Living Car Free - CBS News Video on All Electric Vehicle

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6469633n&tag=mg;eveningnews

I just saw this online and thought you all might be interested. I like how people who drive electric cars are considered "converts" as if they are religious fanatics. Also I like how the electric car couple say that they can now drive as much as they want "guilt free."

This part is really kind of scary for us cyclists. If suddenly every car went electric and no one saw the obvious environmental and social impacts that this new abuility to drive cheaply and "guilt free" could cause our streets to become even less livable than they are now. The news spot does not even mention that most of our electricity comes from non-renewable sources. Instead they just talk to some half-wit about the "dangers" of driving an electric vehicle. That being that you might want to go somewhere instantly but not have the juice and thus, have to wait! OH NO!!! :rolleyes: The closing line to this whole "news story" is that the people who drive electric cars just need to have "FAITH" in the future. Wow. Car people are insane.

I tried to watch it but the CBS site just shows an image on the page. It won't play as a video and there was no text to go with the image other than the description below the image.

The vision in this forum in particular is not likely to be the vision of the future. What we want or even what we believe is from the standpoint of such a minority that we will have little if any impact on the direction our society takes.

We have become a car culture as much because that is who we are as a people as anything else. Men and whole societies once migrated by foot with the occasional help of dogs but that all changed. Horses gave men an advantage over their neighbors without horses both in farming and in war and the ones with the advantage prospered and the ones without did not.

Bicycles were simply machines that allowed us to move about more efficiently than we could by foot. Sailing ships replaced ships with oars. Mankind has always been moving towards the car or whatever mode of transportation that allowed the maximum amount of movement over the greatest distance with the least amount of personal human expended energy. That is our society in a nutshell.

The minority can call the majority crazy or misguided or any other name they like but the majority has the power either by votes, money or just sheer numbers. And the majority wants cars or self propelled vehicles of some kind no matter what the power source. People don’t stand in like to get the latest Biodegradable eco friendly note book pad but they will wait at a store door days in advance to get a Ibook that will be a hazard to dispose of when it breaks or wears out.

People can only do what they as individuals can do for themselves. Cycling or walking can be a matter of choice but it will be a very long shot to believe the majority is going to give up power propulsion in the near future. EVs are only the beginning.

I can understand the frustration but I don't see society taking a different turn.

I like how people who drive electric cars are considered "converts" as if they are religious fanatics. Also I like how the electric car couple say that they can now drive as much as they want "guilt free."
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I feel guilty about the resources consumed to manufacture my Trek, so I don't understand why you would feel "guilt free" if you owned a brand-new EV.

Guilt can be a wonderful thing. Guilt == awareness.

The vision in this forum in particular is not likely to be the vision of the future. What we want or even what we believe is from the standpoint of such a minority that we will have little if any impact on the direction our society takes.

We have become a car culture as much because that is who we are as a people as anything else. Men and whole societies once migrated by foot with the occasional help of dogs but that all changed. Horses gave men an advantage over their neighbors without horses both in farming and in war and the ones with the advantage prospered and the ones without did not.

Bicycles were simply machines that allowed us to move about more efficiently than we could by foot. Sailing ships replaced ships with oars. Mankind has always been moving towards the car or whatever mode of transportation that allowed the maximum amount of movement over the greatest distance with the least amount of personal human expended energy. That is our society in a nutshell.

The minority can call the majority crazy or misguided or any other name they like but the majority has the power either by votes, money or just sheer numbers. And the majority wants cars or self propelled vehicles of some kind no matter what the power source. People don’t stand in like to get the latest Biodegradable eco friendly note book pad but they will wait at a store door days in advance to get a Ibook that will be a hazard to dispose of when it breaks or wears out.

People can only do what they as individuals can do for themselves. Cycling or walking can be a matter of choice but it will be a very long shot to believe the majority is going to give up power propulsion in the near future. EVs are only the beginning.

I can understand the frustration but I don't see society taking a different turn.

For me, the "different turn" is climate change. Knowing what carbon emissions will do to us makes everybody interested in lessening them.

