Electric Cars Won't Change Anything, Here's Why
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We did it, Patrick! We haven't changed anything in the city!
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CORRECTION: To cause as much road damage as a Hummer, you'd need 356124 fat men on freakishly heavy bicycles, not 35612. Missed a decimal there!
How?
That's a lot of fat men.
@@Bhaidostyaar Because: 21.3675 / 0.00006 = 356,124. Does this answer your question? o7
We can make this happen but we will need to go to Holland to get the beefy bicycles and Mississippi to get the...
@@thespectator1243 okay
"the buses had more issues than a Bethesda game on release day" Aisle 9 for burn cream.
I felt very related to when I heard it
“Hello, 911….”
I will bring glaciers from Iceland.
I'm sure Starfield will have a great launch
It just works
It's not just electric cars, the whole mobility concept needs to be restructured. We need more micromobility in the cities like bicycles, scooters, e-bikes and more public transportation options that accommodate for these.
true, era of cars is gone
IMHO, an e-bike with a trailer is the best for an adult person. Even works when you live in less densely populated regions.
@@Heisenburg17 hhhaaa!hahahaha there's more cars being produced than ever before
Yea, make the infrastructure good enough to make people value using it over traffic. Not 15 minute cities though, cause thats just a gov power grab under the guise of climate care...
Dude not everyone lives in cities, europe is extremely clustered and people shit on city life. Cars will be there for a long time, unless you wish for total societal collapse
in our country, belgium, we say "when the government promotes something as the best of best, you are getting screwed"
A friend of mine worked at a road-testing facility outside my city. He informed me that it is basically impossible to damage road surfaces using the car wheel bogie setup. And so they test with heavy truck bogies. It turns out that modern trucks in New Zealand do as much damage each pass as 26,000 car transits. If you removed trucks from the road, then roads basically would not degrade. And yet truck registration prices are only slightly higher than cars. If the true costs were born by trucks, there would be a lot more trains.
Idea: how about instead of electric cars, attach many individual cars together, and only have the cars on each end pull/push them all. Then make each car 10m long and able to fit 30 people in one. Then remove the batteries and power the cars with overhead powerlines.
This sounds suspiciously like another idea
Brilliant! Elon will announce this as his next, game changing innovation.
The -Carcinisation- Trainification of public transport innovations 😂
you could even replace the road with some kind of very low friction steel rails.
oh and put them on 2 metal beams.
Naming the buses "Ikarus" is poetic. They go beyond their limits and they catch on fire lmao
I came here to post that. I typed this: Ikarus dying by fire? Fckn really? I thought it was a joke until I saw the actual photos.
Ikarus was a Hungarian bus making company since a hundred years ago and its shine was in the Soviet era around '60-'89. Ikarus buses were sold not only to socialist countries but for across the world. On the infamuous pictures of evacuation of the city near Chernobyl, there were Ikarus buses as well. By the way, the first articulated bus used in public transportation was made by Ikarus too :) Unfortunatelly, the company gone in the 2000s (Volvo, Man and other big guys had more money), but there are still lot of Ikarus buses and trolleys running on the streets of Budapest.
@@otapi I was a bit sad when in the Chernobyl HBO series, they didn't used the Ikarus. I think they did it cause they wanted to make the scenes a bit more older-nostalgic and Ikarus 280 or others was more modern-rectangular at the time in look. Yet... it's pretty much misleading.
@@minidreschi2 the Chernobyl series was a goddamn minefield of storytelling decisions that were "more authentic than the real thing," like the emergency response meeting where the honcho went on a big rant about how we have to lie to the people because something something Lenin (just imagine how high your eyes would roll at a mirror-image propaganda piece with, like, a CEO lighting cigars with $100 bills and ranting about how we must ruthlessly exploit our workers for profit because something something George Washington) or the way Stellan Skarsgard's bureaucrat character repeatedly threatens Jared Harris' scientist character with arbitrary spur-of-the-moment execution (which would've been slightly more plausible if the show was set in the 1920s through 40s, but is utterly bizarre as a depiction of Soviet administrative culture of the 1980s). Presumably the showrunners were afraid that a Western viewing audience wouldn't have believed (or liked) how "normal" much of the actual 80s-era USSR would've seemed, so they decided to stretch or invent whatever differences they could think of, to make the "our blessed homeland / their barbarous wastes" framework easier to swallow.
@@otapi sadly only a few classic ikarus buses are in everyday service. BKV (the budapest public transportation company) retired the old buses, now we are left with 10 trolleybuses, usually 2 or 3 in service. But they can be seen at retro events.
Small correction. You can't put out a Class D fire with water. The water measurements you're referring to is probably the water used to *contain* the fire. Hope this helps love ya man
They cool it in a big tank of water I think. It can still self ignite if that cooling source is removed weeks later, but it does put the fire out by cooling the cells. Just imagine all the heavy metal polluted water and dangerous wrecked cars. Imagine the logistical nightmare if all vehicles were EVs. Try putting a big truck with a huge battery that's burning at 2500'C in a tank of water.
@@skywardsoul1178 damn that sounds kinda dumb. But kind of the only option
One thing that has changed recently here in Ontario, Canada, is that since social distancing became a thing in the past few years, more and more people are working from home now, and things are more decentralized. Our small town has grown to almost double its size in the past three years, and was not ready for it. This effects many things, like transit, cars, and power grid. How the town will adapt only time will tell, but transit is an issue and so is power consumption. This is happening across Ontario too, and I am sure elsewhere.
Yep, it's happening all over the world. Many people are tired of big cities and the pandemic gave them a way out. It's worth mentioning that it's just a small percentage of the population, big cities aren't going anywhere anytime soon. But that small demographic flow in terms of the total population, is often too much for small cities and villages.
I think we should blame more the lovely politicians and people that will sell out anyone for anything
They convinced everyone to buy diesel cars, then told us diesel is bad, so the price of it was pumped up. Seems the same trick with electric.
It's kind of a vicious circle, though. The politicians would be a lot less corrupt without megacorporations offering them plenty of money and power (or threatening them with political suicide if they are powerful enough). As it is now, the easier to solve problem is megacorporations and the laws defending them.
@@sharpvidtube Yes, the politicians are almost all lobbyists these days...they will sell out for agendas and $$$$€€€€
@@ekki1993 unfortunately, US anti-trust laws only rarely prevent monopolies, not oligopolistic cartels. With the wide reach of US firms, our corporate governance amd economic structure problems now occur for everyone
Nobody is selling out, You cant believe people actually believe cars are the way to go with transportation?
When I started to become aware of the inefficiencies of cars years ago, I tried looking for aggregate costs associated with vehicle infrastructure, not merely the cost of a lane, but all associated costs to support that lane. I couldn't find information, instead, being directed to the cost of personal ownership! It's hard to "see" the problem from a financial context, because the information is hidden in a SEA of misdirection.
I think you're referring to the lack of understanding of externalities that is plaguing people. The information on how much cities and states spend on highways is very very easily accessible, atleast in the United States
Pretty sure tech altar did a video on it in Berlin I think.
Roman concrete is self healing, that's why it lasts. Not a lack of cars.
I have been unable to find any sources for how many square miles of land are lost to property taxes in my county. Lost revenue is also a cost of roads! Not even to count the lost sales taxes from displaced businesses, wasted miles of school buses traveling roundabout routes, and so on
@@ibleminen Wow! Thanks for the recommend! This provides a very good comparison. It would be nice to find analysis like this for other places as well.
Electric cars will increase electricity consumption per household two times at least.
I'm a massive trolleybus enjoyer, they are so much better than regular buses in every way except that they require wires. I especially love the older ones, they can get a bit noisy but they make cool electric noises that are absolute music to my ears.
You are in the minority...
I love how cars were designed to be complimentary to public transportation yet because of car manufacturer lobying became the primary mode of transportation.
I think for the govt in 1950s they could build a road for $1b or run a train to suburb for $2b and $1b subsidy a year. . . . Despite what people think the cost to govt of transit per ride is more than just what a road costs. . . Yes the car costs person more but govts love building road and then letting people buy their own vehicle... . Cars where chosen by people and govts in many places it wasn't a lobbying conspiracy. .. When people wanted lawns and houses in 50s the govt said please don't but if you must you'r'e on yourr own out there we just will build a road. . .
Sure, there was definitely some lobbying, but not really as much as what other foreign manufactures do with their own countries. At least we don't have an engine displacement or age tax on vehicles like Japan does. From an economic standpoint, it checks everything a government loves. More cars means more spending which means more people working for said companies which equals "economy looks good". The more things being sold and the more wages being paid, the more tax the government can collect. I mean, look at the state of our public transit: it's either in disrepair or we have crazy people using it. You risk your well being on the New York metro and the one time I took Amtrak because it was cheap, someone stole the credit card reader on the food car so only cash. I agree though, we've gone too far into relying on cars for transportation and can't see us switching over too quickly which sucks. Can't wait till the lithium runs out.
