Politico

    • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      That’s a tough one. I have a Tesla. I don’t pay fuel tax and electric cars weigh a lot which does damage the road.

      It shouldn’t be double but we all need to pay for the roads.

      • Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In my ideal world, we’d have a full carbon tax as well as a vehicle weight tax, and we’d use part of that to fund more electrified public transit (e.g., trains, trams, trolleybuses) and bike infrastructure. Plus we need to actually legalize dense, walkable urbanism. The zoning codes and parking minimums in North America make it literally illegal to build anything dense, walkable, and transit-oriented across almost all the urban land, resulting in miles and miles of government-mandated sprawl.

        The future of sustainable urban is truly in public transit and micromobility – car dependency just doesn’t make any sense in cities, as no amount of electric cars can make up for the harm caused by sprawling, car-dependent land use. Electric cars are obviously less bad than ICE cars, but just swapping out ICE cars for electric is not actually financially, socially, or environmentally sustainable.

        We should still have electric cars for the use cases (e.g., rural areas) for which you truly do need them, but the vehicle weight arms race (especially for trucks and SUVs) is getting out of control and we need the electric cars we would still have to be much smaller and lighter like this. Fewer electric hummers, more electric kei trucks, more electric trains, more electric bikes.

        • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I am a Republican and I hate their stance on electric cars, walkable cities, etc. For some reason, the party has taken an ignorant and hard stance against electric.

          Electric cars currently are not better for the environment in any measurable way. I am OK with that since the technology is growing. It will get much better. As we add solar panels to homes or nuclear power that will greatly help since we will not be burning fossil fuels.

          My republican friends all tease me because of my Tesla. In return, I took them for a ride and I will say it changed their opinion. They thought it would be slow and clunky. Even the model 3 is a rocket with great handling.

          People always make weird claims like oh, the range is so limited. I travel often for work and honestly, the range isn’t that big of a deal.

          I use to live in a larger city that had public transportation and it was much more walkable. Honestly, it was better than i had imagined. It was wonderful to complete more daily chores by walking. I have always liked to walk but it was also less stressful. I still had a car but I drove it once or twice every few months when I had to do something further away.

          The largest issue with electric cars is the cost and the ability to charge. When I lived in the larger city, charging was hard. To add it to my condo was going to cost 20K. That is a something that needs to be figured out and put in the laws. The building was just milking it and it would have not been cost effective.

          • Reptorian@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            I am a Republican and I hate their stance on electric cars, walkable cities, etc. For some reason, the party has taken an ignorant and hard stance against electric.

            Could you look at other stances too? It’s not just this.

              • Reptorian@lemmy.zip
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                1 year ago
                • No exceptions for rape and incest.
                • Supporting 1/6
                • Observation of them being worse for the economy after investigating state of economy for decades
                • Closing of majority-black voting poll locations.

                And this is a short list

                • MomoTimeToDie@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  No exceptions for rape and incest.

                  The alternative currently being no restrictions whatsoever, which, statistically speaking, is more relevant than a small % worth of exceptions. Make me Supreme overlord of the universe and you bet you’ll have a few exceptions.

                  Supporting 1/6

                  Burn the fucking government to the ground for all I care.

                  Observation of them being worse for the economy after investigating state of economy for decades

                  OK and? I’m not playing some strategy game here. Optimizing existence isn’t the goal. “the economy” isn’t some God we must appease.

                  Closing of majority-black voting poll locations.

                  Pretty fucking bottom of the barrel shit to be deciding a vote based on. Decide polling locations by throwing a dart at a map for all I care.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It shouldn’t be double but we all need to pay for the roads.

        only double would be a welcome change in the state of Ohio.

        • Car cost = $31/year
        • Truck (non commercial)=$46/year to $80/year
        • Hybrid car = $131/year
        • EV car = $231 year
          • Gawdl3y@pawb.social
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            1 year ago

            The damage to the road based on vehicle weight is exponential, though. A very heavy electric car causes very little additional wear to the roads when compared to a traditional car.

      • mriguy@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes, electric cars are heavy, but so is the average American vehicle, because people seem to love their enormous trucks. If you have a Model 3 or a roadster, it’s lighter than average.

        According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average weight of a car is around 4094 pounds. A small car weighs around 2600 pounds, while a large car weighs around 4400 pounds.

        • Tesla Model X Plaid - 5,390 pounds
        • Tesla Model X Standard Range - 5,185 pounds
        • Tesla Model S Plaid - 4,766 pounds
        • Tesla Model S Long Range - 4,561 pounds
        • Tesla Model Y Long Range & Performance - 4,416 pounds
        • Tesla Model 3 Long Range & Performance - 4,065 pounds
        • Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus - 3,582 pounds
        • Tesla Roadster - 2,723 pounds
        • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          You’ve got it right, but let me expand with the power of mathematical modelling. The average vehicle is, for the last 20 years or so, pegged at 4000 lbs when doing road damage calculations. A Chevy bolt EV is around 3800 lbs, or smaller than average, while Tesla vehicles are like you said. The fourth power law is what is used to estimate road damage, and the take away point from that is that all vehicles in and around that 4000 lb range and nothing, notta, moot, compared to large trucks and shipping rigs.

          As an example. Take the bolt EV at 3800 lbs, the F150 at 4200 lbs, and the F350 at 6764 lbs.

          The bolt and f150 would have 1900lbs and 2100lbs per axle respectively. Applying the fourth power rule the F150 does (2100/1900)^4= 1.49 times the damage of a Bolt EV. Meanwhile the F350 does , (3382/1900)^4 = 10 times the road damage.

          So then, is it true that the F150 and F350 will be made to pay 1.5 and 10 times the registration and fuel taxes of an EV like the Bolt? I have not yet seen this to be true. Now imagine how much damage a delivery van, or large shipping vehicle does.

          The other part of this is environmental damage, are these states going to find a way to charge for carbon emissions I’m the gas vehicles? Of course not.

          In Canada anyway fuel taxes go into general revenue, not to roads, that’s a whole different line of argument.

          • Mousedigits@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m curious and a nerd about this stuff. Why is road damage estimated using a fourth power law? What is the physical reasoning behind that?

          • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Compact sedans, and sedans overall are a dying breed. Car manufactures have largely replaced with with compact crossovers, or even worse egg shaped subcompact crossovers.

            A new Mazda 3 weights 100-300 pounds more than that 2016. The Buick “code” subcompact egg weighs about the same 3300 pounds. Your more typical Ford explorer weighs 4300-5000 pounds. The escape is surprisingly light at 3300-3900 pounds.

            Mazda is also an example of manufactures that try to keep things as light as possible to maintain handling. They also make the 2300 pound Miata.

      • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        Ah you think downvotes are your ally? You merely adopted the downvotes. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the upvotes until I was already a boomer, by then it was nothing to me but turmoil!