The streets of Beijing have changed dramatically within just a few years. The noisy, smelly thrum of traffic has been replaced by an unusual quiet for a megacity. Roads course with a stream of mostly electric vehicles, all with their distinct, green license plates.
This is not just a Beijing phenomenon. For those arriving in many of China’s major cities from countries dominated by gas-guzzlers, the quiet will be their first impression, said Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
It’s like stepping into the future, he told CNN.
By any measure, China’s EV growth has been extraordinary. More than half of new cars sold are electric, putting the world’s largest automarket on a path to all but erase gas-powered cars over the coming decades. Last year, China’s EV sales soared to 11 million, a nearly 40% increase on 2023, according to data from UK research firm Rho Motion. It’s an “irreversible transformation,” Shuo said.
I can’t tell you how much nicer it is to have a hybrid or ev bus pass you as a pedestrian than a massive rumbling stinking diesel.
You’re obviously not a true red blooded American! True patriots enjoy being choked to death by exhaust fumes!
I also prefer electric cars, but goddamn if I haven’t gotten a heart attack multiple times from a sneaky silent ev fly past me minding my own business walking on the road. (not every road has sidewalks in the non-US city where I live)
Trumpism will pass, and gasoline cars go the way of the horse and buggy. The US will just take longer to catch up with the rest of the world’s progress.
I’d like that to be the case, but nearly every US city, no matter the size, is designed for cars. And the connections between cities prioritize highways, not rail. The US might be able to adopt electric cars, but it’ll never be able to create the kind of walkable, bike-friendly, public-transport focused cities, because that would entail pulling up a lot of cities and neighborhoods by the roots. Once that is built up, its nearly impossible to undo it, and your only choice is to add innefficient kludges on top.
This is why it’s so crucial to do what China and a lot of Asian countries did, and priorizite metro/rail first, and not build your cities around highways.
Old east coast cities were built around streetcars
There’s a good episode about how they destroyed new york’s neighborhoods and rebuilt it around the car: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bb1IijxVR7c
US looks more and more left behind every decade…
Bruh, what’s your public transit solution for folks living outside major metropolitan areas (something the US has in spades)? When someone says small town America think towns with sub 5,000 people.
There are small towns in Japan sub 5000 right next to their shinkaisen bullet train
You’ve never been to rural Japan if you think they primarily use public transport.
Hell, even in the outskirts of Tokyo most people have cars and drive.
That said tho, there’s no excuse for urban city centers to not be walkable.
My experience was on the train line so I have major bias lol
Even in Europe most rural small towns I saw in, say, the Alsace region had a bus line at best but most used cars.
The change to electric scooters was the most noticeable thing in China. It was especially noticeable after coming from Vietnam where they still choke on scooter exhaust. In China they like to ride on the sidewalk also so you get the shit scared out of you when someone comes right up behind you without a sound.
Um… I thought the loudest component of modern cars are the tires, not the motor?
Maybe (as in I would have to check, not that I think it likely) at highway speeds. But in any low speed area, vehicles without gas engines can be sneaky.
My company was working on an electric bus and I saw a driver sneak up on an engineer with the aforementioned city bus. They actually, legally (in some places) need noise makers at low speeds to deal with this.
In my state it is the goddamn aftermarket exhausts and idiots setting their fuel/air mix to backfire.
If it was 60% of the noise that’s a 40% reduction in noise
However you still hear people here saying “poor Chinese people”.
The old wild west
The world has a bit more to it than just automobiles
Yeah like super high speed rail.
And hookers.
And blow!
americans like to make up a shit about their past; there never was an old wild west.
Eh sure, if you’re within the central ring road all you really see are EVs, but my ex’s dad definitely drove his old guzzler through the other rings and was far from alone from doing so. Then again, that was over 5 years ago, so the blanket ban may have spread outwards
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