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  • 102 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: June 4th, 2023
  • elouboub@kbin.socialtoWorld News@lemmy.world•How China’s EV Boom Caught Western Car Companies Asleep at the Wheel
    1·
    9 months ago

    I’ve visited Portugal only once, so my experience is very limited with the country, but public transport wasn’t very good even in Lisbon in my experience. Don’t know if there are portugese cities with better public transport, but if that’s the best Portugal has, then your opinion is certainly understandable.

    Not only that, Portugal sits close to the middle of the pack in population density, not far from France and their public transport is certainly only good in and around cities.

    It still is undeniable that cars are quite costly. It would save Portugal money to actually invest in better public transport, maybe even make it free. Free or affordable public transport increases the frequency of buses as the ridership increases.

    The biggest difficulty is changing the public perception of cars as a status symbol and the feeling of “freedom”. The freedom one gets from free public transport is difficult to comprehend, I think. One can just hop on the bus, step out at a random place, rent a bike, explore, and hop onto the next bus with barely any planning except for getting back.
    In France, the number of visits people made to shops outside of the center actually increased.

    Anyway, I wish you good luck in Portugal.

  • elouboub@kbin.socialtoWorld News@lemmy.world•How China’s EV Boom Caught Western Car Companies Asleep at the Wheel
    1·
    9 months ago

    I’m not sure where you’re from, but your assumptions might be right for your area or country, but that doesn’t count for all of Europe.

    Switzerland has great public transport throughout the country. I can attest to that myself, but if you want to, watch NotJustBikes talk about it. Probably you can find better sources if you want to. Also, Luxembourg has free public transport in the entire country. Yes, it’s small already, but even villages with 50 people have a bus riding through it about once an hour. Parts of France are actually trying to copy that model:

    A weekly grocery run for a family of four is cumbersome. We can shift to an eshopping & delivery model but are we willing to let others choose for us our food?

    1. You can get a electrical cargo-bike.
    2. What do you mean others choose your food? You choose the food and they bring it to you. Same as when you order shoes, a phone, or any other goods.

    Eliminating the of personal transportation predicates on turning back a good number of business models and urban planning models very dificult to revert.

    It’s more the mindset that’s difficult to revert. Town centers become livelier with better public transport as people don’t have to cede way to cars. Businesses and citizens get more space to spread out too. Better public transport also helps teens and young adults become independent more quickly as they do not have to rely on their parents to provide a car for them. It also decreases the costs for citizens and communes alike. (read the articles about French communes introducing free transport)

    Cars are really expensive another youtube video explains. It’s specific to Germany and the dude cites this document from a German association (run it through google translate).

    So yes, investing in public transport in low density areas is beneficial for citizens, the state, and can even be funded by communes themselves (again see France), but it’s better when the federal government does so (if the country is a federation).