"One pro-Palestinian protester was hospitalized on Tuesday after a pro-Israel driver "intentionally drove" into a group of picketers outside the home of one of Columbia University's trustees on New York City's Upper East Side, as demonstrations against Israel's bombardment of Gaza continued."
A 33-year-old Toronto man pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death of a woman and dangerous driving causing bodily harm to her husband in March.
@arstechnica what a fucking dystopia! As if there weren't enough cars on the roads, now we're adding more and more demand for them just to serve some lazy asses their curry, pizza, sushi or whatever.
The #Biden administration announced a regulation designed to boost sales of electric trucks. The latest in a string of ambitious climate regulations, it aims to clean up the heaviest polluters on the road -NYT
@GottaLaff
Asphalt is a byproduct of crude oil. It's toxic, nothing grows on it. It causes higher temperatures and contributes significantly to global warming. Combustion engines are a problem but they are not the only problem caused by cars and car related infrastructure. There is no version of reality where we protect the environment and avoid mass extinction without getting rid of cars. Not to mention the 46,000 people a year killed by cars and 2,000,000 injuries per year in the USA alone. #FuckCars
Summarises car-related harm including crashes, pollution, land use, and injustices.
1 in 34 deaths are caused by cars and automobility with 1,670,000 deaths per year.
Cars and automobility have killed 60–80 million people since their invention.
Car harm will continue unless policies change; example interventions are discussed.
Abstract
Despite the widespread harm caused by cars and automobility, governments, corporations, and individuals continue to facilitate it by expanding roads, manufacturing larger vehicles, and subsidising parking, electric cars, and resource extraction. This literature review synthesises the negative consequences of automobility, or car harm, which we have grouped into four categories: violence, ill health, social injustice, and environmental damage. We find that, since their invention, cars and automobility have killed 60–80 million people and injured at least 2 billion. Currently, 1 in 34 deaths are caused by automobility. Cars have exacerbated social inequities and damaged ecosystems in every global region, including in remote car-free places. While some people benefit from automobility, nearly everyone—whether or not they drive—is harmed by it. Slowing automobility's violence and pollution will be impracticable without the replacement of policies that encourage car harm with policies that reduce it. To that end, the paper briefly summarises interventions that are ready for implementation.
So WestConnex was totally going to solve traffic in Sydney by adding more lanes for cars. Just a few teething problems on the Rozelle Interchange and it'll all clear up, they said.
I wonder how it's going?
"Gladesville and Drummoyne locals say gridlock is worsening in their suburbs following changes to improve traffic flow through the notorious Rozelle Interchange, with drivers using local streets as “rat runs” to dodge congestion."
Seen on Reddit. This is AMAZING and I love the creativity and style.
The very idea that a high-viz jacket/vest could actually look good is so foreign, and yet here we are! #cycling#fuckcars#nocars#solarpunk#bikes#creative
Are microplastics from car tyres contributing to heart disease?
"Add one more likely culprit to the long list of known cardiovascular risk factors including red meat, butter, smoking and stress: microplastics.
"In a study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of physicians and researchers showed that surgical patients who had a build-up of micro and nanoplastics in their arterial plaque had a 2.1 times greater risk of nonfatal heart attack, nonfatal stroke or death from any cause in the three years post surgery than those who did not."
So it's not just the sedentary lifestyles that car-dependent planning encourages that's causing health issues.
And it's not just exhaust fumes either.
There's also the health impacts of microplastics, including from car tyres.
Worth noting as well that internal documents from the big oil companies show that they knew since the 1970s that recycling wasn't going to solve the problem of plastic pollution. They promoted it anyway: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112064312364853769
When I tell people that >20% of the population everywhere cannot drive, they always quibble about including children in that calculation. I think it says a lot about our car brained society that it's normal to think minors shouldn't have independent mobility.
Concerned about microplastics? Research shows one of the biggest sources is car tyres
A lot of the emphasis on reducing microplastics has focussed on things like plastic bags, clothing, and food packaging.
But there's a growing body of research that shows one of the biggest culprits by far is car tyres.
It's increasingly clear that we simply cannot solve the issue of microplastics in the environment while still using tyres — even with electric-powered cars.
"Tyre wear stands out as a major source of microplastic pollution. Globally, each person is responsible for around 1kg of microplastic pollution from tyre wear released into the environment on average each year – with even higher rates observed in developed nations.
"It is estimated that between 8% and 40% of these particles find their way into surface waters such as the sea, rivers and lakes through runoff from road surfaces, wastewater discharge or even through airborne transport.
"However, tyre wear microplastics have been largely overlooked as a microplastic pollutant. Their dark colour makes them difficult to detect, so these particles can’t be identified using the traditional spectroscopy methods used to identify other more colourful plastic polymers."
"Microplastic pollution has polluted the entire planet, from Arctic snow and Alpine soils to the deepest oceans. The particles can harbour toxic chemicals and harmful microbes and are known to harm some marine creatures. People are also known to consume them via food and water, and to breathe them, But the impact on human health is not yet known.
"“Roads are a very significant source of microplastics to remote areas, including the oceans,” said Andreas Stohl, from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, who led the research. He said an average tyre loses 4kg during its lifetime. “It’s such a huge amount of plastic compared to, say, clothes,” whose fibres are commonly found in rivers, Stohl said. “You will not lose kilograms of plastic from your clothing.”"
"Microplastics are of increasing concern in the environment [1, 2]. Tire wear is estimated to be one of the largest sources of microplastics entering the aquatic environment [3,4,5,6,7]. The mechanical abrasion of car tires by the road surface forms tire wear particles (TWP) [8] and/or tire and road wear particles (TRWP), consisting of a complex mixture of rubber, with both embedded asphalt and minerals from the pavement [9]."
"...Australia is heading in the wrong direction. In Melbourne, for instance, the amount of space devoted to private parking has increased by 156% over the last 20 years. The MCG’s green oasis is very much the exception."
Daughter of woman killed in Gardiner crash: ‘I don’t understand the recklessness of it’ - Toronto | Globalnews.ca ( globalnews.ca )
A 33-year-old Toronto man pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death of a woman and dangerous driving causing bodily harm to her husband in March.
Traffic rule ( slrpnk.net )