[onlooker]

found this article detailing that a new study found that prolonged exposure to air pollution can lead to brain damage even at low levels. Another perk of the car industry. Sorry to sound satirical but the mass production of cars to me is just horrible. Here is link:
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015/04/ ... 429970069/

[dissident]

found this article detailing that a new study found that prolonged exposure to air pollution can lead to brain damage even at low levels. Another perk of the car industry. Sorry to sound satirical but the mass production of cars to me is just horrible. Here is link:
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2015/04/ ... 429970069/

We should have electrified transport a long time ago. From rail freight to personal automobiles. Instead we had GM buying out and closing electric streetcar companies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mo ... conspiracy

It has been downhill all the way. Even if we burned fossil fuels at a 42% efficiency (typical for a power plant) and used the electricity for transport we would be using the fossil energy better than burning it at 25% efficiency in internal combustion engines.

People bitch about the range of electric cars, but spent a vanishing amount of their time driving beyond the city-suburb limits, which are well within existing electric car range. Even as coal power plants are being closed and regulators are elated about declining NOx emissions, the traffic congestion in many cities keeps increasing. So air quality is actually degrading. PM2.5 is emitted by cars in the form of soot and is also formed later from car emissions of VOCs and NOx (so called secondary organic aerosols).

[onlooker]

Good analysis dissident. On a visceral level seeing nowdays cars driving around in slow pace just seems so pointless almost like a chicken without it's head just walking around. I am sure in some cities one could probably get faster to where one is going by walking then driving car.