@@mostlyguesses8385 I think it is not correct to say "when people wanted lawns and houses in the 50s". The very specific and homogenous way the suburbs are today and were conceived then are not what every individual at the time knew they wanted (and outside the US and Canada suburbs are most of the time less homogenous). Living in a own house in a suburb might be something people wanted but lawns seems to me like a very much "top down" created image and not very natural
Incentives to use public transport even when you own a car, such as discounts on annual insurance/registration on production of receipts, etc. Private vehicles are handy but they don't cause too much trouble if kept in private garages most of the time.
If I remember correctly, the big 3 american vehicle companies (Chevrolet, ford, general motors) bought all of the public transport and started killing it so people would buy cars. This is for USA only, not sure how it came to Europe.
Mass transit is an option for the countryside too. My grandparents remembered taking the train into the city; they could catch it from the village 2 miles from their farm in rural Nebraska. Certainly they needed to have a car around, or rather a pick-up truck, tractors, etc. But they didn't have to drive long distances with any of those; they could take the train. That's all long gone now, but it used to exist.
Yeah most of the problem with transit in rural areas is the "last mile problem". But if you just admit you can't solve that, then you can still provide decent service for some reasonable portion of travelers for some reasonable portion of trips. A lot of anti transit people seem to think if you can't solve the last mile problem there is no point of building any transit whatsoever, and that is ridiculous.
@@timseguine2 the last mile problem is the reason why the only three urbanists I respect are RM Transit, Alan Fisher, and CityNerd because these are the only three urbanists I have heard address the last mile problem and admit it’s ok if we don’t have a solution for that because having commuter rail, mass transit, and better zoning is more important than having mass transit for every man woman and child
I am in the UK and used to take a bus to go fishing. On the morning trip I would change buses in a small town and noticed how a number of people would drive in, park their car in the car park and take the bus to the large town some distance away. That would save them dealing with congestion and finding somewhere to park when they got there.
Yeah, but most farms aren't 2 miles from a train station.
@@nathangamble125 Build more train stations.
I was in California a few months ago and had to take an Uber about 50mi to go to a job. I got a guy driving a Tesla; we were driving through some pretty far flung areas and I asked if there were charging stations. He said sure; they are all over the place along the interstate. I asked where they get power for them, he told me, "Oh, they are all powered by diesel generators...:
Electric buses can be useful. For example in Lublin (which has very similar issues to the ones from the start of this video - old narrow roads between medieval buildings, lots of hills and valleys) we have trolleybuses, and they work great, but to enable them to jump between streets with traction they have small batteries. It's cheaper to add small batteries that are just big enough to cover the gaps than to build traction everywhere. It allows for more flexibility when designing routes.
In Toruń we have actually a lot of public transport. Many busses going everywhere and a lot of trams. But we don't have that much hills and roads are narrow only in few places. We also have good bike lanes in the city
One thing that I love about your videos is that they’re entirely freestanding. You don’t take anything you established in other videos for granted in the next one. You reexplain every concept. Makes them very easy to send to others and helps with memorizing things.
The reason he repeats his talking point as much as he does is because he has little to no research backing up his claims (he CLEARLY hasn't done enough hw), so he has to hammer you with the same talking points over and over again so that lazy viewers can form a dialogue tree of things to say whenever the topic of EVs comes up -- that's how propoganda works. Did you notice that he hardly bothered to present the other side's arguments? I'm tired of all these biased one-sided youtube videos that just make half-assed false equivalencies based on half-assed facts and figures that obviously, clearly, and weakly present a brainwashed point of view. I would rather he dive into competing arguments and conflicting research and let that explain WHY he has come to the conclusions he's come to. Why is he saying EVs = worse roads when no one is making that argument? How does that prove EVs are bad? Americans aren't going to use public transport. Sorry. It's not going to happen. Are we supposed to just continue polluting the planet then? EVs are the next best thing (with todays tech), therefore road wear and tear is part of the equation. Saying cars are bad for roads shows how poorly he's thought out this video. The worst part is I agree with him lol. But holy shit this video presents our side so badly. Please, less fat people jokes and more science.
Yeah that is so great that he is hammering the same misleading or straight up wrong things into his fans 😍
Holy cow, these replies are really annoying.
@@creedbrattton4890well I wouldn't say it that badly but I agree that I far more enjoy videos that try to present both sides of the argument in good faith. The interesting thing in this video was the road damage table. so, a 9 ton heavy vehicle weighs only twice of a Hummer but does 20 times more road damage. That means that from the road damage point of view replacing cars by heavy busses is a bad idea (it might be a good idea for many other reasons).
Honestly it feels like this channel only has 3 videos which are being rephrased. I can't complain tho. The way he does it entertains me every time
"more issues than a bethesda game on release day." Damn Adam, thats probably the most brutal assessment for anything i have ever seen in my entire life.
At first I thought "Oh man, another car bashing. Well, let's hear what he has to say ...". But you actually pointed out the biggest problem. I started as a car fan. Away from ICE-cars. However, I soon realized, that switching from ICE-cars to cars won't help much. We NEED better public transportation. It HAS to be the default.
The trolley bus is underrated. It does the job. They even come with gas engines so they can work where wires are not available or an accident is up ahead.
There are also trolleybuses with a small battery. Since they already have an electric engine, and are only intended to run a few dozen km at max off the battery, they are not heavier and they can charge while running from the wire. Since the batteries are not put to heavy use often, they don't degrade quickly and are unlilely to spontaniously combust.
@@kaengurus.sind.genossen They've been experimenting in Sweden with under road chargers with some bus routes using big induction loops, it did quite well apparently. Sweden has an abundance of green* energy from solar, wind and *nuclear (if you consider it green. I do, it's far cleaner than gas or coal and you need far less land to produce gigawatts of the stuff). Their public transport network is also mostly state owned so it's easier to implement such things.
The wires are just so ugly.
@@kaengurus.sind.genossen yes that is true. There are so many options and configurations.
@@marc5741 the wires are fine. My city has streetcars and wires are all over the place.
For countryside people : The closest big city next to my small village has "relay parking" : You park outside the city in a basically dead area, and for the price of a day public transport ticket you get : - A full day of parking - Bus tickets for anyone in your car The parking has a dedicated bus line that runs every 15 min at least (down to 5min during peak hours). It is much more convenient than struggling for parking in the city center : You drop your car there, go your merry way with public transit, then come back for less than 2h in a city center spot. This is how you tackle transit problems.
Doesn't work for large volumes. GO Transit in Toronto, where I live, is already the largest provider of parking in all of North America (72,000 spots). Pre covid, all spots are taken by 8 a.m. because it's impossible to serve the volume a train line can move with parking. This idea only works in low populated areas.
@@maxjohnson8659 the problem here is more Toronto than relay parking I think. My example is from France, where we get dense city centers and then sparse country sides. If Toronto is a suburban style, low density city, then that's more likely the issue. You get public transit for the high density center where you don't need a car, and for the countryside people that absolutely need one relay parking allow them to transfer smoothly from car to public transport without crowding the city center
Fun fact: The best transport city, Hong Kong, doesn't even have a single "Park and ride" in their whole system
It's not the case in the UK as a family My city has a tram system (cheapest public transit option) however it cost £8 for a family day ticket while my family can just park their car at city centre for just £5 a day
@@ARandom_Toad but Hong Kong is a mega city with next to nothing near it. I'm talking for the euro style where you have one city of like 100k inhabitants surrounded by village of 2 to 10k inhabitants in a 10 to 45min drive range. Those villages often have a very low density, making a comprehensive transit system is impossible. There's like one or 2 stops in the historic center and that's it. Which means that if you want to take public transport to the big city from your village, you have to drive for like 5 to 10 min, get the main line, then get another bus to get to your precise destination ... In short, you'll just drive. But with the relay park, you can drive to the city (since you have to take the car anyway to get from your home back to civilization) and then public transport, keeping car out of the city center
For the castle bus problem, they could perhaps use a diesel-electric bus. Something like Edison Motors is doing for logging trucks where the small battery allows the bus to take off and then the diesel generator powers the electric drive motor(s).
Yup. Well said. This stuff seems like a lazy bandaid so these politicians can call it a day and do nothing about fixing the infrastructure in these major urban areas. I’d love to see more public transit options like you’ve described. Job well done on the video.
We have an old meme of one of our politicians: "The most important thing is to do something". The job of a modern politician is to stuff commoners brains with random floof, so they can continue lobbying, lining their pockets.
you can still have car infrastructure and good city design. One does not mean the other has to fully disappear. Cars are here to stay whether we like it or not. So it is best to make the cars, that will never go away, as clean as possible. You cannot expect everyone to use bicycles and public transport all the time. Just not realistic.
