this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
401 points (73.2% liked)
Fuck Cars
9697 readers
727 users here now
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
Rules
1. Be Civil
You may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.
2. No hate speech
Don't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.
3. Don't harass people
Don't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.
4. Stay on topic
This community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.
5. No reposts
Do not repost content that has already been posted in this community.
Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.
Posting Guidelines
In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
- [meta] for discussions/suggestions about this community itself
- [article] for news articles
- [blog] for any blog-style content
- [video] for video resources
- [academic] for academic studies and sources
- [discussion] for text post questions, rants, and/or discussions
- [meme] for memes
- [image] for any non-meme images
- [misc] for anything that doesn’t fall cleanly into any of the other categories
Recommended communities:
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They certainly improve noise and air pollution gigantically, Christ knows how fecked I am having to grow up around cars.
Obviously nothings perfect, but I'll take a world of EVs over a world of combustion vehicles.
yeah, OP's shit-take is moronic. EV's propulsion can be entirely carbon offset, not something you can do with a car that has an engine spewing co2.
NOW, if you want to talk about tires/plastic particles, that's a whole other story where EV's do not have an edge - yet.
Battery powered EVs also have a greater environmental impact to manufacture than equivalent ICE vehicles, but the greater efficiency in energy conversion and the lack of emissions offsets this in less than five years of use on average. Ideally, it will continue to improve as battery technology advances as well.
Idealy we don't need as many cars in the future. The thought of all those batteries and tires on a garbage dump in Africa and plastic parts floating in the Atlantic make me sick.
Less trying to counteract your point, or say that EVs are worse than ICE cars somehow, but there's still a significant amount of particulate matter shed from the brake pads of EVs, i.e. where the predominant harmful emissions come from in most cars, though, regenerative braking certainly helps nullify that a great deal, when it's being used.
They barely improve noise pollution, the loudest factor on a moving car are the tires. If you use electricity out of a coal powered power plant you just outsource the air pollution. And I can't imagine that it is healthy to live around a the mines that are needed to get all the ressources to build the battery and the car itself.
This is worse then 'nothing is perfect', this is lying to yourself to continue to fuck up the planet and fuck up people who are not you. Congratulations on your "cleaner city".
Edit: maybe tell me where I am wrong instead of just downvoting. I think I have a valid point to diskuss.
Oh boy, you clearly never had a semi truck engine breaking down a hill 30 yards from your house at 3am in the morning.
To be fair, they said "moving car". They're correct; cars moving at high speed produce significantly more tyre noise than engine noise. Larger vehicles have much more engine noise, so the speed at which tyre noise dominates is also higher.
References:
Like I said, you never had a truck engine break in front of your house. It is significantly louder than any tire noise. It almost sounds like a machine gun.
No I haven't, because where I live we've outlawed using jake brakes within cities due to the noise - except when adequate muffling is installed. Again we're talking about cars, not trucks, so jake brakes aren't relevant anyway.
I live near a road with a 100 km/h speed limit, all I hear is the tires on the road, no engine. I guess an electric car could be even louder, as they are heavier. The loudest vehicles here are the trucks, but again, can't hear the engine, just the sound of the tires. Especially when it rains and the road is wet.
I don't know what 'breaking down the hill' means, but of course there are scenarios where combustion engines are louder. When they wait on a red light e.g. My point is: EVs suck as much as combution engine cars, they are both loud.
Why not opt for the option of more public transport, bikes and cars only where they are absolutly neccessary - for all I care EVs.
I live 100 yards away from an interstate highway in the US. Looking at it right now. Yeah the tire noise is real too. But I got use to it, it's soft and consistent.
Engine breaking is when a truck uses its engine in lower gear to slow down the truck. It's really loud and sounds like a machine gun.
My favorite solution for cargo transport is loud as well, trains aren't exactly known for their silent behaviour. Difficult to find the best solution there.
Regarding the topic: I don't seem to be that off with my feeling, according to this site 50 % of the noise of a car comes from tires. And it gets worse at higher speeds and with more mass. I think EVs are more silent than ICEs but still far from good if they can be avoided by better solutions like bikes, public transport and city planning.
Of course I wouldn't want to take away your sleeping aid, a nice constant white noise of tires can be nice. But maybe a white noise recording would be better for the environment.
Clearly you don't live near a road where V8s and muffler less cars fly by. And Coal Powered plants are going extinct everywhere except China. Even in my Oil and Gas State, the local power company is building out a solar farm.
So your point is the world will be fine as soon as every person on earth drives an EV? We have a systematic problem and people get hung on the point of EVs vs. combustion engine cars. This should not be the question, they both suck in their own way.
Your footprint is massive if you get rid of your combustion engine car and buy an EV just for the sake of driving an EV. Better would be: get rid of your car entirely (if poasible) and buy a good bike.
And I belive it is already possible for many people and pure convenience is holding them back, while the world burns. And they buy EVs and pat themselfes on the shoulder, as 'I am not the problem, the dirty combustion engines destroy the world'. Wrong direction of thinking, if you want to better the environment and life quality.
My point is that EVs are quiet. There's no additional engine noise.
A two ton vehicle going over asphalt above 30 km/h is certainly not quiet. A bike is quiet.
An electric car going 40km/h really isn't that loud. An electric car going 120km/h is pretty loud.
