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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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Fuck Cars
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We’ll still need the roads & streets, repairs/repaves, traffic lights, and snow plows even if 95% of us switch to bikes, e-mopeds, and trains…
In a hypothetical 2050 America that has embraced walkable neighborhoods and biking M-F and only using cars to visit friends in a different city, the roads & streets will still be being worn out at nearly the same rate by the elements and heavy delivery, construction, and emergency vehicles.
Because the road-quality bar for driveability is a often noticeably lower than the bar for bikeability, many/most municipalities with actual bike users on the board may vote for higher quality road construction, which likely would raise labor and/or material costs and likely balancing out to the same 20 year costs despite maybe going an extra year or two between repaves due to significantly less civilian 3,000-8,000lbs commuter vehicle use.
We'd need streets, yes, but if we eliminated car-dependent sprawl (e.g., single-family detached zoning and parking minimums), we wouldn't need nearly as many streets. Further, if we shifted as much freight as possible to other modes like local rail, cargo trams, and NEVs, then we would vastly reduce wear on roads from the 4th power law.
The 4th power law BLOWS MY MIND. Long-haul trucking in America is literally the most destructive force to the roads they drive on.