I'm a geologist and I had taken tons of flack for years for saying that lithium mining (for batteries) in salt flats may be as damaging regarding water use as the oh so hated fracking for oil extraction. Indeed it may be even worse since the areas where it takes places are arid to begin with and need the fresh water even more. And let's not mention the cobalt mining in África with slave and child labour. Like some guy said: "We didn't introduce the electric car to save the environment. The auto industry introduced it to save itself"
Geothermal brine water at the Salton Sea and in Canada MafiousBJ? Is just filtering lithium out of the mineral-loaded hot brine water an environmental catastrophe (youTube: "Lithium Valley" | Sunday on 60 Minutes)? What about cleaning up toxic coal mine waste ("In coal country, a new chance to clean up a toxic legacy" [Washington Post, 19 May 2022])? Also not all lithium batteries use large amounts of cobalt (lithium iron phosphate do not). In the mean time the planet just set an all time (in human civilization) new record high of atmospheric CO2 of 425 ppm and many big cities have air pollution problems. As population increases it gets worse.
i think the main environmental argument with electric cars is greenhouse gas emissions not general environmental damage
The vast majority of lithium mining doesn't occur in Africa
@@macaque791 mate, I'm a geologist in Argentina, I know where lithium mining happens and will happen. If you actually read my comment you will notice I mentioned "cobalt mining" together with "Africa", not lithium.
@@peterh5165 mate, if we really wanna save the planet, we should use bikes, no joke. The Canada case is a very specific deposit with particular conditions. You can't make the same assumptions for every salt flat deposit or replicate that form of extraction everywhere. Lithium ore mining in Australia is technically less polluting for water but it's still open pit mining which is dreaded by the common folk. Electric cars are better than gasoline ones, but they are still cars. Steel and rubber are mandatory so you keep those industries the same. We should also start 100% recycling every battery. And who TF mentioned coal? Why would we even use coal if our target is being green? We are not in Victorian England, coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel by far. The fact that Germany has re-started using coal plants to generate electricity makes every electric car there basically an indirect emitter of CO2. Of course coal is an environmental catasthrophe, I didn't even bring it up.
I've been moving around Europe for 3 years now, after a lifetime all over the US. The best experience I've had is with trains and buses connecting walkable areas. When the buses and trains have space for e-bikes, it's phenomenal.
That's awesome to hear... I'm Swedish, and If I exclude public transit, I use a normal bike like 80% of the time, a rental bike system 15% of the time, and whenever I go on the bus or train and require a vehicle to go the last 10-20km I use a electric longboard those last 5%. It's easy to bring on the bus/train and although we have dedicated spots for bikes on our trains, those can get pretty crowded during the summer. So to make it work, I think vehicles like skateboards, unicycles and scooters have their place in modern public transit. :)
I think what Europe really needs now is direct train connections between larger cities of different countries, with all tickets of international trains easily available on one platform. Also, it should be tax-free, while flying will have higher taxes again.
Completely different comparisons to the US. For example, the largest EU country by land mass is France, which would fit inside of Texas. Texas has a population of 30 million. France is 65 million. Your busses/trains/bikes works in France because you have so many people in such a small area. In areas of the US which are similar, you have similar set-ups. Think NYC. The problem with NYC is a significant number of people who work there don't live there. Then there's the issue of taxes/crime. All the major US cities that would benefit from this are losing population. NYC lost over 5% of it's population in the last year.
@@janofb If the US can manage large car-centric infrastructure, it can also manage strategically placed public transport. In places with low population density, a central hub with a park-and-ride might be a solution.
Yeah I know that Italy is well connected by train
I just don’t understand why Americans and politicians are so afraid of making public transportation. I would love to bike everywhere and see beautiful foliage plants small businesses on my commute to work. I really hope I see a more walkable U.S by the time I’m older.
U have this reality 😌
Great video and great info. Also a very good job on your story telling. I kept watching until the end. Have a great day sir!
I'm glad you bring up how cars are still essential in the countryside, most people seem to forget that we exist lol.
Agreed. Around here it's a scattering of towns with populations between 1k-15k with cornfields in between. Even if there was perfect bicycle infrastructure in every town the weather would make it impractical/impossible for almost half the year. I definitely want society to be less dependent on cars because I hate driving in urban areas after so many years in the country. It's also annoying when people don't realize it's the conditions that you have to drive in that make cars suck, not the driving itself. If I had to fight my way through heavy traffic every day to get anything done I'd hate it, but since I don't it's amazing to be able to go to the grocery store anytime I want, get far more groceries than I could ever carry by myself and be home in an hour.
@@DoggyHateFire perfectly said.
In German online spaces you get very nasty types that basically deliver a wordy version of : die then. Or sth. I am enthusiastic when it comes to cycling. Made it 45 km home after a Party. One of these asses wanted to gaslight me with wordplay concerning roads that there was actually a path without lots of 100kmh cars. There wasn't. Pirmasens Landau. Plenty green enthusiasts ignore and dismiss issues and pretend cycling is all great and trains are all cheap. For Pirmasens Landau the train Is pricier than driving too, even if you got only 2 in a car. And it's not cherry picked. It matters. To me.
not in the US we don't, the senate will not allow it, nor will the supreme court justices they appoint. you got extra votes for your empty lands and big trucks in rural states, while millions of people in densely populated states get rural priorities forced upon them.
A lot of America’s ready to shut down USPS, too. simply don’t matter, to a lot of people.
Really glad you mentioned having a car in the countryside. I grew up in a small town, getting to the only public transportation service (train station) was a 3km walk for me. Having a car is a necessity there.
@@TheGahta the opposition is how do you justify the use of materials and waste of resources to run a line between towns under 1k population that might be over 10 miles away from one another. I live in a sub 300 pop town and the closest grocer is 13 miles from us, closest pharmacy is 23, closest hospital is 30. Our roads suck, you get flat tires multiple times a year -- better use of money is just repaving (or paving them in the first place) roads, upgrading our sewer system and treatment plants, new utility poles are sorely needed, and helping people update their knob and tube electricity. But we can't, because the town makes no money and there's not enough people living here to tax it out of them. Where do you get the money for the gas to run a regular bus schedule in rural communities? Rural communities that still use horses to get around, at that. We've got more horse parking than we do electric car chargers lol. I think there's a single one 3 towns over.
The point of cars, and how they got so popular, is that they offer freedom of movement. You don't need much infrastructure for a few cars (asphalt is nice and all but dirt roads work just fine). Any train line is a million dollar project, but a car is just a couple thousands. And the economy of scale only kicks in if you have REALLY big numbers. An inner-city metro line needs tens of thousands of passengers daily to even begin to be a valid option, and t only really becomes a good one with hundreds of thousands. Still, if you do need a car where you live or due to your lifestyle/work, also consider motorcycles. With the exceptions of places where snow is a real concern, they work just fine, do nearly everything a car does (they can't really move load beyond what two people can carry on backpacks, but still), and are much more efficient in every way.
Or you could use a motorbike, I've been fine with just a bike during my time at a village. A car for one person is dumb, and only western countries are stupid enough to make it common.
@@TheGahta lady boy sniffed my Gooch tonight, That'll be a great memory for me Lady boy sniffed my poop tonight, That'll be a great memory for you hey hey Doo do doo do do do Hey hey Doo do doo do do do
If there is a decent train station, it would be easy to ride a bike for the 3 km - at least if there is a suitable bicycle path or road
Another great video! All your videos are educational, fascinating and wonderfully done. Many thanks!
Just an FYI the picture you provided for Bart is actually SF MUNI light rail and its actually their legacy F Market Line. The BART line is actually a subway where that picture was taken, those grates on the road surface are ventilation for the tracks. Used to work a block away from where that picture was taken on 1st and Market.
I live in rural Ireland, our public transit is basically non-existent, never had a car and been a motorcyclist my entire adult life. I've been riding for over 7 years now and I still haven't needed to get a car licence. I do all my shopping on it, I commute with it, and I save not only a tonne of money on fuel and maintenance, but I also take up much much less space on the road. Every winter I get a few people asking me why I'm out riding a bike in the rain and explain that I don't drive and the reaction is always the same... "Really? But what if it rains"? It's raining now. "What if you need to do shopping?" I'm shopping now. What if you need to carry heavy stuff? I ask someone with a van. "What if it's freezing?" I won't go if there's ice, else I'll layer up. It's not that hard.
So you just live your whole life only buying a backpacks worth of groceries at a time? Sounds like a pain in the ass.
@@bradthunderpants3283 Motorcycles can carry more stuff than that, I'm in a third world country and people deliver groceries in motorcycles, you can have a trunk in it. Also, if cities had essential amenities close to where people live, they can bike and walk there and buy necessities for a few days, I'm a 5 minute walk away from a Grocery store, so I buy what I need for the week most of the time.
So, you and the family never go out together?
@@laurie7689 Going out together does not have to entail using a car.
