memes

Saw a documentary on how gm killed the electric car they made in to 90s

GM EV1 electric car was discontinued in the late 1990s after its production run (1996-1999), and GM controversially crushed almost all of them in the early 2000s, sparking the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The company stated the decision was due to high production and maintenance costs and the belief that it was not a commercially viable product. The EV1's demise is often linked to the end of California's zero-emission vehicle mandate, after which GM and other automakers lobbied to soften the regulations. 

I see this a lot and GM definitely deserves a large share of the blame but we also need to look at ourselves, our culture, and the way we decided to evolve our cities.

Redlining, white flight, car-centric suburbs, HOAs, wide streets, 2-car garages, Hollywood movies like Rebel Without a Cause. The list of factors goes on and on and on.

A lot of people like to blame boomers for all our ills but I think the trend started earlier with people who were teenagers at the end of WW2. They were too young to fight in the war but they were old enough to get sucked into this brand new marketing and cultural phenomenon known as the teenager.

Prior to WW2, marketers targeted only older adults and their messaging was very practical and family-oriented. After WW2 there began a movement towards teenage independence, rebellion, and rock & roll. The centre of all this independence was the car!

Couldn't Fascist Ford, shipping weapons to Nazi Germany, be held just as culpable? Fuck all these cunts.

What is that middle lane for?

oh no, !fuckcars@lemmy.world is leaking again...

It was Henry Ford and John D Rockefeller who killed public transportation like electric trolley cars, so they could be replaced by gas guzzling vehicles.

Expensive planet killing death machines are all they are.

My area in Los Angeles used to have several rail lines nearby along with pedestrian tunnels (called “sub-ways” at the time) all over the place. I like looking at old photos from those times and marvel at how much more pedestrian friendly it all used to be.

There used to be a line on my street in Lansing 😭