Anyone who ever uses hyperbole like this should be barred from expressing any opinions for one year.
Yeah yeah, the topic makes ma irrational because it feels like a lost cause. Steering hard in the direction of a climate collapse just isn't a nice future to look forward to.
But that would be reason enough for you to take away another peoples right to express an opinion for a year? That is a bit extreme as well. How did you get there?
It's an indicator that a person uses a particular type of rhetoric - or worse, actually thinks in a way - that is incredibly harmful to any sort of rational discourse. You know it's false, the person you're pretending to quote knows it's false, it's exclusively said in bad faith, there's no reason for anyone to ever say something like that. It doesn't help you win an argument or convince anyone. It's exhausting and childish and a waste of time.
Just make an honest argument, of which there are many. Don't waste anyone's time with that crap.
...says the person who insults others to make a point.
At leasts insults are amusing. The type of hyperbole you used isn't.
Think of it this way: you know I'm willing to support insulting and trolling people and even I found what you said to be so bad I wish I could ban it. That should showcase exactly how bad it is, right?
A person saying insults are amusing just screams 'ignore me'. I hope you will look back at your statement soon and feel at least some kind of embarrassment. Good luck to you.
Your comment raises some valid points about the environmental impact of electric vehicles (EVs), but there are a few misconceptions that need to be addressed.
Firstly, regarding noise pollution, while it's true that tire noise can be a significant source of noise from a moving car, especially at higher speeds, it's not accurate to say that EVs barely improve noise pollution. EVs are generally quieter than conventional vehicles, especially at lower speeds. This can significantly reduce noise pollution in urban areas, where speeds are often low.
Secondly, the point about electricity from coal-powered plants is a common argument, but it oversimplifies the issue. Yes, if an EV is charged using electricity from a coal-powered plant, it's effectively outsourcing some of its emissions. However, the overall emissions are still typically lower than those from conventional vehicles. Furthermore, the electricity grid is getting cleaner over time as we shift towards renewable sources, which will further reduce the emissions from EVs.
As for the environmental impact of mining for resources to build batteries and cars, this is indeed a concern. However, it's important to note that conventional vehicles also require resource extraction for their production, and the extraction and refining of oil for fuel is a major source of environmental damage. Moreover, the battery production process is becoming more efficient, and there are ongoing efforts to improve the recycling of batteries.
Lastly, the assertion that advocating for EVs is "lying to yourself to continue to fuck up the planet and fuck up people who are not you" is a rather harsh judgement. While it's true that EVs are not a perfect solution and have their own environmental impact, they are generally considered a step in the right direction towards reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change.
Citations: [1] When we switch to electric vehicles everything is going ... https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/oqpalp/when_we_switch_to_electric_vehicles_everything_is/ [2] Noise is all around us https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36024887 [3] Electric cars noise pollution https://www.fastcompany.com/90774779/heres-what-science-says-about-electric-cars-and-their-impact-on-noise-pollution [4] Answers https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/international-schools/pdfs/ilower-secondary/exploring-science-international/ExploringScienceInternationalAnswers/int_esws_at_y7_ap_sb_answers_ttpp.pdf [5] How far do I need to be from a highway/parkway to no ... https://ask.metafilter.com/271697/How-far-do-I-need-to-be-from-a-highway-parkway-to-no-longer-hear-it [6] Answers SP1a Vectors and scalars https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1584024880/sydenhamlewishamschuk/agtqfqee1mgv0nnk165x/SP1andSP2answers.pdf
Thank you for your answer! My points are a result of my thoughts without looking anything up. You are much more thorough.
So EVs are loud, but ICEs are louder. The production of EVs is dirty, but producing and running ICEs is dirtier. Running ICEs now could damage the nature, because a lot of power is still produced with coal, but the future will fix it.
EVs are better than ICEs. But saying that EVs are a step in the right direction feels very wrong. We have one big problem - 'car infrastructure'. And giving the avarage Joe/Jane the idea, that they can better the world by using EVs is a waste of time and energy that could be used to go in a much better direction: public transport, bikes, well planned cities. I don't think Joe wants to sell his new EV, even if he had alternatives, and he will continue to vote for more roads and parking spaces.
But compromises are important: I would recommend everyone, who HAS to use a car with no alternatives and whose car is not up to good environment standards anymore, to buy an EV instead of an ICE.
in a perfect world cars would disappear all together I agree. But for the short term we need to not let perfect be the enemy of good. People aren't giving up their cars anytime soon, but maybe we can shepherd them into a slightly less shitty version for the time being. Plus having EVs and more solar on roofs will speed up our ability to reduce our coal addiction, which right now is the biggest threat to humanity.
Hopefully we'll see the transition largely away from cars in time with better public infrastructure. it's a complex problem.
Where I live I feel like I’m encountering more and more cars that have been modded to be VERY loud by replacing their exhaust pipes, adding exhaust tips, etc. Just about every time I’m driving on a highway I seem to spot cars like this…
This is a fantastically ignorant response in damn near every aspect. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong, fuck you, I suspect you're a shell or exxon employee.
Good that you took the time to respond 'fuck you' to me, I hope it makes you feel better.
Sadly your response didn't make me think all that much, 'wrong wrong wrong' and insults aren't great arguments after all.
go back to exxon shill.
I really don't know what those words mean.