@@bradthunderpants3283i have 2 motorcycle 1 for leisure or weekend ride and 1 for workhorse The workhorse alone can hold enough grocery for 2 people and would last a week And the cost of trip are negligible No more wasting time looking and paying for parking, paying more for petrol or for toll The only reason i owned a car because i live with my parent whom are retired and need care to drive wherever they wanna go like hospital for example But all in all i ride more than driving. Usually i can count how many time i drive per year
I bought a 2nd gen Chevy Volt for one reason: to save money on gas. I live 28 miles (45 kilometers) from work and was using 16 (about 64 litres) gallons of gas a week. Now I put 6 gallons in the tank every other month and my power bill went up only $20 a month. I don't have any delusions about saving the earth, I'm just saving $200 - $400 a month depending on the price of gas. It has made a huge difference to me and my family.
Probably preaching to the choir here, but I think your situation is where there may be some justification to have cars. And likely, if you had public transit nearby that could quickly get you quite close to home and work, you'd probably even consider that. As Americans, we always say the problem is density, but I think we also assume the density has to be exceptionally high, when in fact it just has to be high enough, and local transit fast and regular enough, that people see a benefit in taking transit over cars.
@@nickmonks9563 Density isn't exactly the show stopper. Say you want a train stop in your suburb. People would think no one would use it that way and they would be right. But, if that train station is connected to the mall where there is enough parking then it's a different story. In most suburbs, there is already a mall and attached to the mall a huge parking area, that's mostly empty except on holidays and weekends. But no train station. So basically, if properly planned, the entire township can drive a comparatively short distance, park at the train station and grab a train into the city. Then, those large parking facilities makes more sense. No need for 12 lane highways connecting suburbs to the city. Just some multinationals taking a hit on their revenue stream.
just make sure you replace the 25,000 dollar battery at least once per year or you are in danger of becoming an electronic bomb
@@nickmonks9563 Density of the right people. Not everyone is decent out there, and you have to add that to your calculations on potential ridership.
@@norneaernourn8240 If you don't like your neighbor, you likely will avoid your neighbor or just move. The problem is self replicating.
We have Solaris busses in Poland and they work fine, public transport is actually good (not counting scheduling issues), cheap and they're everywhere and you can easily go to other parts of the city. We also have trams, they're good too
I smell corruption in this electric car dumpster.
In my early thirties, living in a not so small european city, I still have never felt so specifically targeted with one of your videos than getting to hear the AoE music in the background :O Just wish more people would see the whole system of transportation being in this broken state so change could accelerate
I see the problem, yet I will not give up the convenience of my car. I am sure the majority of people see the efficiency benefits railroads bring, but it simply isnt and will never be as convenient as to go to your parking spot, get in your vehicle where you dont have to worry about meeting some guy loudly arguing with his girlfriend on the phone or someone that hasnt even heard of the word "deodorant" and driving directly to your destination. I, for one, value solitude very highly and unless there is a public transport option that gives me the possibility to be in my own private space, I simply will avoid using it.
@@lordhoden all power to you but very selfish indeed, your actions are
@@lordhodenThat's your choice, but understand that a lot of us /don't/ feel that owning a car is more convenient. Parking is getting increasingly scarce and more expensive around me. Parking lots are ugly and depressing. Gas is crazy expensive. I was just the victim of a (minor) hit-and-run; the low-level insurance I was able to afford probably won't cover repairs. I haven't been able to take my car on road trips for the last few years because it's too unreliable. We're not trying to take other people's cars away. We're trying to get better options for those of us who simply /cannot afford/ to keep owning a car. And look on the bright side! I'm kind of a bad driver anyways. When I'm riding a bus or train or bike to my destination, that will be one less bad driver for you to contend with, one less car to fight with for parking, and one less car adding to noise pollution.
@@lordhoden it is better indeed, at the end you are living a healthier life by not using your car, they can be parks all around to make walking very pleasent, and when you live in this kind of city you don't want to return to car centric ones
@@vermart9607 I live in a village of 3500 people and I assume you live in atleast a bigger city than this. So I cannot see the same issues that you do. For example, I have a lake nearby, there are plenty of parks and hiking trails around here. Parking isn't too big of an issue, there are still some places you can park for free if youre knowledgeable in those things. Maybe, if i lived in a big city, I too would think differently...
My city switched its bus network from diesel to battery busses about five years ago. They’ve had their problems but they have been mostly great. In below zero weather too, without diesel heaters. The air quality has greatly improved because of it. Yes, trolley busses would have been better but putting up wires everywhere would not have been politically feasible unfortunately. But let’s not make perfect be the enemy of good.
Doesn't matter, this guy thinks black and white. This bad this good. He acts like everything that is not electric train is worst pos humanity ever created. And he thinks he can change minds. Lmao.
9:31 Wow! An AoE2 soundtrack in a non-AoE2 related video 🤯 That was a rare catch in the wild! I liked it 😊 I'm a huge fan of one lane per direction highways, with occasional overtaking opportunities. If nobody can just go faster, the traffic is being way calmer. Of course, some roads may demand 2 lanes per direction, but I think that's the upper limit of feasibility.
Something that is looked over a lot is what kind of batteries are used. They are lithium batteries. Lithium mining releases a lot of toxic fumes into the air. And, though the batteries may contained, when lithium begins to decay and break down, it becomes very combustible with water. If for some reason, the containers for those batteries get broken and allow moisture to build up in them over time, those batteries may explode. I'm sure companies like Tesla have thought of that, but things wear down and break over time.
Bad news for humid environments. In winter in Poland having snow is normal thing
Not nearly as bad as having a gasoline car explodes. Which happens way too frequently not to mention the amount of gas car fires.
@@bjk6574shut it biden supporter
@bjk6574 Gas cars don't explode, they burn. Lithium also doesn't explode, but the speed and violence with which it happens makes it a closer comparison. Plus you basically can't put them out. Plus a gas fire even if not controlled will exhaust itself after a couple of hours, lithium fires can last *days* . So no, while no fire is desirable, lithium is worse.
I think the space argument is the best one here. Definitely deserves more focus.
The other points are mainly feel good points for rollin' coal pick-up drivers.
Rest of his arguments are just for people who look for reason to hate on EVs and don't want to think about them too much
I mean, most of his videos on public transportation are about the space problem.
There is so much space on the planet that is human free its mind boggling. Why people chose to cluster $uck themselves in cities has more to do with how government set it up and just like a sweet candy left on the driveway it will attract a massive amount of ants.
I love how every video ends with train and public transit which isn't wrong but quite funny.
For me, electric/hybrid vehicles could be a good option for rural communities. I commute into the city by rail for work, but I live in a rural community several miles away from the nearest train station. If some of the technical issues with electric vehicles are resolved, they could be a good option for people in rural areas where high density town planning and comprehensive public transport aren’t as viable an option.
Yeah you could drive the few km to a station and ride the train into the city
Why do you need a car? Couldnt you achieve the same goals with an e-bike/scooter and a backpack?
@@zachweyrauch2988 Not everyone has the time to ride longer distances by car
@@zachweyrauch2988 lmfao. I can tell you have never lived in rural America when you say that. Try living 30 miles out in the boonies with poorly maintained roads and tell me how well your electric scooter goes
@@natel7382 Do you realize there are other countries than the US
I think you nailed that ad transition. Good stuff all around.
As a hungarian from Pest County, I'm really glad that you brought up the topic about the Buda Castle buses; although I really hope they won't install overhead lines inside the castle (I guess it would defeat the point of those smaller batteries so they won't)
I think another issue is that instead of trying to figure out a way to reduce the amount of energy we need to get from point a to point b we just decided to "swap" the type of energy. Maybe if we were able to shrink the distance from point a to point b by making everything closer and reduce the mass by not having hundreds of pounds of vehicle we'd have a better solution
True. After 1950 we went from expecting to travel 2 miles a day to work in hour, to 20 in half hour. This demands major use of energy. I admit the job market specialized so naturally people had to travel farther, a aluminum refining engineer needs to work at the only aluminum plant in the country not just the local textile mill.. . . I don't see a solution. . It's like air travel, that's never gonnna be low energy either, to hop to another continent in 4 hours is by nature energy intensive. . . . I have hope cell phones can make walking and biking a full hour a joy not a chore, I remember walking in silence in 80s and this can make a huge difference. Same with ebikes.. . . So maybe there is a better way if we re train ourselves from cars. . . But no govt will pay people to walk hour, or bike hour, they just yell and tax cars, this is not showing people a better way this is just gouging the middle class who use cars . . .. Cars are pretty amazing and 90% use em, Adam acts like getting 90% to where they want is nothing, he's yelling at a working system and implying it's awful. Texans are richer than Belgians, weird to lecture Texans that their system sucks.. . .. Our houses could shrink, I live on a 8x25ft sailboat, so 200ft2, yet most houses are 2000ft2, we're trained to want the houses our grandparents wanted when needed storage, rooms to gut animals in, room to boil water for clothes washing, and room for 6 kids,, ,,, , But Adam is wrong to think transit can work in US or most or rich west, rich people don't want to slip on icy path and overall spend hour getting to work, rich people want cars for big reasons... ..
@Mostly Guesses yeah, I dont think cars can be elimiminated altogether. When they work they work. Its just the US country was made where the solution to all transportation costs is a car. Going to work at a specialized facility possibly in the middle of no where? Use a car. Going to pick up just some eggs or milk at a convienience store or pick up some takeout? A bike or just your legs should be viable.
