Out of all the car companies, Dodge (subsidiary of Stellantis) has to be up there as one of the worst. I can't think of any other car company that is so overt in their design and marketing to encourage their customers to be both reckless and annoying
I started walking about 3 miles a day.
One more Tesla goes to pull out of a parking lot, driveway, street etc and cuts me off and blocks the sidewalk, I am gonna walk over the hood of their car. Happens all the time and they are always fucking Tesla drivers.
I hear so many people say "any vote not for Biden is a vote for Trump."
That is absolutely ridiculous.
What if I didn't vote at all?
If I choose to vote, I will vote for a party and candidate that represents my values. I will vote Green.
Dems and MAGA both support more oil drilling. Dems and MAGA both support Israel and the genocide of Palestinians.
Dems and MAGA both want more cars and more pollution. Fuck them both. #GreenParty#JillStein#Green2024#ClimateCrisis#Environment#FreePalestine#GenocideJoe#TrumpForPrison#EndFossilFuels#FuckCars
Concerned about microplastics? Research shows one of the biggest sources is car tyres
A lot of the emphasis on reducing microplastics has focussed on things like plastic bags, clothing, and food packaging.
But there's a growing body of research that shows one of the biggest culprits by far is car tyres.
It's increasingly clear that we simply cannot solve the issue of microplastics in the environment while still using tyres — even with electric-powered cars.
"Tyre wear stands out as a major source of microplastic pollution. Globally, each person is responsible for around 1kg of microplastic pollution from tyre wear released into the environment on average each year – with even higher rates observed in developed nations.
"It is estimated that between 8% and 40% of these particles find their way into surface waters such as the sea, rivers and lakes through runoff from road surfaces, wastewater discharge or even through airborne transport.
"However, tyre wear microplastics have been largely overlooked as a microplastic pollutant. Their dark colour makes them difficult to detect, so these particles can’t be identified using the traditional spectroscopy methods used to identify other more colourful plastic polymers."
"Microplastic pollution has polluted the entire planet, from Arctic snow and Alpine soils to the deepest oceans. The particles can harbour toxic chemicals and harmful microbes and are known to harm some marine creatures. People are also known to consume them via food and water, and to breathe them, But the impact on human health is not yet known.
"“Roads are a very significant source of microplastics to remote areas, including the oceans,” said Andreas Stohl, from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, who led the research. He said an average tyre loses 4kg during its lifetime. “It’s such a huge amount of plastic compared to, say, clothes,” whose fibres are commonly found in rivers, Stohl said. “You will not lose kilograms of plastic from your clothing.”"
"Microplastics are of increasing concern in the environment [1, 2]. Tire wear is estimated to be one of the largest sources of microplastics entering the aquatic environment [3,4,5,6,7]. The mechanical abrasion of car tires by the road surface forms tire wear particles (TWP) [8] and/or tire and road wear particles (TRWP), consisting of a complex mixture of rubber, with both embedded asphalt and minerals from the pavement [9]."
Y'know what'd be awesome to minimise the material footprint of cars? Standardised, modular battery systems.
Imagine: for your daily city usage you use a small battery with, say, 150-300km range. Then when you want to take your family on holiday you take your car to the local battery swap and install the 800km range battery.
Smaller battery means:
Lighter cars = less wear on roads & less danger in crashes
Yes yes, I know, #fuckcars and all that. We need to transition to better (public) transport alternatives. But cars aren't going away any time soon so let's make sure to minimise the negative effects of the ones we have.
A minority of people need a long range battery for their daily usage. Let's design car systems that match our actual usage.
It'd be amazing if battery systems became standardised across companies for sheer economy of scale of the battery swap system.
"...Australia is heading in the wrong direction. In Melbourne, for instance, the amount of space devoted to private parking has increased by 156% over the last 20 years. The MCG’s green oasis is very much the exception."
A rising road toll in the US. A rising road toll in Australia. Journalists give 1000 reasons why it could be happening.
And they studiously avoid mentioning the growing proportion of massive SUVs and pickup trucks on the roads. If they mention it at all, it's only in passing: https://youtu.be/Hb5_RUNeC0g?si=uuns6D1I6fGINdpU
But.
If you have larger and heavier cars, with larger blind spots, of course you're going to have more fatalities!