(02-26-2025, 12:40 PM)plam Wrote: Diesel is even worse, though. There is something to be said for buses powered by electric wires as in Vancouver.
ebikes are definitely not terrible. Small electric cars aren't bad either. We just don't need to be making SUVs.
It's pretty bad indeed. I think hybrid buses offer a good balance. Though yes, any electric buses we use should be powered by electric wires. At least that's a technology we've had around for a good century already.
Ebikes are pretty useful. It's EVs that are still a shit technology. There's a reason people don't want them. Consumers know they exist, but they know how crap they are too.
(02-26-2025, 04:03 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: "few people understand or could work on an EV"
:eyeroll:
ebikes are literally a world changing technology...small electric cars and EV buses are a status quo maintaining technology. Both are important to fighting climate change...but in neither are actually being used in North America, ironically, ebikes maybe more.
Roll your eyes all you want, they're complex machines. A diesel engine is not.
Neither are important for fighting climate change, but I know it is a waste of time with you to go into the nuances of iron/copper/aluminum/etc mining, sand extraction, rare earth mineral mining, battery disposal, more frequent road replacements, switching over our whole power grid to renewables to power them and so on. Plus, dealing with them after they quickly become ewaste is another huge problem. As it stands, we just find big empty fields to fill with thousands upon thousands of useless ebikes and EVs. The battery disposal is even messier.
They're a world changing technology that's for sure.
(02-26-2025, 05:50 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Too bad there is no way to increase the number of people who understand something. Oh well.
Of course there is and I hope we can actually train more Canadian citizens to understand how to work on these sort of vehicles. I also hope we can somehow legislate the guaranteed right to repair them, too. As it stands, it's pretty damn hard to truly fix your own EV due to the technical complexities and the manufacturers of them don't really want you to anyway. Look at the mess Tesla had over the years in regards to this.
Anyway, I say we just bring back good ol' trolleybuses. Those are MUCH more environmentally friendly than anything the whole EV scam can offer us.