If only there was an alternative.
What if we replace vulcanized rubber with a metal ring 🤔Maybe it could also run on some kind of metal street, to further reduce friction? 🤔
we could probably manage traffic much easier if switching was controlled vs. random drivers…
While we’re at it, maybe we could install some powerlines to provide the vehicles with electricity. That way they could run on renewable energy.
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We could call those super-cars “pods” and make millions in investor money!
Or! We propose that their are specific stops where local business could thrive, etc. - Maybe we can simply be funded by governments?
We could put shops at these stops—shop stops! We could also put them within walking distance of houses. Make ‘em really big—I think Japan tried this experiment for a while.
Guys what if we just used trains
Nonono, blockchained AI powered pods!
Pods taking you to the train?
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How are the poors supposed to see my wealth?
First Class, and Business Class train tickets.
Guys I just moved to a city and you’re not gonna believe what they have here.
This would also reduce the need for lithium!
Sounds like it’ll be rough on the road, but I’m willing to try it! /s
I miss the trains of NJ and NYC so badly, this part of Texas fucking sucks with public transportation. Losing access to a car here has you flirting dangerously close to homelessness. Which is also why I’ll usually give a ride to anyone who asks around here.
To make sure it doesn’t destroy the road we could put metal in them also…
Delightfully devilish, Seymour.
I see where you’re going. We should all switch to steel tracked Abrams tanks! /jk
We make the tyres solid and the road rubber!
wait, no, damnit
Naah. Propellers!
Geez, here is another issue for which we’ve known about for 40 or so years that requires “urgent Action” for the past 40 years already
Wake me up when we finally do something
Boomers have categorically chosen apathy in favor of their own self interests since 1970. By the late 90s, they were a wrecking ball.
I disagree. People who live their entire lives being relentless bombarded by consumerist propaganda and pro-capitalist disinformation are not truly free to vote against it, nor were they given the chance. Al Gore cared more about the environment than Bush, but he was still a capitalist that supported car dependency and the military industrial complex.
So you’re absolving “Generation Me” of ever having to think for themselves? The same generation that could have educated themselves for less than the price of new car, and simply chose not to because a high school diploma was enough?
Millennials were just as heavily, if not more propagandized, and yet, as a cohort, we have skewed far from Baby Boomers (ie Millenials are killing x), while retaining the ability to be critical of the systems we have inherited. We are also far more educated and far more in debt. All as a result of Boomers subsidizing their own welfare on the backs of their children and grandchildren.
Baby Boomers collectively failed upward, soaked up benefit after benefit while telling themselves that they deserved their station in life, and then pulled up every ladder behind them.
So, hard disagree.
Which is why replacing First-past-the-post voting is so important. We need to have more then two options.
Democrats believe in democracy right? What’s the hold up blue states?
Given that Gore actually won the election it’s arguable that his concessions towards climate change, that it was real for a start, was the reason the election was close enough for him to lose the election. Voters loved the comforting lie over the hard truth then and they still do.
Especially given the yahoo Trump wants to appoint that doesn’t believe in climate change even in 2024 is pretty damning of our ability to do anything about it.
Jimmy Carter told Boomers to put on a sweater and they kicked him out of office.
Most probably simply didn’t know. A lot has to do with policies made by politicians that did know. Don’t pretend to be better, you would have done the same back then with the information you had. Remember, no internet.
lol, ok.
Despite your unfounded assumption, I’m old enough to know what it was like living pre-internet. Information was there, for those who chose to seek it out. Boomers, on the other hand, are the living definition of Dunning-Kruger. So no, they don’t get a pass. They chose to remain ignorant and uneducated, and when they gained any advantage, they made sure that those who came afterward would NOT. That’s not just a lack of awareness, it’s mean-spirited and selfish. Which fits “Generation Me,” to a T.
Well, no.
I am from the generation after the boomers but I grew up right before the Internet exploded onto the world and i can tell you that you would never see that sort of information unless you were looking for it. I know people love to shit on boomers, hence boomers being an insult word these days, but many simply couldn’t know better.
Hell, I didn’t know and believe me, I was (and still am) the kind of person that loves to read new things STEM. I had subscriptions on scientific magazines and I do remember reading articles about it being anything, scientists already knew about car tired being a problem, but it didn’t go beyond some reports. The general population didn’t know and pretending that they could have and should have known is simply disingenuous.
If you were alive at that time then you too know that it wasn’t that easy.
You might as well just take the long nap.
No ones gonna do anything.
We’re gonna keep wringing our hands about it, desperately shout time is running out…and watch time run out, then shrug our shoulders and go “Welp, nothing we can do about it now”
Got the vasectomy already. I’m all set to become the most unreasonable person in the chaos wastes.
We need to convince billionaires to care. They are the ones who hold all the real political power.
nah, guilliotines exist and are very convincing.
we dont actually have to take orders from them.
they dont care about anything but their money and the bunkers where they think they’ll hide during the coming man made disasters
convince billionaires to care
Nah, just get santa to solve our crisis
More realistically like 15 years, but, yeah, same difference in the end.
Yeah no, I’ve seen reports back in the early 90s about this in the Netherlands where they saw microplastics.ftom.tires being a huge problem
K
If only there was a highly efficient mode of transporting people that didn’t use tires. Ah well, nothing can be done I guess.
Yes, imagine if there was a fast and safe way of transport. Something like made to run on steel bars in order to reduce friction. I don’t know. I’m just imagining, I watch too much science fiction.
My city’s metro system uses rubber tyres, :(
I imagine it’s still orders of magnitudes better than everyone driving their own car in.
Same with busses. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good
Technically, a subway would be easier to build a microplastic containment solution than applying the same to endless miles of roadway. Using metal wheels is probably still the better option though
subways are only economical in big cities though.
No one is building a subway in my town, would be waaaaay to expensive. they couldnt even keep a tram system going
I was agreeing with your sentiment that rubber subway tires are still magnitudes better than cars, realistically, buses are probably less microplastics per person moved as well if the route has decent ridership.
Brisbane? Their metro is literally a bus 😂 the council are so proud of it too.
Our public transport in Vic leaves much to be desired but at least we have a well developed tram system that reduces the number of tyres in the collective fleet.
We did just outlaw e-scooters which was necessary because the infrastructure and community education wasn’t there and it was dangerous. But long term e-scooters do serve a place in a less car reliant community. Bike infrastructure investment is decades behind what it needs to be.
Much like everywhere, the oversized nature of “yank tanks” seems to be a large factor in every single thing wrong with cars and car infrastructure these days.
Smaller, lighter cars don’t wear through their tyres as fast 🤷
To be fair, the most efficient mode of transportation is cycling by far. I wonder if bike tires also contribute to this.
I’m sure they do but it will be way less.
The wear rate should be proportional to the weight of the system (car plus cargo and passsengers, bike plus cargo and riders), maybe with some correction factors for things that affect wear rate like knobbiness.
Since bikes weigh a couple orders of magnitude less on average, the amount of tire wear material should also be a couple orders of magnitude less.
Edit: other lemmyer said wear is proportional to weight to the 4th power and that may be correct. I vaguely recall that from school now that they mentioned it.
should be proportional to the weight of the system
It’s that really true? Wear to the roads is proportional to the fourth power of axle weight so I would never have predicted a linear relationship.
Exponential relationships are still proportional.
