Re:Tire Dust Makes Up the Majority of Ocean Microplastics
by rafram on Sunday October 01, 2023 @01:33PM
(#37728308)
But we can do better. 92% of Americans own a car, only slightly higher than the rate in France, but the average American drives twice as many miles in a year as the average French person does [1]. There are a lot of trips that will always need a car. Lots of people still want to own a car, even if they live somewhere with a good rail network. But they don’t need to drive it as much. It’s not that they’re being forced not to drive, it’s that rail is such a great option for getting around that there’s simply no need to use a car for most trips. That should be our goal in the US.
[1] https://frontiergroup.org/resources/fact-file-americans-driv...
America offers various lifestyles, from big cities like NYC, Boston, etc where a car is a liability, to near suburbs that are well served by transit (eg, NYC tri-state area) where you probably need a car but your daily commute doesn't involve it, to more spread-out and rural living where car is absolutely necessary.
This speaks to a trade-off between density and car-dependence. People across the globe face similar trade-offs (eg: 50% of Dutch persons own a car, 86% of French households do...)