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Comment by staticelf | Hacker News Reader

As an european this feel very US-centristic to me. "Green new deal" is something in the US right?

When I visited the states, I was kind of shocked how bad the public transport system was. It's hard to be a tourist in a city like LA for example.

It also feels like it gotta suck to be in that traffic every day which I am sure many are. So many cities seems completely built to for everyone to have a car. There is no walking distance anywhere.

Ofc I rented a carto travel around since there was no other option available. While I really enjoyed the large straight roads of the US it just amazed me that there was so bad sidewalks, little to no bicycle paths and bad public transportation systems.

What I don't get is how the US will ever get to zero emissions. I have a hard time believing that when there is literally no other option than using a car.

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>As an european this feel very US-centristic to me. "Green new deal" is something in the US right?

AOC whose 'end of the world' date is about 10 years from now. Slightly longer, is the one who created the 'green new deal' and that legislation was universally voted against. Even her fellow democrats voted against it. Hawaii's democrats were exceptionally angry about it because the new green deal would actually destroy Hawaii. Afterall, how much diesel is used every day to travel too and from hawaii?

>What I don't get is how the US will ever get to zero emissions. I have a hard time believing that when there is literally no other option than using a car.

The history about north america can dawn why. We were built around railroads, while Europe was built around horses. Everything is much more spread out.

It also won't be a problem. Electric cars are coming with a passion.

> As an european this feel very US-centristic to me. "Green new deal" is something in the US right?

Not really. See https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/euro... and https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/euro...

>What I don't get is how the US will ever get to zero emissions.

Since the very act of breathing or farting creates emissions, I don't think any country will ever have zero emissions.

Sure thing, but at least most european countries have a lot easier when it comes to lower the emissions from cars.

Seems incredible wasteful for everyone to have their own car. Perhaps it will be more of a taxi service in the future with electric cars but until then even electric cars does release a lot of carbon when they are created and their batteries etc is not that great when they expire.

>Sure thing, but at least most european countries have a lot easier when it comes to lower the emissions from cars.

Most European countries are also like 1/500th the size of the USA though(exaggerating a little bit). Things are much more spread out over here, and from what I've seen we have bigger streets that can handle more traffic whereas a lot of European places have preexisting structures/buildings that prevent streets from really getting any bigger.. Like, I figure that probably went into the thought process when people decided whether or not to invest more in public transportation. If you can't make your streets bigger you probably need to incentivize people to not rely on the limited space of the roads.

I live in the USA and went 3 years without a car and had no issues getting around via public transportation. It just depends on where you live. The USA isn't the same everywhere you go, ya know?

True true about the preexisting buildings. But usually the towns can grow wider and that is what's happening at least in my home town of Stockholm.

But they are also building out bicycle paths and a lot of public transportation. When you go in the states a lot of shops etc is so far between so walking between them is possible to not really feasible.

Such places exist in my country as well but they are rare and far between. In the US it seems to be the standard. I visited 4 states and only NYC had good enough public transportation IMO.

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