Car harm: A global review of automobility's harm to people and the environment

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692324000267

by throw0101c • 4 months ago

18 6 4 months ago

The use of “justice” oriented activist language is a giveaway for this being an unserious paper. Even without that, it’s obviously one sided since it doesn’t consider the tradeoff. Cars also provide huge benefits to individuals and the economy. It’s worth it, which is why they’re popular.

blacksmith_tb• 4 months ago

From the paper: "Crashes kill 1.3 million people per year including 700 children per day." I have always thought it's striking that people drive so much in spite of knowing that each time you could easily kill or be killed. Imagine if phones were equally dangerous - who'd carry one in their pocket?

Obviously cars are useful, but we've built our cities to maximize that (and we still spend a lot of time stuck in traffic, even so). That doesn't mean that there aren't more useful possibilities, just that the inertia in the system makes them seem like a dream.

rayiner• 4 months ago

It’s not just “us” who built cities to maximize car travel. Everyone did it. Walkable european cities are surrounded by car-dependent suburbs.

The problem with your analysis is that your concept of “useful” is based on a set of priorities in your head that’s almost certainly not shared by the people who prefer to live in car-optimized areas. Cars let you travel in private, on your own schedule, without having to interact with other people. You might not value those things. Lots of people do.

cousinbryce• 4 months ago

They define the negative consequences for justice as “unequal distribution of harm, inaccessibility, and consumption of space, time, and resources” Which fits with my understanding.

metalman• 4 months ago

arguments along these lines are false, unless they include fully worked out implimentable alternatives, which is rare. Personaly I am a commited "enviromentalist", greeny, nature boy, whatever, and have gone deep and wide only to find a huge amount of finger pointing, wouldn't it be niceism, political leveraging, etc, etc, and very very little pragmatism and civil engineering.

Car harm: A global review of automobility's harm to people and the environment

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