As it is in most other industries, the fact that dealerships are franchises--not directly owned by the company that makes the products they sell--is a huge part of the problem.

Seriously. The ignorance in some corners of the U.S. about all unions have done for workers is amazing.

This is why sprawl ultimately kills cities, even if it takes a while. Eventually, people start living far enough away from the “old” downtown that they look for jobs closer to home, so employers start locating in suburbs (in part because of lower taxes), and job centers start competing with one another (not directly,…

It’s only because all vehicles have grown precipitously over the past few decades that this is remotely true. Mid-sized cars of 2023 are the same size as large cars of 1998, likewise mid-sized SUVs, small cars of 2023 the same as mid-size ‘98ers, etc., etc. Meanwhile, despite all of our improved technology, and our…

“...the EV6 is just about the class of the small EV segment.” Small?? This thing is not small.

I agree it’s pretty unlikely, but the truth is that American cities literally can’t afford their own layout; it’s known as the suburban Ponzi scheme. Most suburbs (and their associated retail, office parks, etc.) don’t pay the full cost of their own infrastructure (it’s too costly for how few people it serves), so…

It’s definitely not a guiltless conscience that led to Norway’s big EV push. I can at least appreciate that they did it, likewise Netherlands’ cycling/train push. Contrast that with the Gulf oil states....

I think the magnitude of the difference between driving and transit in trip times in the U.S. is in part because our cities have been designed (or destroyed and redesigned) for cars. We should be actively redesigning our cities so that life can be lived easily without cars.

Leave cars for pleasure cruises or trips to…

Good transit should allow you to change where you want to go on a whim. That’s achieved with both frequency and route coverage; these two values can be in conflict, but a well-designed system will provide both.

Who made you have 6 kids, bud? “It’s none of your business how many kids I have”: a) you brought it up, b) it wouldn’t need to be if it didn’t impact other people via your consumption, however....

Two things:
1) I could definitely see it being applied only progressively on older vehicles from a certain date. I.e., you pay X% of your fuel bracket’s tax in the initial year, and are given X years to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle until you pay 100% of your bracket’s tax;
2) Your problem should be that we’ve…

Globally speaking, yes, it is. You love your WRX, great; why should the world be paying your externalities? The same argument applies to other, more efficient vehicles, too, just in proportion. It’s only fair.

I think there’s also a certain extent to which being in a car enables anti-social behavior in a way a bike doesn’t. It’s a lot easier to be a jerk with 150+hp, 3000lbs of metal and glass, and concealment providing a sense of anonymity than it is with your own two legs and exposure to your immediate environment. Not to…

Maybe we also update the gas guzzler tax so it applies to trucks, too? And have it apply to anything that averages <30mpg, at a starting fine of $2,000? There’s so much low-hanging fruit in reducing U.S. vehicle emissions. American lifestyles haven’t changed so much in the past 20 years that mid-sized sedans/wagons…

I think it’s more of a problem for big industrial users or denser developments—the latter of which are more climate-friendly, anyway—which need more than their own real estate to supply the requisite electricity. This, by the way, is mirrored in our other infrastructure needs, in reverse. Less-dense land uses need…

We’ve got some funny parallels. I was 6' in SEVENTH grade (imagine how I towered over everybody; I stopped about 6" later in 10th grade), and I grew up in older New England suburbs, too (Manchester, NH).

Genuinely not true. A sedan or lower-riding vehicle will hit all but the smallest kids (who shouldn’t be walking on dangerous roads alone, anyway) in the legs, while taller vehicles will hit them in the abdomen, chest, and head, making serious injuries/deaths more likely. Not to mention taller vehicles tend to be…

....I mean, more is still more, if only slightly so. Consider the counterfactual that, 10 years on, more people had switched from a 2013 Camry to a 2023 Camry hybrid: 316g CO2/mile vs. 170g CO2/mile.

As so, so many others have said, gas is too cheap here; the national average in 2023 of $3.54/gallon is only…

Seriously. How much of the road-based danger of letting kids walk/bike to school today is because parents these days insist on buying giant vehicles to protect their kids from the road-based dangers of giant vehicles? People causing fears to be self-fulfilling prophecies.

I think it’s just a product of most people not really caring about cars. Most people in the U.S. buy a car because they need one, not because they want one, and if an EV can promise long-term cost savings while being less environmentally-damaging than gas cars, that will win over a lot of buyers.