New Zealand is one of the most car-dependent country in the world. It's now a strategic liability (www.rnz.co.nz)
from Canaii@lemmy.zip to world@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 11:59
https://lemmy.zip/post/61138036

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Fizz@lemmy.nz on 21 Mar 14:16 next collapse

It is what it is

Tuuktuuk@anarchist.nexus on 21 Mar 15:16 collapse

No, it absolutely is not “what it is”.

This is definitely a problem that can and must be fixed.

Fizz@lemmy.nz on 21 Mar 23:47 next collapse

How?

MrFinnbean@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 23:56 next collapse

With infrastructure.

Fizz@lemmy.nz on 22 Mar 00:58 collapse

What infrastructure?

MrFinnbean@lemmy.world on 22 Mar 06:06 collapse

What you think? Balloon animals?

Fizz@lemmy.nz on 22 Mar 06:30 collapse

Why dont you just say what you think would help

MrFinnbean@lemmy.world on 22 Mar 07:59 collapse

Why?

Tuuktuuk@nord.pub on 22 Mar 07:13 collapse
  • make using public transportation more feasible and more comfortable than it is now
  • maximize the walkability of people’s everyday environments
  • the part of private car usage that is not necessary should be heavily taxed
  • enable people to commute by bicycle in a way that is actually comfortable
  • make sure villages’, towns’, and cities’ development is done in a way that supports building good public transportation (especially: don’t build cul-de-sack neighbourhoods)
  • the part of car usage that is necessitated should happen with electric vehicles

These are measures that are being taken in various other cities around the planet. The Netherlands started doing moat of these in the 1970’s and is now a tourist destination because of that. People really like the urban environment that has produced.

Fizz@lemmy.nz on 22 Mar 07:48 collapse

Nz is completely different to the Netherlands. We are a young country, have low density and are far away from the world which makes building cost a ton. A lot of the things youve suggested would just never be able to happen quick enough to avoid this.

We are doing majority of the things you listed already but its taking time. Even if we’d already completed it we would still be hit very hard due to how spread out the population is. We’ve switched to electric buses and ferry’s. We’ve switched our zoning to high density. We’ve done electric vehicle rebates and built out a charging network in cities. Our cities are fine to walk. This is pretty new tech you can’t just say bro why havent you gone 100% electric yet.

NZ has a lot of places where its not economical to get the required infrastructure built out. And all these infrastructure projects place a huge burden on our low tax base.

The only realistic solution to reduce the impact would be to increase the minimum fuel storage requirements but who would have the foresight to do that? Why would we expect our supply chain to get fucked like this.

We can cut of fuel to people in cities they can take public transport or work from home and rural people and critical infrastructure can use rhe 50 days of fuel reserves and well see what the situation is like in 30 days. It looks like we’ll be able to secure another ship of fuel from one of the Asian refineries so I doubt we’ll go without.

pienz@feddit.org on 22 Mar 09:11 collapse

I kinda dislike the low density bit, yes I agree we are different to the Netherlands and that impacts how we would build this infrastructure, but it shouldn’t be a full excuse.

The thing I see is we are more than capable of putting out large scale infrastructure like the rollout of fibre broadband and the completed highways works connecting Auckland to Hamilton and beyond

Your right, Its probably an economics of scale problem, building roads already has momentum and the equipment, while with rail we would need to commit to bigger + more projects that would take longer than a election term and risk the population thinking it’s a waste of their tax

MrFinnbean@lemmy.world on 22 Mar 10:00 collapse

Low density is always hard nut to crack because when distances are long and population is small, public transportation is not feasible.

One potentially great way to help mitigate the problem and help in both self sufficiency and carbon releases is biogas plants. In Finland there is close to 50 biogas plants build privately on farms. Its relativelly cheap to convert traditional gas engines to work with biogas. This is true for both farmin vehicles and cars. And it can be used for generating electricity. The plants also produces fertilizer as a by-product, so it helps with two recources that are traditionally imported from somewhere else.

YetAnotherNerd@sopuli.xyz on 22 Mar 00:53 collapse

It’s a quote from Donald Trump, when he asked about the effects of the war.

maxsettings@lemmy.ca on 22 Mar 02:30 next collapse

The article missed the part where NZ sold its national railroad to private equity after tax payers bailed it out of debt. The government has since bought the railroad back but the damage was done.

Harvey656@lemmy.world on 22 Mar 06:27 collapse

Why don’t they just add another lane? /s