@@water2770 ... Despite the hooplah W Europe hasnt cut car use much, 70% of workers get to work by car. Basically nonpoor people don't like walking on icy paths to wait 5 minutes in wind to ride 20mph to then walk again to get to work. . .Vs a magically warm box, with music, with coffee in holder, chatting with family, not breathing in virus and farts from strangers who may rob or rape you. No surprise, anyone earning $20000 wants a car, Europe hasn't solved this, its weird we never look at their percentages just pretty videos of busy dutch downtowns never the bad parts of belgium........ Add in old people fear breaking a hip, and familys with child dont want to lug stroller, simple biology means this 20% and 20% (anyone with child under 10) will want a car... . . . . . ... Its like asking "For the earth will you grow all your own vegetables?" Only about third would do this , others are busy or lazy. Till everyone grows own veg then no cars will be around . ..... . I sound pushy, just pushing back against the smugness that Eruope has solved car use, I wish... . . I walk, I chose to simplify life but most people have hi thresholds for complication its amazing... EVs will simplify car use, less breakage. Uber does let the rare car user skip both car ownersrhip and trnasit usage, thats a win. ..... . . Anywhere North of Washington DC in USA has 5 months of freezing mornings, Amsterdam and London and Paris and Madrid have 1 month, as Minnesotan the idea of familys walking to bus 15 minutes reliably as way to live IS DANGEROUS AND SCARY, US weather is more extreme, its like Switzerland where car use is high...... Darn reality sucks.....
Yes, walkable cities explained to physicists.👍❤🤓
EVs are tremendously more energy efficient than their combustion counterparts. That said, an e-bike is still drastically more energy efficient by virtue of not being a giant metal box. If you run the energy conversion on the energy in a litre of petrol, you can make comparisons. A small/efficient ICE car gets 40 mpg, a small/efficient EV gets the equivalent of 140 mpg, and an e-bike gets the equivalent 1500 mpg. Interestingly, electric bikes are also more efficient than acoustic bikes since the human metabolism is similarly efficient to a car engine.
Thanks for saying this. The truth is, modern life itself is unsustainable, no amount of “electric conversion” is going to change anything if we don’t fundamentally redesign our approach to transportation.
The problem isn’t transportation, it’s major companies polluting
@@saheel1850 Hey, the problem can be both, you know? Pollution can have multiple leading causes! For the US, transportation is behind 29% of greenhouse gases, higher than any other individual factor.
@@saheel1850 this isn’t a debate on pollution. It’s a debate on getting people to places in a cheaper and more accessible way. Pollution is a side effect of car dependency that has gotten out of hand.
Climate and environmental "experts" have been saying this for at least 40 yrs that I know of.
@@777Outrigger It useless. They think they are better humans just because they listen to con men
Excellent video. Fully agree. I would add that the desire to switch to electric cars is based on the fact that the politicians want to support car manufacturers. We are swapping one kind of mobile metal box powered by gas to one powered by battery. Ideally, the number of cars of all types should be reduced and money put into delivering decent public transport.
That’s also because these car manufacturers contain corporate lobbyists that directly donate to their political campaigns and political causes. The fact that Republicans are being funded by these soulless oil corporations like Chevron and Democrats are being funded by soulless car conglomerates like Ford and Stellantis just goes to show the problem. These politicians are not in any American’s best interest. They only care about money.
Dear adam, would you like to talk about traffic monstrosity in south & southeast asia that are still dependant on motorcycles & cars? (Motorcycle took the majority of the traffic, wich led to high traffic related accident) These are pretty interesting topic that only a small amount of people noticed & covered
Honestly, at that point listening to Adam venting his exasperation with all the wrong in urban transportation is just a coping mechanism, but I need that echo chamber between sessions of biking through traffic jams.
The joys of slipping through a standstill traffic jam in a bike. Apparently, someone did an travel time experiment in NYC a few years back, and discovered that in Manhattan, walking is just about as fast as driving
@@Demopans5990 The joy sitting in my Car with AC on. And then my freedom to bei Independent from the bus timetable.
@@Dracultepes and with better city planning, you’d actually be happier in your car! If we remove most people from their cars, it leaves only the people who want to drive, so you won’t be dealing with as many 67-year old grandmothers running a red light during a left turn and almost T-boning you (which happened to us once).
@@marko_ys I think the most people want Drive. Its very convenient. And no Public transportation can reach this level.
@@Dracultepes Yes, there will be people who want to drive. Personally, I really just want a way to not have to wait 16 years before actually being able to go out for even a slushie by myself. Also, it’s not fun to drive when you have lots of idiots who should stay off the road, but can’t because everything is designed to only be accessible by car.
I think the first half of this video will trigger a serious red herring response, as many of the issues mentioned there are not inherent to EV, but to the limitations of our current EV technologies. The information is IMHO the second part, which explains why even a future with "perfect" EVs is still obviously flawed and unsustainable in many ways...
Yeah, unfortunately he inflated those arguments too much and the actual good argument will probably get lost.
the thing that really bugs me is: why would the fire department use thousand of liters of water instead of foam (like they use at airports) to put out an EV fire. you don't use water on an electric fire. (at least our fire departments don't)
@@ChristiaanHW Still city infrastructure needs to change.
I watched first half and it's the same as his other videos about electric vehicles, missing the point, exaggerating problems, not talking at all about problems of "better" (in his very limited approach) options at all.
For example 2:44 - unless he is one of the parents who had to go uphill both ways it is just a lie and electric vehicle can actually get back some energy by doing same route downhill. Electric vehicles have also better torque at low rpm and don't generate more noise or pollution when doing so. It would be great in city if bus starting uphill wouldnt be so loud and wouldn't burn so much more fuel to do that 4:44 - yes, that's why EVs have advanced heating/cooling solutions that literally solve that problem with little effort. If it is -20 outside neither you or your battery like that so they just heat up the car Further in video the more problems it just shows, you "have to" replace whole battery in used car because range is lower than in a new car while in reality you don't have to. You can recycle batteries, though Tesla makes that harder and harder. Fires are not that common but sure do sound scary 6:33 - totally normal to assume that so many cars would catch fire, it totally ever happened. Tesla, Leaf or whatever 100% all combust after ADAC crash tests. They don't but listening to him makes you believe that is happening 7:41 - how tf model S, equal to Tahoe so quite a bit lower than Hummer, destroy road almost 2x as much as Hummer. Literally not true even on the thing he shows but talks something completely different Chevy Tahoe's in table he is showing - 3.6x average car. Hummer H2 - 21.4x average car. Somehow he calculated that to 1 Hummer - 36 612 people, Model S - 59 575 people. How
Informative, funny, great quality video... I'm subscribed! Thanks : )
I like your straightforward honesty. Very refreshing
I might not agree with you on everything, but your videos are quite good. Edit: As a fat man, I'm glad I was used as a unit of measurement lmao.
What is it that you don't agree with?
To all of you asking, this is what I atleast disagree with at least (not to do with the video): He thinks that Russian imperialism is worse than US imperialism. Both bad absolutely, but dude, US has done SO SO much more coups and interventions and warcrimes around the globe. It's not even comparable. Just because you don't like Russia, doesn't mean you need to fully side with America. His transit videos are great tho.
@@JoeMakaFloe There are safer variants of Lithium ion battery with less burning potentials... But yeah most of his points still stands
@@BS-bd4xo I don't think USA is worse than Russia, they are just as bad, or both have worse aspects than the other.
@@EgnachHelton yea but the other variants are not as economically viable. They all have either lower energy density by volume or mass. The added cycle longevity and/or temp range stability is great, but energy density is king in the battery market. I am also not sure about safety with the other variants, but what I can say is that all the popular variants use liquid electrolytes, which, while recyclable, are very expensive to recycle. I've done some thorough-ish studying on the progress on solid state lithium batteries, and while they appear very promising, a viable combination of anode, cathode and electrolyte hasn't been identified yet or made outside lab conditions. Instead of relying on advancements, I think it would be a better idea to manage what is accessible now.
This man got the biggest beef with cars and I love it 😂
because they're fucking terrible
Every single video ends with trains or public transport.🤣🤣
Mr. Kovacs - thanks for your very intriguing videos about cars vs. public transit. In my small (90,000 pop) city in California cars are about the only option. I lived in Los Angeles for 5 years and transportation is a nightmare. When I visited Tokyo and used its trains and buses extensively, it felt like utopia. Carry on the good work!
Thank you for a great video! I see most large cities have similar problems. Here in Moscow the municipality entirely replaced the city's large trolleybus fleet with electric buses. There's also a growing number of hydrogen buses that are slowly phasing out their diesel counterparts. As a former resident of a highly aitomobilized country, I do NOT miss driving to/from work.
