Slashdot Mirror
In Response to Pollution Spike, Paris Temporarily Halves Traffic By Decree
As reported by News.com.au, the city of Paris has implemented a harsh (but temporary) measure for drivers, in response to a surge in pollution: banning cars with even-numbered registration plates from the streets. According to the article,
City mayor Anne Hidalgo had asked authorities to prevent one in every two cars from taking to the capital’s streets and make all public transport temporarily free in a bid to drive down pollution. Only vehicles with numberplates ending in an odd number will be allowed to drive, though exceptions exist for vehicles like taxis, electric cars and ambulances. ... Public transportation is to be free until at least Monday in Paris and its surrounding towns in an effort to force pollution down by coaxing drivers to give up their cars for a few days. Similar emergency measures were last implemented almost exactly a year ago — on March 17 — during a particularly bad spike in the pollution levels.
We've been doing this for years, both with cap&trade and with better emissions standards. Countries need to start doing a lot more and not just passing the buck so politicians can get reelected again. At some point we as a whole need to make some changes that are going to make people comfortable with the norm pretty unhappy. They can deal with it and adjust, but the norm isn't going to work.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
They'll likely convince some people to continue with public transportation, which would be a victory, even if small.
Probably not. We are voting this Sunday. My guess is that people will be so upset not to be allowed to take their car tomorrow, that they will vote for the very first idiot that will promise to ban the measure. Usually, these idiots are right wing extremists.
I'm not very optimistic. Mankind is greedy by nature and probably can't understand the logic of environment preservation as long as it generates a net individual loss.
Video of some good progressive thrash music
The diesel problem isn't a combustion one: diesel is more efficient than petrrol. In case you wonder what "more efficient", that is that the combustion rate is higher than that of petrol.
The problem lies with particle emissions / N compounds emissions. That's where diesel pollutes much more than petrol.
In this case, talking about Paris, the pollution will be dominated by cars. There aren't many industrial sources in the city.
Public transport uptake would likely increase dramatically, at least here in Australia, if it were free. It probably wouldn't change train usage, but for buses and trams there would likely be a marked uptake. I suppose it might be a hard sell due to the cost, though the benefits of fewer cars on the road might sell that pretty well.
At a guess, I'd say there are two main reasons people don't use public transport: it's inconvenient to schedule your transport around someone else's timetable and path, and it's inconvenient to have to carry the correct quantity of cash / make sure a bus card has enough money on it; for the poorer demographic the cost part is probably a greater component. Having more people using public transport would probably result in increased availability / paths for public transport, mitigating the first problem a bit.
Just seems a bit weird; if you want cars off the road, reduce the benefits of using one (using a bus would eliminate wear & tear, fuel, and parking costs). As a bonus your population's health might improve very slightly as people are walking to and from the bus stops.
One word: Cologne, French for "Bathes? Bathes? We don't need no stinkin' bathes".
Yeah, everyone I know who has actually been to France says that the French still don't bathe, and still wear too much perfume. The combination is especially revolting. It's how patchouli got the full force of its bad name. Yeah, it smells like BO already. Then hippies started using it to "cover" BO, which is to say, amplify. It has a superadditive affect with hippie stink.
Most cologne and perfume is toxic, yes most. The stuff ought to be banned, or at least strictly regulated which would amount to basically the same thing. In particular they should never be able to use anything which even might be toxic in the same mixture as musk, whose job is to carry compounds through cell walls. Axe body spray is probably dumping more toxic compounds into the nation's youth than industrial activity.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The diesel sold in Europe is much better fuel than the one we dump into trucks and trains. Lower sulfur, for one thing, although we are catching up.
Our trucks are already running on ULSD, but not our trains, or our ships.
hygrophobic (doesn't pull water from the air into the fuel tank) than the lighter hydrocarbons
But diesels have more openly vented tanks, letting air move in and out of the tank freely while the vehicle isn't even being used. I don't think this is a benefit worth mentioning.
Anyway, modern gasoline engines (small, direct-injected, with a turbo) are even more efficient than diesels, because you don't have to carry around a heavy block. And modern diesels re-burn their exhaust until they make fine smog just like a gasser. So the advantages are vanishing. We even know how to make a 1:1 biofuel replacement for gasoline out of any organic material. Unfortunately, BP and DuPont sued Gevo to prevent them from selling it to us. We'd be able to buy it in the USA right now if not for BP and DuPont, the evil fucks.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You'd be wrong then. Soap is not needed to avoid smelling like a French man. Just regular bathing.
Other than getting oil and other sticky substances off my hands I can't recall the last time I used soap. My work colleagues might hesitate to tell me if I did smell but my dance partners wouldn't - they'd not only tell me, they'd refuse to dance with me.
Luckily I shower daily (or more) and stay clean and avoid smelling of dirt, stale sweat and garlic.
Soap? Totally fucking irrelevant.