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Folks who believe that our solution to decarbonizing our transportation sector has to rely exclusively or even primarily on EVs suffer from a lack of imagination.
They also fail to recognize who we leave behind, potentially setting up a two-tier transportation system where transit users get the dregs of funding, attention, and road space.
Electric vehicles don't make this liveable
Electric vehicles don't make this more sustainable https://www.automotiveworld.com/articles/risky-business-the-hidden-costs-of-ev-battery-raw-materials/
Electric vehicles don't make this more sustainable. Hello harbor, rivers, estuaries... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyres-are-major-source-of-ocean-microplastics-study
Electric vehicles don't make this sustainable or healthy... https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/urai-bda010720.php
Electric vehicles don't make this more affordable #housing
Electric vehicles don't make this more equitable... https://mass.streetsblog.org/2021/02/18/analysis-bay-states-ev-rebate-program-overwhelmingly-benefits-wealthy-suburbanites/
Electric vehicles don't make this any safer...
Of course EVs are part of any realistic solution, some genuinely need them for work & we have to consider rural pop.s, but they can not be our only solution. And again, they shouldn't be primary solution in urban or even suburban areas.
We need to demand more of our elected officials who push this @EV first" narrative. They believe it lets them off the hook for investing in the T: this means service, expansion AND low income fares. We also need safe cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, and e-mobility rebates.
We need to right the historical inequalities in our transportation system that cars wrought. Not simply make them electric. https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/a-city-divided-the-building-of-the-mass-turnpike-in-n8b55de003a
We need leaders who stand up for the equitable and sustainable land use policies enabled by having fewer cars on the road.
Be very wary of anyone who calls themselves progressive, but pushes a strategy of putting more and more cars on our overcrowded roads or doesn't think about the impacts to vulnerable street users or low-income and transit reliant people.
Thoughtful political leadership is about balancing reality with the very real impact ALL vehicles have on air quality and housing costs. Being progressive means saying that's it's not acceptable to fund Tesla purchases while the T can't afford electric buses.
Some point to the fact that the majority of miles traveled in the state are on the road. How did that happen? A massive investment that plowed through communities, almost exclusively low income and minority ones, and by draining resources and space from public transit.
Again, a failure to think beyond the vehicle is a recipe for a poorer, more climate vulnerable, more unequal region with even worse traffic than before. We have the opportunity to do better, but only if we think beyond the car.
