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How green are dockless e-scooters?:
Dockless e-scooter companies have for roughly two years touted their devices as not only convenient but also a win for the environment.
But a growing body of research suggests that the scooter craze may not be as green as advertised.
To change that, experts say, companies such as Lime, Bird and Wheels must manufacture more robust e-scooters while riders need to increasingly use those devices in lieu of driving. According to studies, many people are cruising around on e-scooters as an alternative to cleaner forms of transportation, such as biking, walking and taking the bus.
Still, experts say the fast-evolving industry has the potential to revolutionize urban travel and significantly reduce planet-warming emissions.
"It could be huge for sustainable travel," said Juan Matute, deputy director of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 20 2020, @06:45PM (3 children)
> Ford isn't even selling cars any more, only trucks and SUVs, because that's all most Americans buy now.
A self fulfilling prophecy.
There are Americans who want the smaller vehicles sold elsewhere in the world, but the manufacturers will not sell them in the US, and sometimes will not sell them within all of N. America.
I wanted a low-cost, high fuel economy small car. The best (available in the US) by those measures, at the time, was a Toyota Yaris hatch. But, the only Yaris I could buy had the engine that in the UK was sold as the performance option. The UK had a smaller gasoline engine and a diesel option. Each got much better mileage than my Yaris with the performance engine. I bought what I could.
Small pickup trucks is another place where the US sucks. Nissan still makes a small pickup (the size of the early '90s hard body), but you can't buy it in the US. Only a mid-sized thing that uses the same production line as their full-sized truck is available in the US.
Maybe just removing the billions in subsidies* to the fossil fuel industry would be enough to raise the pump price sufficiently to get sane vehicles into the US. In addition to ending subsidies, an additional tax that would bring cost at the pump up to the true cost of burning the fuel would be best (no more parasitic privatizing of profits while externalizing costs). With fuel costs reflecting true costs, the gas guzzlers would disappear off the roads in no time, and sane vehicles would fill the showrooms.
*Per IMF, direct and indirect subsidies for coal, oil and gas in the U.S. reached $649 billion in 2015:
https://www.imf.org/~/media/Files/Publications/WP/2019/WPIEA2019089.ashx [imf.org]
(Score: 2) by sfm on Monday January 20 2020, @09:08PM (1 child)
"I wanted a low-cost, high fuel economy small car"
You forgot to add RELIABLE
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 21 2020, @02:07AM
> "I wanted a low-cost, high fuel economy small car"
> You forgot to add RELIABLE
Nah, I considered a Fiat.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday January 22 2020, @02:14AM
>Small pickup trucks is another place where the US sucks.
You can blame that one on the Chicken Tax [wikipedia.org].