CAR IS THE ULTIMATE FREEDOM , LATE NIGHT BOOTY CALL CANT BE ACHIEVED AT 2AM ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
The main issue is that it's a very complex problem which would require complex, multifaceted solution, but it's much easier to sell people on shiny novelties that won't solve anything. And it's much harder to sell people on ideas which they THINK will inconvenience them, even if it would actually be more convenient, like public transport... I love my car and I'd choose it either way even if it was more convenient for me to take a bus bc I like driving, but most people don't actually like cars or driving.
People are complex. The engineering is the easy part.
I live in mexico And we all ready have problems with public transport because of robbery’s Not everywhere is save in the world to do that I think adam is a bit in a privileged position I love his videos and the ideas a really good but not everything is perfect sadly
Public transport is not convenient, at least for me, there are some problems with it that cannot be solved. Of course, the government could make cars even less convenient or, if the density is high enough, both cars and public transport would become even less convenient and then public transport may become more convenient in a sense that I would rather get kicked in the balls than shot, but I would choose neither if given the option.
Tech bro mentality in a nutshell. Endless innovation will eventually save us rather than trying to tackle the issues in the safe and boring way (Just remember the Tesla Hyperloop idea)
@@critickman metromini moment
I grew up in Vancouver BC (home of lots and lots of hills) and most of the transit lines were trolley buses! They're great, as long as the poles don't jump off the wires in the middle of an intersection, which happened distressingly often.
That's when the backup engines come in handy
A reasonably sensible design choice (at least for more modern implementations where the pantograph is preferred over the pole even for trolly busses, to my understanding), is to have the bus contain a capacitor bank (Not a battery, capacitors have their own issues but 'abrumptly turning the vehicle into a fireball' is a lot lower down the scale of probability), and to just... not wire the intersections. (or at least, the bus leaves the wire while crossing the intersection and rejoins on the other side). Spectacularly good for major stations and depots, where the wire snarl would become insane, too.
That's only an issue with low quality (or older) trolleybuses. Most cities in Switzerland have large trolleybus networks (even my hometown with a population of 30k has 3 lines) and that is rarely an issue. I remember riding a trolleybus twice a day for 7 years it happened only once or twice
I grew up in St. John's, Newfoundland which also has a gross amount of hills and tiny 500 year old streets and standard diesel busses work fine. Trolley busses are a great alternative to batteries but the idea that diesel engines can't handle high torque applications like hills is insanely wrong. If those hungarian buses kept blowing up it's because of a bad design, not an inherent flaw with diesel engines.
I lived in Portland Oregon for a couple of years and that's the only time I've even seen trains used for anything other than hauling freight.
For Kyrgyzstan, electric cars are a game changer. About 90% of our produced electricity is renewable (from hydropower), and all gasoline and gas are being imported for a higher than market price. We have so many cars anyway because our people consider them a matter of status. Let these cars at least contribute less to our awful smog problems (our capital has the dirtiest documented air in the world in winter due to heating with coal) in the city. The real ichallenge now is to increase renewable energy production to meet new demand.
One thing that I noticed was that you didn't bring up the environmental impact of those burning batteries and all the TOXIC AS FUCK FUMES, as well as the CONTAMINATED WATER RUN OFF once the fire department uses on putting out the burning ecological disaster that was your Tesla 😮🔥😮🔥
I've been patiently explaining this to EV enthusiasts on their sites for years. Good luck getting through.
EV nuts are the worst magical thinkers ever... they believe in trickle down economics by subsidizing rich people to buy luxury cars and they think that battery minerals and electrical generation capacity will just come out of thin air. They're really just the same old insufferable car-jocks, except that Elon gave them an "I saved the planet" sticker and now they're lording it over the rest of the classroom.
I was into them until I realised the BS Elon was talking.
It's easier to fool someone than to convince them they've been fooled.
Oka so explain me how sodium battery will lost capacity in cold or how solid state batteries made of ceramic and non flammable will cause huge fires.
Well EV'S wont solve the congestion problem, they damn sure do massively contribute to reducing the pollution problem. I honestly don't know if anyone really thought EV's, which are just cars, could solve the congestion problem.
In the UK, some cities proposed plans to move towards becoming 15 minute cities, which means everything you might need (like groceries) should be located within a 15 minute walk from residential areas to encourage people to walk or cycle instead of drive, but a bunch of people have been protesting it and saying it will "take away their freedoms". Politicians with connections to car companies hate it too, I really don't understand people sometimes ://
It seems to have some conspiracy theory related to the 15 minute cities and a lot of misinformation, many people think they will be confined to a 15 minute city, that's why some of them are protesting.
The conspi nut jobs have somehow picked up on the idea of 15 minute cities, and completely misunderstood it. They believe the long term plan with 15 min cities is to divide up cities into sections and not allow people to leave their 15 min section of the city.
hahahah, thats uncomfortably stupid. People dont want to have the freedom to walk. Wow
The misinformation was that Oxford was allegedly planning to ban car travel, which was blatantly false.
the reason why they are against it isn't because they're increasing walking or biking infrastructure, the reason why is because these greedy politicians and globalists took good and useful urbanest concepts and ideas and made them over surveilled and restrictive against necessary traveling routes and if you're not going to let people travel by car, without even having the proper infrastructure in place for alternatives, of course they're going to protest against it.
I love your voice Adam! 😎
I worked at a bicycle shop right down the road from the place that Tesla caught fire twice in a day in Los Gatos. My boss and I had a chuckle about that incident.
One thing to note about batteries is that they are almost always the main problem for any portable electric machinery/gadgets Scientists and engineers around the world are trying hard to improve and develop alternative battery technologies: Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (for familiar chemistry but with resistance to spontaneous combustion), Sodium Ion (to replace the expensive Lithium), Metal Air batteries (for maximized ecofriendliness), and etc. Meanwhile, this does not excuse government and city planners to not invest in public transportation YOU SHOULD NEVER PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET!!
One piece of alternate battery tech that is promising: Graphene-based Micro Super-Capacitors. They are about 1/10 the effective storage capacity as standard ceramic capacitors but have 1/100 of the physical volume. They still have a bad energy leakage problem but have already been shown to function as a fairly decent battery when fully charged.
and just like fusion reactors, they are always a few years from being viable and commodity. Even John Goodenough, the father of the Lithium-Ion battery, hasn't been able to make the promised breakthrough with solid state batteries. Mass adoption of e-vehicles now is an ecological catastrophe, not to mention the human cost of children mining the lithium and the mining operations polluting entire waterways and biomes. And even if one were to ignore all of the above, e-vehicles right now are not greener at all, because the energy to feed them is produced largely with coal and gas.
@@jayhill2193 wanna throw out though, ebikes are a good compromise where you need powered transport but with 1/50th the lithium needed. Also most people I know that own a home and get e-car, also get solar panels. I still agree with the main point.
@@Gyrono Supercapacitors are NOT an alternate battery tech! They fill a different technological niche between batteries and regular capacitors. Batteries are for kilowatt-hours. Supercapacitors are for megawatt-seconds. Regular capacitors are for gigawatt-milliseconds. You use a shipping container full of batteries to keep your factory running during a power outage. You use one full of supercapacitors to cushion the grid against the startup surge if the one full of batteries runs out before the power comes back on. I have no idea what you'd need a shipping container of regular capacitors for. Catching lightning bolts, perhaps?
@@jayhill2193 Not necessarily. In a country where the power demand are predominately coal, then yes, anything else, no. For one, natural gas is produces less carbon per unit of power generated than any other fossil fuel, and secondly, the efficiency of large scale power plants is way better than car scale internal combustion engines. Internal combustion engines have about a 30% thermal efficiency, where as grid scale Natural gas plants have a 45-57% thermal efficiency. Even accounting for transmission and transformer losses, EV's, are less polluting even when running off a pure natural gas grid. And this doesn't account for the less carbon producing sources like solar, wind, hydro and nuclear. And coal is dying, like fast. At least here in the US. in just 20 years the US grid went from 50% coal fired in the early 2000, to only about 20% now, and its only shrinking even further, because its a shit fuel source that was only kept alive with government handouts, and nuclear fearmongering. And regardless, battery tech is improving and continues to improve, as is any technology, but there will always be hurtles and barriers to overcome with new shit, and not every promise is going to pan out because humans are notoriously bad at predicting the future. As for the human costs, that literally a problem caused by the current global capitalist system. Not buying EV's and continuing to use gas burners is not going to solve that problem, at all. Solving that problem is going to require far more, dramatic solutions. IE, overthrowing the current economic system and possibly eating the rich. And of course there is the other problem with gas cars. Mainly that the worlds oil reserves are not Infinite, this shit will run out. Economics are already tilting in favor of EV's over gas with current fuel prices, and its only going to get worse for gas. That being said, even though EV's are better, and going to continue to improve vs gas burners, good public transit still dominates, especially trains. Thus making cities more walking and bike friendly with good public transit should still be the top priority, while EV's are for those situations where a full sized car or truck is actually needed, especially once the worlds oil reserves go bust.
