Of course this is just my personal reasoning. Not supported by data.
The daily commuter can be electric. They are just more fit for purpose. I first drove a Nissan Leaf expecting the car to be gimmicky with weird driving characteristics, but it's a incredibly competent feeling car. You immediately notice how much better it is for city driving, in ways you didn't realise your ICE car was deficient in.
Because of that, they are now getting close to having cars that can rely on solar panels for some of their energy. It’s not there yet, but there are working prototypes (Aptera is the most inspiring but not the only one). Telsa mentioned a solar roof extension on what sounded like a camper van. Large trucks have a lot of surfaces and would definitely benefit too…
If you look at how much energy has to go in and out, a very conservative drive on a highway has less acceleration per hour, and fewer buildings hiding the sun. You could imagine that a very aerodynamic vehicle driven slowly for long distances would be able to stay charged longer than a gas car.
You might hit limits of human attention (I think we did that a long time ago) so it might not be as beneficial as frequent high-speed chargers, but all that innovation tells me there’s more than a short commute and a disappointing aesthetic to switching to electric.
Replacing your short-range transport needs with a bicycle, on the other hand, is a great idea.
I don’t disagree, but not every area is what I would consider bicycle friendly. Especially in the US. Nearest grocery to me is 4 miles away. Certainly do able on a bicycle, but unfortunately in this area the roads are not super friendly for bicycles. I’d rather not be run over by a semi full of tomatoes, while going to buy some tomatoes.
It's not clever, or being insightful, or forward thinking, if it makes no sense.
Try getting groceries on a bike, at -40C and with ice and snow everywhere. Now try it as an octogenarian, or even as a 40 year old in those conditions.
Come on!
People need transportation 12 months a year, not 4 of them! A bike is absolutely, positively not a car replacement in many places, at all, ever, period.
My statment may seem harsh, but I keep seeing all these suggestions which show people only thinking of where they live.
Oh and the hilarious counter suggestion I've heard sometimes. "Don't live there then". What? OK, abandon Canada, and its ability to feed the world with wheat, rye, meat in its summer. Good call, that.
Civilized people live in little clumps called villages, towns, or cities, where the transportation problem is amortized by bringing essential goods such as food by truck to the center of the village where it is within walking distance of even the octogenarians.
I recently got so fed up with the meme that most people live far from other people that I made this visualization of where people live in California. The territory-weighted view of life is completely defective. The overwhelming majority of people live near other people. That some people live far from other people is not important for general commentary or policy. Those few people can do what they like and it's just not important enough to discuss. https://observablehq.com/@jwb/californians-from-oregon-to-me...
While many people do live in cities, many live in, and outside cities, in rural areas.
Rural areas which support the farms you seem to like. Farms do not live in a vaccuum, and require an entire infrastructure of people working, and living in these areas, including schools, etc.
But outside of this, I noticed you completely glossed over climate as an issue, ignoring inclement weather for most of the year. Your map of warm California is irrelevant here, and does not discuss this.
Canada has very excellent urban planning, and often has grocery stores near by. That only helps at certain times of years, and only helps in dense areas.
This is part of the problem.
Electric cars are an awesome solution, yet what I see always is hard core environmentalists harming positive change. An electric car is far, far better than gas, yea? Is it?
Then holy hell, just drop the blather and embrace it, and be happy change is happening.
Get behind the positive.
We have vegetarians manipulating the climate crisis to get their way (no beef is not bad for the environment), we have the bike/anti-car side doing the same.
You want truth? Here's truth, and you saw it with all the covid political stupidity.
Push too far, and it backfires...
Ah yes, it always ends in the implicit threat of violence with people like you. Look what you made me do!
Push back can be an election which reverse years of progress. How do you think Trump got elected?! Pushback.
You want more of that?!? The US left and right... nutjobs one and all!
They also have to realize that not everyone wants corporate box box stores in their backyards, which in the US is where grocery and household goods are bought.
They also should realize that sometimes desirable places to live can grow faster than infrastructure planning anticipated and nice things like bicycle paths and central shopping areas often aren’t often available that allow safe travel from where the homes are…to where the grocery stores are located by anything other than a care.
Corporate box stores are literally a direct result of suburbanization, if you don’t like them then that’s a argument against the suburbs, not for them.
That tends to be why developers avoid putting housing developments right beside them, it’s not really unreasonable IMO.
Your comment read to me like this “not everyone likes urban environments, people don’t want [insert thing indicative of the suburbs] right on top of them”
Urban places aren’t just more compact versions of the suburbs.
Suburban tends to be not generally walkable because grocery and retail tend to be on the outskirts and not city center. My comment about big box stores was meant to basically convey that they are not walkable or bicycle friendly because folks in suburban environments don’t want those giant stores that near their homes, but they don’t mind and actually prefer them to be 5-10 by car.
Some neighborhood developers drop quasi downtown main streets now with a few restaurants, boutique shops,etc…but these are not designed to sustain the community around it, but more as a neighborhood perk. Generally are nice enough that nearby homes are not devalued by close proximity the way a large retail or grocery store might be.
Fewer cars is better, electric or not.