now canada needs to invest in proper public transportation, so in the future people wouldn’t need to buy a car just for day to day life.
“Open the door to Chinese EVs” isn’t a simple solution because it has wider reaches than restricting Tesla-imports. There’s a reason Germany just effected tariffs on chinese EVs, namely because they are arguing that as china subsidizes their EVs, naturally non-subsidized local companies could never be price-competitive.
I don’t know how that situation is in canada, but I bet similar things have to be looked at.
I like the solution, but it’s not a simple one.
We dont need chinese ev to wreck US car industry. We need toyota and their hilux truck brand. We could build a toyota electric car manufacture around quebec’s battery shop and a toyota hilux around alberta.
I have a better alternative: invest in viable alternatives to driving! expand protected bike lanes, build the damn high speed rail, more trains, trams and bus lines. One more asphalt lane for cars wont solve traffic problems :)
That would work for much of the population that lives within 100 miles of the US border, but there is a lot of rural and green space in Canada, and bikes aren’t great in Canadian winters. Canada needs good car options too.
As of the 2021 census, nearly 6 million people (16% of the total Canadian population) lived in rural areas of Canada.
84% of Canadians live in cities, and that’s where good urban infrastructure is the most needed.
Making car-centric infrastructure mostly electric will help a bit, but not a whole lot.
Oh, I agree that mass transit wouldn’t really work in areas that aren’t as dense, but we should definitely have those where possible. I didn’t mean to say we don’t need good car options, but we should also have more options besides just cars
Now regarding bikes and winter, I’d say that’s more of an infrastructure problem. Finland also has terrible winter, yet they can bike as usual. You should watch this video if you are interested in this theme: “Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)”
I understand that infrastructure is more important to be able to cycle in the winter, even eclipsing temperature in very cold areas. I live in an area where there is no bicycle infrastructure, I’m actually 100x safer riding my motorcycle well below freezing on the road, than riding my bicycle on a beautiful fall day. And I do, I have gear for it .There are cities though, where temperatures don’t regularly get super cold and people don’t actually have the clothing and gear to cycle in the winter. I would guess in those areas, temperature is more of a factor. In areas where winters are consistently very cold, people already have what they need and are able to cycle if the infrastructure is there.
In cities at least, bikes are just as good as cars in winter. Your city just needs to put as much effort in to building and clearing bike lanes as it does car lanes. Places that give a shit actually plow and salt their bike paths and bike lanes.
In cities at least, bikes are just as good as cars in winte
Your bike has a heater built-in and a way to block out the cold wind and/or rain?
That’s usually what people mean when they mention vehicles in the winter, not just the road being cleared
Love this idea; however, bringing Chinese cars is like applying pressure to the wound… fixing public transportation is the long term healing process.
1 - They are not mutually exclusive, bring the Chinese cars now while starting on the long term public transportation projects
2 - The Federal gov can act on the Chinese cars now… public transportation is 100% Provincial purview so an entirely different team needs to address this other priority
Our newly-elected Premier has unfortunately doubled down on giving cars priority with the mandated removal of bike lanes and building new highways (413), even though their own data says that Toronto with be just as congested a few years after building them.
Oh I forgot to mention the tunnel under the 401, which is a massive boondoggle waiting to happen
Or just fix public transit for fucks sake. Evs are a distraction from the problemm
101% this. Driving my mates and I yesterday on a completely packed 4 lane highway. 90% of cars were a single driver, no pasangers.
Even if we exclude tradie vans and utes who ill assume are at least transporting tools and gear, if every one of those vehicles carried 1 other person or chose to bike instead ( Christchurch, New Zealeand, we have good biking infrastructure also a bike path that follows the length of the highway) or even take the bus (public transport is pretty good) we would see an instant 50% reduction in traffic over night.
Did traffic get worse in nz in the past few years? When i was there there was absolutely no traffic but to be fair i mainly went to the rural parts so maybe i just missed it. Even so the larger cities could be connected by public transit, especially when theres a 10 hour drive from one city to another one, a train there would be much more comfortable. Its basically a straight line as well so the train could go pretty fast withoutnany big sacrifices. Idk tho i only spent 3 weeks there, not an expert by any means.
Traffic can be absolutely awful in NZ. Largely because there are a lot of natural choke points which don’t allow for wide roadways, and the investment in large road infrastructure has not kept up with the need. Auckland traffic is abysmal, as it is essentially one large north-south column with a few trunks.
Christchurch isn’t bad, but the highways through the city have a lot of lights and with the traffic load it can take a long time to get places. It’s a lot like Winnipeg, it doesn’t have freeways to get you around quick without stopping constantly.
I’ve been hearing this my whole life and I’m old now, none of the parties seem to have any interest in building transit. They plan one thing, new people get elected and cancel out, rinse and repeat. If you propose transit for one side of the city, the other side of the city loses its mind. So it’s like a political football just being tossed back and forth
I like trains. No, really, I do.
Lol i take the train and it takes half the time as the car. I also have a smaller chance of dying in a car accident and i can watch youtube without hitting a pedestrian. Dont get me wrong, im a car guy but i respect the safety of other people and the environment so i enjoy them in a responsible way.