9:45 thank you for pointing that out. I've had so many arguments with people who were born in, were raised in and grew up in and never been outside of major cities who just can't grasp that we can't rely on rail in the countryside like the cities can, it's good to have it in larger country towns to connect to the cities! On that I'm in full support and when I go to the city I always take public transit, but the fact is the rural economies would die if we had to rely on rail to get from town to town.
why not? all rural areas were once connected by train
@@leonpaelinck no they weren't. A quick check of old maps with right of ways with rail lines would show that. Most people in rural areas had horses, or could use the services of someone who did, to get to the nearest hub. The difference was that horses could be bred locally, and weren't being pushed by the horse industrial complex.
@@leonpaelinck found the "I never left the big city, why not just get rail" that @rainmanslim4611 was talking about.
How does Germany do it? It felt like every town there was connected by train.
I traveled all over Spain, Austria and Germany by train, passed through many towns that had maybe 5000 residents or fewer yet they had many, many trains per day. Usually a train every 15 minutes. Maybe every 30 minutes. Of course not every trip can be by train. You need other modes. But currently in the US 99% is car only. That's the issue. There's no other options.
The Scooter song got me good :D. Thank you for yet another well made video.
I would have a great idea but I do not know how far that would be possible what would be if you keep the battery in winter at ideal temperature warm and cooled down in summer 🤔
Minor quibble is that the picture you used after describing the amount of ridership for the BART was one for the SF Muni line. The BART is completely separated from the street grid while the Muni is at street level in many places.
I have an equally minor quibble… you don’t put an article before BART. It’s not “the BART”. It’s just “BART”. Or perhaps Boris :P
@@HelenLannister But it's German for "the BART, the"
@@jrm78 Or “The BEARD, the”. If you misgender the beard, which in San Francisco would get you lynched :P
This is correct. BART is largely underground or elevated in the most urban areas, with the stops far apart. It uses a third-rail power system and is intended mainly for inter-city transit. I.e., Most cities get just one or two stops. MUNI is the metropolitan system, mostly at grade. It operates a variety of vehicles, some with tires. It uses a lot of overhead electric lines. It has frequent stops. It connects with BART at four downtown stations. The BART tunnels are below the MUNI tunnels. You should throw in a picture of a BART train. The new ones are nice.
Well, that and saying or implying BART is a single double track line when it is multiple lines with extensive interlining in Oakland.
The picture at 9:03 isn't of BART. BART doesn't have street grade tracks like that, it's intercity rapid transit. That's a picture of Muni tracks, which is San Francisco's municipal light rail system. You can see where it's labeled MUNI on the street itself.
Can confirm. BART is heavy rail, Muni (pictured 9:03) is light rail in SF.
Can also confirm.
Outstanding video, thank you. Liked and subscribed.
Actually replacing gas with electric will cut emissions 75%. In Amerca most people drive SUV's which weigh between 4-6k lbs so if people are buying model 3's that actually cuts the weight. Even the Model Y reduces the weight of most SUV's.
So good to finally hear someone talk about the effect of EV's massive weight on the roads. A Toyota Aygo, one of the smallest, most fuel efficient cars you can buy, weighs around 900kg. The Renault Zoë, which is one of the smallest EVs on the market right now, weighs almost 1500kg despite being only slightly bigger. If 1500kg is the lightest an EV will be, our roads will be destroyed in no time, all the while they don't even pay any road tax (not in my country at least)
Wow, 42mpg? That's... abysmal. I just drove from Canon City to Pueblo today in my Bolt and got 130mpge, 4mi/kWh, that's highway driving in 80F weather. My Bolt weighs 3700lbs, the most common car in America, the Ford F-150, weighs 4000 base model, and can climb over 5000lbs with options. In the city I can do better than 6mi/kWh, that's almost 200mpge, and the Bolt is an old budget minded EV. What do you mean "finally someone's talking about how heavy EVs are"? That's like the number 2 FUD after the battery fire overhyping. Everyone who talks about EVs talks about it. The Toyota Aygo X 1.0 VVT-i Auto weighs 1015 Kg, 100kg is not a small difference. If 1500kg is the lightest.... but it's not. The Aptera weights about 800kg and has a 1000 mile range fully spec'd. Then there are the tons and tons of city cars that also weigh less than 1000kg. They won't get you across America without headache, but neither will a bike.
Bridges also take a big hit from the extra weight and need more constant maintenance to keep it safe for crossing :T
The aptera is not out yet, we had a lot of vaporware EVs that promise everything, and on top its a two passenger car, the Aygo is for four.
@@Jcewazhere 1st of all, americans drive stupidly large cars, and europeans are unfortunately following this trend. 2nd, I wasn't talking about the high weight in general, but the effect it has on road wear. 3rd, I was talking about the regular Aygo. The X once again shows that making something into a crossover will always make it worse. 4th, the Aptera doesn't exist and will never catch on
If you think cars that weigh 1500 kg or whatever will destroy your roads, then your roads would have already been destroyed long time ago. And where did you get the idea that EVs cannot be lighter than 1500 kg? There are lighter EVs already. For example, BMW i3 is much larger than Aygo and weighs 1350 kg. Electric Renault Twingo is similar in size to Aygo and weighs 1170 kg. And the Renault is not even a bespoke EV, so is most likely heavier than it needs to be (much like Zoe). Tesla Model Y is just 50-100 kg heavier than a similarly sized BMW X4 with the weakest petrol engine and is actually lighter than the more powerful diesel version. Tesla Model S is actually lighter than Mercedes E class hybrid. Bespoke electric BMW iX is the same weight as X5 with the more powerful petrol engine and 150-200 kg heavier than weaker petrol and diesel variants or up to 300 kg heavier for larger battery version. That's about 10-15% difference in weight. And so on and on. In short, some EVs are heavier than some ICE cars and lighter than others. Same as some ICE cars are heavier than some other ICE cars. The reason we do not have ultra lightweight EVs right now is because we're not there yet in terms of adoption curve. People demand bigger cars. That's where the most money is, so that is the kind of cars (not just EVs) that are made first. Blame the people for that.
The Ikarus 405 was a decent bus, the problem was the general broke-as-shit state of the entire country in the 90s, directly influencing maintenance (or the lack thereof, more precisely). Source: took line with that bus for 15-ish years daily, also knowing some drivers and mechanics from the central service shop.
Thank you! Voice of Reason. He takes a few days pts and draws a curve through it to his pre-determined decision. The ‘EVs constantly catching on fire’ is hysterical. Very rare (but yes the fires do get hotter; fire depts will adapt).
@@WestCoastAce27 also extinguishing Li fire with water is a rather stupid idea.
Fantastic points. Another big issue with EVs is charging. In the UK we've had quite a lot of stories recently, about people running power cables out of their homes and across public walkways to charge their cars. Whatever the many faults of diesel and petrol, car owners intuitively know that it's not reasonable to expect to have a petrol pump installed out of every front door! But for Ev owners, home charging is one of the main selling points. Not a problem if you have a private driveway. But if you're in the city, That creates major demand not just for Street parking, but parking literally outside your front door! So that impacts community cohesion, road safety, electrical safety, (i e, poorly maintained high voltage charging cables being left lying in the road.)
How does the increased demand for street parking impact community cohesion
@@AtomicAlchemist Neighbors getting into arguments over residential parking spaces. That already happens a lot as it is. How much moreso if everyone's trying to fit their car directly outside their door, so they can run the charging cable out the letterbox?
Electric Cars is ok in some aspects (mostly just for lower CO2 from cars, which is fair to some extends) but we needs to good macro planning about all of our public transport well first and foremost!
What about in rural areas
Lower CO2 is a lie though
@@QuarioQuario54321exactly nobody cares about or think about rural areas anymore. Not everybody lives in a big city
@@donkeydik2602 what are they expected to do now? Move out? Fend for themselves?
@@donkeydik2602 Yes, and? The rural areas are not worth being concerned over. Only 14% of the population lives out in the sticks. The overwhelming majority of the USA lives in and around urban centers. Those areas should very obviously be the focus for transit projects, since that's where people actually live and work. Urban centers drive the economy, not Mayberry and its one gas station. If the 100-some odd people who live out in a rural county want a transit line for some reason, they can get together with their local government and figure it out. I'm tired of national progress being constantly held back because of "w-w-what about the rural empty areas where no one lives? 😭". The absence of services is the tradeoff you pay for all that extra land, peace, and quiet. Accept it, pay for it yourselves, or move to a city.
7:04 perfect illustration of "the intense roman truck traffic". I love it!
You got me at "I wish I knew". 🤣🤣🤣
I need the name of the song used at the "#3 Space" transition at 8:05
I dream of when my city of Los Angeles will have the best public transportation network in the world. I know it's possible, and I know that it will require a popular movement, thanks in part to people being informed by videos like yours.
Your city already had amazing public transit system 100 years ago
LA fell off, good luck
Your state is building a massive high speed rail.
You have too much hope. Keep voting for it, keep calling your representatives about it. But there is no fixing the garbage heap that is the u.s. to be anything above last place for wealthy nations.
