fully electric train you’re far better off getting hundreds of trucks off the road and adding one new diesel-electric locomotive!
I would say that’s an efficient diesel vehicle which just sort of slots in with its vehicle type in the list above, but good points.
In Europe, short haul and long haul flights are more efficient than diesel vehicles actually. Short domestic flights are worse though.
Regardless how you power it, private automobiles will always be ineffecient and have a massive resource cost. The EV isn’t here to save the planet, it’s here to save the car industry. This is part of why we need the conversation to shift to energy efficiency instead of just emissions.
Also never forget the tires. We’re breathing them.
And there are a lot of cases where we could just stop commuting…
Tires are a big issue right now. 6PPD-Q might be an extinction event for salmon.
And ceramic brake dust! Yummy 😋
Topping! 😁
Some studies have shown work from home may eliminate the commute miles, but those miles are replaced with leisure and errands miles. So ultimately we still need transit to replace a lot of car trips cause be it work, grocceries, or a night out, people need to get places.
We need to pull all strings. I didn’t say people don’t need to get places. I just stated there are many cases where it’s not required. Corona has shown what we could do if we wanted.
In wonder if, in terms of logistics, delivery of groceries and online shopping could be a good thing.
Of course not with instant-services like Flink. Of course not with single-use cardboard boxes and worker exploitation.
More like the good old milkman. People order their groceries, and they are delivered in reusable boxes next day, old boxes picked up. Same with online shopping.
Both is already a thing, but few do it. Maybe it would work much better if a huge percentage of people would do it, e. g. 15 % for grocery delivery. The grocery truck would not have to do more miles than if it would deliver to the current 1 % (guessed), just needs to be bigger and have more stops.
In communities that are not built to live car-less, that might save many individual car trips.
People will come up with any solution so long as it still relies on roads. The parent comment to this thread is all about tire dust and this solution just replaces private tire dust with commercial tire dust. The system you propose would still be more complicated, energy and resource intensive than people just taking transit to the groccery store.
Corona isn’t a perfect example as many places had restricted capacity and hours. There was also a significant precentage of the population minimizing their exposure to the outside world. Yes we should encourage work from home but my point is it won’t be reducing car use nearly as much as it seems and even if everyone worked from home we still need alternatives to driving.
It is just one example. I think you and I might misunderstand each other a lot.
If we need to prioritise like that, wouldn’t it be smart to put electric buses even higher than those other two forms of individual transport?
Only if those buses regularly carry less than 4 people.
I don’t follow
Empty buses that stop a lot are not good. Making them electric doesn’t improve the emissions that much.
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E bikes have 3 grams of direct CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre
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e-scooters have of 25 grams per passenger kilometre.
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Long-distance buses generate around 31 grams of CO2 per passenger kilometre.
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Electric buses have a CO2 footprint of 72 grams per passenger kilometre
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Diesel buses have a CO2 value of 96 grams.
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Cars have 166 grams of CO2 equivalents per passenger kilometre driven, (with an average occupancy rate of 1.4 persons per car)
I don’t really know how to understand the site in this context, since it says bicycles produce zero carbon emissions, so it can’t be taking vehicle production into account, and the topic at hand is resources required in production. And battery constituents at that, not carbon emissions.
Also: buses are empty when the service is shitty. It’s being proven every day that people choose the method of transport where the offer is good, be that car centric infrastructure, bike paths, or convenient public transport.
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Or how about this for a title: getting people to use smaller vehicles in general is the better environmental choice.
Not a perfect title, trains, trams and buses are larger than SUVs but far more effecient unless carrying just 1 passenger.
No, the above title is better, since it more accurately describes the article.
Transit may be more efficient, but that’s not in the article
The article is about the best use of batteries, not the best environmental choice.
People still think that electric car is a solution not a con to keep the plebs in traffic
One thing that annoyed me with the actually good large bill before trump was the lack of incentives for e-bikes.
You mean IRA?
yup.
Yeah most policy makers completely ignoring or being outright hostile to e-bikes is really annoying.
I don’t even ride one since I live in a dense neighborhood and am physically able but for a lot of people they are pretty revolutionary.
I was never wild about them but I am aging and they are becoming a more tempting prospect. I sorta have a dream type where is a fixy and the pedal assist allows for like an automatic type of gear shifting and does regenerative braking. So like a lot of assist to get going from start and up a hill but falling to nothing when going along. I swear I had a gearhub that allowed coasting but also a coaster type break but Im like not sure if Im remembering it wrong.
A lot of ebikes will let you set a speed limit for the motor, so it only adds power below say 5mph. I don’t remember seeing any fixies, but there are some coming out with auto gear shifting
