![[image] People would probably hate cars a lot less if they were limited in size and speed to a golf cart](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/fcb4382e-b548-472d-95d1-b9ed667805da.jpeg){kind=link}
Pros of golf carts and neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) replacing all private cars within a city:
- Only goes as fast as a bicycle, so isn’t a viable suburban commuter vehicle, meaning you’ll probably only take it to the nearest transit station
- Only goes as fast as a bicycle, so isn’t likely to kill people
- Excellent visibility, so less likely to run over children
- Much smaller and lighter, so building parking garages for park-and-rides would be a lot cheaper and less objectionable than with our current style of cars
- Electric
- Smaller batteries than jumbo EVs
- Compatible with dense, transit-oriented city development
- Could be installed with mandatory speed limiters
Cons:
- Less profit for GM and ExxonMobil
So it’s less practical than a bicycle and still encourages a sedentary lifestyle.
Still more likely than a bicycle, without the advantages of a bicycle
But not perfect, which a bicycle has
Bicycles are so small that you can take them into your apartment, completely nullifying the need for infrastructural storage accommodation near your home.
You will have to explain this, as it is not an inherent pro of a vehicle to have electrical propulsion.
Electric bicycle has even smaller battery, still!
Less so than a bicycle
So could regular cars
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You’ve built a solution that compromises on all the advantages of either and doesn’t excel in any.
It is when the vehicle is small & light like this.
Heat engines get more efficient with increasing size. Piston count can be increased (improving balance), or piston displacement can be increased (reducing friction, heat loss & gas leakage per unit volume)
Batteries on the other hand get better with decreasing scale, the net distance from source to sink is decreased so it needs less wire. The total number of elements is reduced so risk of fire is as well. The battery is more replaceable, so aging is less of a concern.
Range compounds the effect. Typically smaller vehicles have smaller ranges, and that’s good for electric where the engine is much lighter than the fuel, but bad for ICE, where the engine is a massive brick of iron and the fuel can just be a couple jerry cans slung on the back
In cars, the trade-off is a hotly contested race, but you don’t see many diesel skateboards or battery-powered containerships.
Some people have never had to balance two massive bags of chicken feed and a propane tank on a rusty bicycle with a bent wheel and it shows.
Some people also don’t have physical disabilities or family members with them, and it really shows. Bikes are great, and we absolutely should be encouraging bike use, but the automobile is, frankly, a necessity for millions of people. We shouldn’t be getting rid of wheelchairs, either. I swear, sometimes I feel like the fuck cars community is basically anprim. Yes, fuck cars, yes fuck car culture, but jimminy crickets they’re not evil. Our use of us them.
Cars have a place and the name of this community is stupid, but in large cities using cars is quite problematic obviously. For disabled people there are already motorised wheelchairs, for cargo it seems like there are better choices than this still.
I’m disabled. A motorized wheelchair is fine for walmart or Disney World, because those places are built for them. But they are also very expensive, and can actually be more of a hindrance when facilities and infrastructure are lacking. The world is generally not accessible.
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It’s not excuse, but thanks for being dismissive of disabilities that might be different to your own. I’m not pawning you off as anything, and I do think we need massive reform and restructuring. But motorized wheelchairs are not a viable solution to someone who needs to get to a doctor’s office 20 miles away, nor are busses a solution to someone who has severe difficulty being outside of their home for hours on end. Should most of us be driving? No. Should no one be using cars? Also no.
I don’t respect your argument because it assumes I’m trying to get rid of cars. I’m not, I’m trying to get rid of unnecessary car ownership / usage.
Did you know that taxis exist? Did you know that in many danish municipalities, it’s completely normal for the municipality to own and operate several minibusses to ferry people who otherwise can’t get around? Now you do. Now you can stop pretending that disabled people are a crutch to learn your devils-advocacy, or whatever that is, on.
I’m not pretending anything. You’re entire attitude is hostile and I’m done talking to you.
you can attach a trailer/carrier to a bike for that reason if you need to
“Hop in the bakfiets, grandma, let the good doctor check out your arthritis. We can’t take the car because an internet stranger says so.”
I’ve got arthritis and loooove bicycle rickshaw rides.
The clear benefit to this over bikes is that it doesn’t require balance. Balance is a common issue in the disabled.
And the ability to move a family
That’s true, but but front loading cargo bikes can do a pretty good job at that if the ratio of passengers to drivers doesn’t get too big.
Or, yaknow, everyone just has their own bike.