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Posts
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773
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • Re: GFCI's

    At least in my country, GFCI's are required to be fitted in the fuse box, to protect the entire building. Not just rooms which are prone to ground faults. In the American type, the protection is optional.

  • Meanwhile, let's also face that EV's have to carry around large batteries. One advantage that ICE cars do have is the power density [J/kg] of petroleum fuel is leaps and bounds better than that if a lithium battery. This means that EV's are likely to produce more road noise from rolling, the dominant source of noise above 50 km/h, as well as more wear to the roads, since wear is a function of vehicle mass to some pretty high power. (I thought it was m^(4), but I'm not sure)

    On top of that, while EV's don't have any tailpipe emissions, the power that they need still needs to come from somewhere. Thus the carbon emissions for use are a function of the national power grid of the place where you're charging your car.

    Thus, A) if cars are already a fairly small part of the transportation mix, B) steps are taken to further improve the quality and availability of alternatives to cars, and C) the power grid is dominated by nuclear power and/or renewables, then EV's could be better for the environment.

  • The cynical take is that EV's don't exist to save the world, they exist to save the car industry.

    The more neutral take is that between an EV and an ICE car, the former is preferable.

    Fact of the matter is that in order for many people to use a private car to go from anywhere to anywhere, you need a shocking amount of space and resources to make that work, especially if you compare that to expecting most people take those journeys by mass means, by bicycle or by foot.
    So if you propose electric cars as the silver bullet solution for climate change, in a place where walking, cycling and transit are systemically kneecapped and held back, and nothing is done to solve the latter part, then the environmental impact of EV's is a drop on a hot plate.

  • I like to apply some business logic to it.

    • I expect to use the product or functionality provided by x on a regular basis
    • The use of x has no added utility
    • The functionality and/or feature set (e.g. content) of x may degrade significantly without warning and/or recourse
    • Unavailability of x is likely to render it completely useless

    If most of these conditions can be regularly sufficiently true, then searching an alternative that incorporates proper ownership is a good course of action.

  • Two words: Jersey barriers.

    You can at least create the chicanes by putting up concrete barriers. Just as simple as a moveable speed trap, achieves much of the traffic calming effect, no extra police resources needed.

    EDIT: In fact, now I think about it, using planters will have most of the same effect, while looking prettier.

  • And "realistic solutioins that work now and can be quickly applied everywhere" are far too easily quick fixes. And nothing is as permanent as a quick fix.

    Besides, at least one of your sources is a Canadian car journalist, someone who's probably personally invested in sucking GM's metaphorical dick.
    And let's also face it, Canada, a country where a city of half a million people was "too small for a rapid transit network," while cities a third its size have about as much, if not more, absolute track mileage and ridership on their tram network than Toronto.

    Who's the biased one here, mister pot, accusing the kettle he's black?

  • And putting up signs and cameras literally only does so much to convince people to slow down on wide, straight roads. How likely is the average driver in your area to speed? I can assure you, half of the road users are worse than that.

    If we're going to start pointing to other discussions, make it as easy to find your point as you can. Case in point, what I'm talking about.