this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
488 points (94.5% liked)

Bicycles

3119 readers
3 users here now

Welcome to [email protected]

A place to share our love of all things with two wheels and pedals. This is an inclusive, non-judgemental community. All types of cyclists are accepted here; whether you're a commuter, a roadie, a MTB enthusiast, a fixie freak, a crusty xbiking hoarder, in the middle of an epic across-the-world bicycle tour, or any other type of cyclist!

Community Rules

Other cycling-related communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
488
Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities (theconversation.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
122 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the world’s fossil fuel car fleet.

The emission savings from replacing all those internal combustion engines with zero-carbon alternatives will not feed in fast enough to make the necessary difference in the time we can spare: the next five years. Tackling the climate and air pollution crises requires curbing all motorised transport, particularly private cars, as quickly as possible. Focusing solely on electric vehicles is slowing down the race to zero emissions.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, the commute and car ownership is literally cheaper than paying the extra rent.

My mom only charges me $500/month, last I looked rent for places that aren't even comparable to what I have now were about $1500/month, and my car is costing me about $250/month. That's a difference of $750/month, and my quality of life is way better.

What you're suggesting is completely unreasonable for me.

However I admit that my comment about homelessness is likely wrong on further analysis. But it remains to be seen what happens with the housing market in the intervening years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think you misunderstood my comment. I was agreeing with you. If you're staying with family, that's almost certainly financially better than getting your own place. What I was saying is that you didn't answer the second option: What if you got a job closer to home? You don't have to answer it here, but I'd just recommend reviewing it by yourself.

If you make $40K/year, your 37km commute probably costs you ~15% of your net income. Getting a slightly worse paying job within biking distance of your current home could leave more money in your pocket.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I see, I did misunderstand.

Unfortunately being in a small town means there are limited options, and most of them I've used already. Some I could go back to. But really this is about the best I've found.

The real option is to start a business, but I'm enjoying life more than I ever have at the moment, and I don't want to give that up and go back to working all the time. I probably will eventually, because I hate working for people who I think are stupider than I am.