Cars are killing us. Within 10 years, we must phase them out

I've been driving around Africa for almost three years now, and every time I go into a city I can't help but think along the same lines as this article.

I see tens of thousands of vehicles belching huge clouds of black smoke, idling for hours at a time with nobody inside, or stuck in soul crushing traffic. Just the other day it took a hour to drive five miles with tens of thousands of vehicles packed in.

It's also really easy to see the direct environmental impact - any place that does oil changes or repairs tires is surrounded by a huge patch of jet black earth where the waste products are simply tossed on the ground. Used tires are piled high, and crashed or burnt out vehicles commonly litter the roadside. In the first world we hide all of that from sight, sometimes I think it's better to have it out in the open so we can be more aware of what is really going on.

I keep coming back to this same bug bear every time the topic of cars and pollution comes up, but... diesels.

There's a practice here (UK) of buying diesels for the increased fuel economy, then having the particulate filters removed (discreetly, leaving the casing in place to hide the work) to reduce maintenance costs. Most garages offer this as a service openly, and it's common practice.

The cars are very easy to spot as the exhaust belches huge clouds of thick black smoke every time they accelerate.

The irony of this is that a great many of the cars currently on the road here are dirtier than cars that were banned twenty years ago for that same reason. The point being that we're not just not fixing the problem - we're actively going backwards.

I don't take my son to school through the car park (the most direct route) anymore for this reason. Most parents drive 4x4s which they idle there while parked. The smell alone is eye-watering, not to mention the smoke.

The point is that people just don't care. They don't care about their own kids' health, so of course they don't care about anyone elses.

Anyone I've discussed this with offline think it's silly to be bothered by this or I'm over-reacting, because (and I don't have the science to back this up) the world's getting progressively more stupid and (ob)noxious over time.

I lived most of my life in capitals. I cannot but notice the pattern. Smog, asthma, bad skin, and other air-related maladies. Since to 'drop cars' is not just not feasible, the next best thing, which is already happening, is to switch to electric vehicles and continue phasing out fossil fuel(s) as soon as possible (which is NOT 'tomorrow').

Once electric vehicles technology and cost strike a good balance, then I believe most people would go for an elecric vehicle. Legislation/regulations also help speed things up.

First of all: public transport sucks in too many places of the world. Going to work by public transport takes double the time and is anything but enjoyable because the trains are filled to the point where some people are happy to even get in on exceptional days. And lets not forget that if i miss my bus, the next one that makes sense to take is an hour later. No thanks. Second: If we ignore american car culture for a second, cars aren't too polluting. Cruise ships and some companies are way worse. Especially cruise ships are incredibly bad for the environment and should (in my opinion) be abandoned or improved drastically before i get denied a diesel car by the german government. Especially if petrol/gas production is worse for the environment than diesel. And third: electric cars can move the pollution out of the cities and somewhere else. Same with noise. Though battery production is an issue that won't move out of the way in the near future. Energy production, the distance and battery production make electric cars not viable for many people. Especially if you plan to go on vacation sometimes.

As each generation grows up more and more ingrained with the use of a car the likelihood of this happening decreases. Governments would be too frightened to take this away.

My father was the first person in his extended family to own a car, around 60 years ago. Car travel was a luxury. My mother used to go on holiday via train, something that is almost unheard of now in the UK.

At my children's school parents would rather spend the best part of an hour queuing for a car parking space, then queuing to get out of car park rather than go to the effort of walking in much less time.

People seem to be prepared to put up with the madness rather than walk / use public transport.

I live in a small ish city and the air quality is much better than most cities but when I have to travel in to the city for work i end up coughing for the rest of the day. On weekends I avoid the city and by Saturday my cough is mostly gone and by sunday its totally gone only to come back on monday. Cars are the primary reason for me wanting to change to a remote job. Not only is riding my bike in to the city slightly terrifying but the damage being around so much air pollution is just too much to make it worth it.

Better mass transit in cities is probably a good place to start. Do low-medium speed maglevs carrying 30,000 people per hour sound appealing?

https://gbtimes.com/beijing-launch-first-maglev-line-2016

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/china-driverless-maglev-t...

I agree it's a problem but I see no discussion of housing costs or the costs of completely redoing public transportation. Clearly the author hasn't thought this through. People drive because they can't afford to live where they ideally want to. In the US, public transportation is virtually non-existent. Without a solution to the housing and transportation problems, there's no way to get rid of cars and no one has even proposed a solution, let alone the author.

Imagine the day where you could just chill at your balcony without any noise pollution thanks to EVs. Your mental health would benefit from that too.

I think this article does a disservice to the cause for reducing CO2 emissions. It’s unnecessarily hyperbolic and contains factual inaccuracies.

Cars can't and shouldn't be phased out in rural areas. They're a necessity. And rural living is a necessity for all of society, without it agriculture will die.

So maybe a city-centric approach is the right thing.

Damn, I thought I could afford a decent sports car for me in 10 years :)

No.