I tried to watch it but the CBS site just shows an image on the page. It won't play as a video and there was no text to go with the image other than the description below the image.

I switched to the Firefox browser and got it to load.

That was a very short story with some not too flattering comments about electric cars from a custom car designer. There were no rebuttals to squash his objections. Who paid for the story? The more news stories I see about technology or consumer goods the more I think that somebody is paying for those stories to be shown. Sometimes it seems like the competitor of a product gets a negative story about something and sometimes the proponent of a product gets the story shown. Either way they seem to be advertisements or hit pieces.

I switched to the Firefox browser and got it to load.

That was a very short story with some not too flattering comments about electric cars from a custom car designer. There were no rebuttals to squash his objections. Who paid for the story? The more news stories I see about technology or consumer goods the more I think that somebody is paying for those stories to be shown. Sometimes it seems like the competitor of a product gets a negative story about something and sometimes the proponent of a product gets the story shown. Either way they seem to be advertisements or hit pieces.

I am not sure there is such a thing as TV news anymore. We don't get simple reporting we get commentary, Ideology, promotion and entertainment.

I switched to the Firefox browser and got it to load.

That was a very short story with some not too flattering comments about electric cars from a custom car designer. There were no rebuttals to squash his objections. Who paid for the story? The more news stories I see about technology or consumer goods the more I think that somebody is paying for those stories to be shown. Sometimes it seems like the competitor of a product gets a negative story about something and sometimes the proponent of a product gets the story shown. Either way they seem to be advertisements or hit pieces.



I am not sure there is such a thing as TV news anymore. We don't get simple reporting we get commentary, Ideology, promotion and entertainment.

Even when there are well-articulated, news-worthy stories, the coverage is so brief that it leaves you wanting to learn more. The particular story in this thread is so poorly framed that you'd expect to find an EV being sold in the advertising.

This doesn't usually happen (although I do get alarmed at some of the ads obviously paid for by Big Oil on the CBS Evening News... ) .

But all this leaves you with a particularly one-sided view of the issue... when in fact there are more sides to the issue of personal transportation than Kelloggs has corn flakes...

Even when there are well-articulated, news-worthy stories, the coverage is so brief that it leaves you wanting to learn more. The particular story in this thread is so poorly framed that you'd expect to find an EV being sold in the advertising.

The EV is being sold, and this is pure advertisement. The clip is clearly labeled as being about the new Nissan Leaf. That "no guilt" and "it feels really good not to contribute to pollution", is all pure B.S., completely scripted. They drive a prototype for crying out loud... You can't buy prototypes at the local Toyota dealers. They are paid spokespersons for Toyota.

I am not sure there is such a thing as TV news anymore. We don't get simple reporting we get commentary, Ideology, promotion and entertainment.

Reporting died with the Fairness Doctrine.

I have seen surveys that say most people don't trust network news. At least more than half of the people don't. The most interesting survey result comes form a democratic poll and it says Fox is the most trusted news outlet. When they moved away from reporters just reporting news and devoting their own spin on things people started turning off. And now network news is a joke and news papers are going bankrupt. the Song goes, "the times they are a changing."

http://americanelephant.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/americans-do-not-trust-the-major-tv-news-operations-except-for-fox-news/

But back to the topic, if we had the prospects of if people would be interested in EVs if gas vehicles fell out of favor or if people would be interested in walking or cycling to replace cars my bet would be heavy on EVs.

But back to the topic, if we had the prospects of if people would be interested in EVs if gas vehicles fell out of favor or if people would be interested in walking or cycling to replace cars my bet would be heavy on EVs.

I had an electric car (emphasis on HAD) and kept a hybrid (pedal/motor) trike. Charging the car just to have it use up the juice sitting there made no sense. Sold the car earlier this year. Just in time- I had to move (unsafe building) and this newer building has no outlets anywhere near parking. Future; who knows. It seems like society is going back in time. The trike gets very low, but I can just ride it somewhere with an outlet. I am not as much in favour of 100% EVs as I was.