Originally Posted by
gdstark
Ultimately we just need to do the math. In the mean time I recommend checking out Ozzie Zehner's book "Green Illusions".
Of course the ultimate truth is not to depend on any form of technologically harnessed energy... but it will be darn hard to get the whole of the general public to pedal everywhere. There are discussions as to the downsides of the electric vehicle economy, true, but according to some, these are still vastly more efficient than what we do today with internal combustion.
A 2011 lifecycle comparison from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, for example, concluded that the overall impacts of gas-powered and battery-powered vehicles reach parity only when gas-fueled cars achieve an efficiency of 70 miles per gallon. Practically speaking, that would give a clear edge to electric cars -- for now.
So based on convenience alone... man is going to seek a mode of transportation that is easy to use... while still giving nearly the same freedoms of the single person vehicle...
Tracks every where require quite a bit of modification to our environment... not cheap by any means.
Short haul autonomous electric vehicles will deliver the same or better convenience and near the same independence as the very inefficient gas powered car, without the rails. Cycling of course may well be the mode of choice for very short trips and the ultimate in independence... while benefiting from the lack of rails in the environment.
The real solutions however involve modifying our environment... which we have already done to put the motor vehicle everywhere...
But even if Zehner's citations are dated -- and I'm not arguing here that they necessarily are -- his larger point may well still pertain: That investing in electric vehicle development, which is really simply subsidizing our addiction to car culture, might not be the wisest use of a nation's limited resources, particularly if the immediate benefits are marginal.
...options might include better urban and neighborhood planning to improve traffic flow, and to encourage walking and bicycling, Zehner said, or carefully targeted improvements to the existing car fleet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-ze...b_1710382.html