Recently my city in Australia announced they are going to install a new tram service along a main road. First thought, good. Reading further on turns it runs on tires not tracks. Then turns out it wont have a wire powering it instead a fuel cell. Also that it will run with the other traffic and not segregated. I’m thinking it’s bus now, just more expensive.
9:07 the tracks are not bart but some tram/lightrail; the bart is underground in SF downtown I believe
Going electric will make a huge demand on the electrical power grid...
I've driven an 2017 Ioniq for 109,000 miles.... not a single mile lost compared to its base range, infact it still drives about 20~30 miles over its advertised range of 125 miles per charge.
some EV manufacturers make there battery a few % bigger then on paper. afaik tesla did that on the model 3
@@AIC_onyt True, I believe people have found the Ioniq battery is actually 1kw/h~ bigger than the stated size, however if you lost 1~2% of battery capacity per year (like stated in this video) I'd at least be down a few miles by now.
125 miles on a single charge? my 2005 3 series is gets more than that on only a quarter of a tank and it's a 3l diesel not really an economical car.
@@AIC_onyt Every manufacturer does that. Most Lithium cells don't like being fully charged or completely empty empty.
@@WelcomeToDERPLAND i know. batteries are crap when it comes to powerful appliances like cars or other "big" machines. they are not made to power a multi kilowatt motor. i just said it because @WelcomeToDERPLAND claimed his car had no degradation
Adam still rocking the 10 frames per second animations 😅 Good to see your videos though ;)
12,5 : P
Love the Adam Something look! Not every channel needs those sleek 60 fps motion blurred 4K animations to get the point through
@@ungh8365 It's more a question than him not knowing any better, than a stylistic choice.
Hey Adam, could you provide the sources backing the claims made in this video? Thanks!
9:59 - and oil is used as a vital feed material - plastics being one thing, so no oil means no insulation, no lcd screens, etc.
Adam adapting the American system of measurement huh😂
For mass transit to succeed the system needs to be treated with respect. Where I'm from a lot of people see transit as something for poor people and so don't care about it's development. That's not helped by the fact that due to inadequate shelters and homeless programs, that the stations are frequently used as shelters especially in winter. With that vandalism and crime went up and only furthered the idea the system is for people who cannot afford anything better, which is sort of true by this point.
Good public transit is a respect we pay each other.
@@barryrobbins7694 Also an opportunity to interact with a lot of people. Not necessarily talk, just get acquainted with their presence and reduce the sense of isolation.
People who watch this type of video would probably be willing to put up with that. But yeah I just don't see public transportation ever being a real alternative across the US in my life time. For starters in my area in public transportation would actually be very inefficient as everything is so spread out. Don't even live in the boonies or anything. But the sprawl just isn't made for it. It would take decades of new zoning laws to slowly transform everything. And that's simply not gonna happen. Also good luck telling someone who just dropped a ton of money on their car to try and take a dirty crowded bus that will actually add time to their commute.
@@baronvonjo1929 I guess all those shoddily built houses going up the last two decades will help there as they can be replaced by something more efficient when they start crumbling. I'm kidding of course, what usually happens is they keep the same rotting frame and just touch it up with paint and some new drywall.
Hi, just to let you know at 7:42, you accidentally replaced a comma for separating numbers with a point. It's meant to be 5,633 not 5.633
The Age of Empries 2 music in the outro unlocked some deep memories. Petition for every new car creation to require a "shhhhhiiiii haaaaah" sound effect.
Steep hills are where trolleybuses really shine. There's a reason why Seattle and San Francisco are among the few American cities to still have them (Seattle is even talking about expanding the trolley network)
Thankfully Adam makes a total of 1 person who is talking about road wear from heavier cars, and the inefficiency of batteries in low temperatures.
Public transportation in New York puts regular people in the same area as all sorts of no goods. Not a good option unless they start a background check in order to use the public transit.
Love the Age of Empires theme at the end.
OK, Adam, I hope you will read this. I have been to Budapest and liked the Ikarus 405 as a vehicle. The issues are mostly down to maintenance, or the lack of. If you run those buses in that conditions, you need to take care of them. While the 400 series Ikarus did not match the legendardy 200 series in terms of reliability or longevity, they were decent buses. In the 1990s. And as a native Slovak, I have no nationalistic reasons to be nice to the Ikarus brand of buses. Also, I drive an electric car. My 2nd electric car. My current is a 2020 VW e-up, currently with over 40 thousand km. My previous car was also an VW e-up (2016), that moved within the family to my retired father, replacing the gas car for his occasional trips. I completely agree with public transit, but the reality is that public transit is not that great, if you want to travel at times of low demand, late at evening or at weekends. I use public transit to commute to work (2 km to train station and 2 km from train station by electric car). But just today, I decided to use public transit and I regret it. The tram was late, I missed my bus and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. Also, be happy about those hybrid trolleybuses, they are the best combination of both trolleybus and electric bus. It does not need to carry a huge traction accumulator with it, to cover 400 km, but rather just a small one to enable driving in limited sections where the installation of overhead wires might be a problem due to aesthetics and/or technical reasons, while being fully operable under wires. Those vehicles do not require downtime to recharge (they recharge while moving). I think those hybrid trolleybuses are the best solution for specific needs, like serving the Buda castle area. My last visit to Budapest was a couple of years ago. Electric cars: I have a small, electric car. The larger the vehicle, the less sense it makes to haul your traction accumulators with you. I did not buy an electric car to save the world. Or to "feel good" that "I save the world". That is utter nonsense. I do not want any extra treatment because I drive an electric car. It is a car like any other car. I do not want to use freeways for free, I do not want the ability to run in bus lanes (this has been proposed, but luckily was not done), I do not want free or cheaper parking in the city. What I want? Charge the cars by their weight, not engine size or power output, or drivetrain. What matters is the weight of the vehicle! Also, make public transit reliable even off peak hours, with guaranteed transfers on evenings and weekends. Do not let people wait 20 minutes if their line is late, but the one they want to change to is running on time. Also, I want safe and comfortable transfers. Without the need to walk across intersections, etc. I get out at one "boarding edge" and I want to board my next line at the same "boarding edge". I do not want to get wet when it is raining. I do not want to get splashed by cars running by as I wait for my transfer. I want some basic comfort, safety and convenience even in off peak hours. That remains a problem. Next time, I will drive my small electric city car. Because the public transit sucks.
Agreed with almost everything you said. About public transport at low-demand times, there comes a point at which it just doesn't make sense to move a 40t tram for 3-4 passengers (at 10t/passenger). This energy inefficiency is often overlooked by public transport absolutists. At some point it becomes more climate-friendly to just drive a small electric car. The futuristic solution in dense cities for this will probably be self-driving cars, but I guess nobody knows.
If the tram is late and there are 20min between two trams then it means there isn't enough investment in it, where I live trams are very rarely late and if I miss one I wait 5min. That's the problem with PT, it's an all or nothing system. It works in cities that invest heavily in it and it fails in cities that half ass it
There is a problem when Adam assumes there can be no problems with the public sector in Hungary but want to be critical of people in USA supporting Russia in his next video. Maintenance it a very real problem also accepting or buying stuff that is not good enough.
@@Jakob_DK I do agree with Adam on many things, but sometimes I would be less harsh than he is. Maybe I am just older and more experienced, who knows. It is good to see people at least doing these videos, even if I am not always on his side. Having a slightly different view is not bad, as long as I respect a more radical view (respect, not necessarily support it).
@@tedzards509 The tram runs every 10 minutes and is quite full in there city centre, just the bus I transfer to at the outskirts runs every 20 minutes. And if that tram is late and I miss my transfer, I am genuinely angry.
Adam Something I was wandering if you could do a series where you review cities on how bad their issues are and give ideas on how to improve them. I actually live near one called Briatol, where the council actually messed up public transport and have introduce car restricted roads, but have made it worse to live in and commute to the city as whole.
he already started a series like this and the first one was about prague
I hope its more accurate than the made up anti ev video
For city trolleybuses are best solution along metro and tram
coming back around to the actual topic, what are your thoughts on aluminum fuel and fuel cells?
Going up and down the hill is actually ideal for batteries, because they can recharge going down. Like the electric ore transporter which recharges bringing the ore down from the mountain and goes back up with the gained energy.
except that the traffic engineers put the stop lights at the bottm of the hill
That might work okay for gentle slopes and rolling hills, but for steep inclines, the much more extreme loads (both discharging going uphill and if you were to try to regain everything downhill) are terrible for battery life. It's like pretending pushing the pedal hard on an EV and then breaking hard doesn't tax the battery because braking recharges them... That's just not true, and every manufacturer will tell you as much. Most EVs just don't run into this problem much because most aren't run up- and downhill all day, every day, but these buses were.
@@blaintaylor9218 That's the entire point of regenerative braking with batteries. So you don't have to throw the energy away as heat, and instead can recharge the batteries and control your speed so you can still stop at the bottom.