good traffic.

08 / Norway's electric car experiment.

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The prompt for this week's audio was David Zipper's recent Vox article, titled "Why Norway — the poster child for electric cars — is having second thoughts."


Electric cars as the salient solution to climate change does a disservice to another brand of innovation: simplicity that works. Or, as we call it, biking, walking, public transit, and the like.


We discuss:

  • David Zipper's article on Norway's past decade of heavily incentivizing electric vehicle ownership.
  • Why EVs cannot be the bulk of the solution to our cities' climate challenges.
  • The geometry and economics of cities and their space.
  • The common disconnect between Federal goals and cities' best interests, and how funding for one can severely undermine the other.
  • Eisenhower's Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, and the risks of blanketed national policy and subsidy.
  • Bifurcation and classism.
  • Cautionary learnings for American planners and politicians.
  • What American's can do to evangelize simple innovation that works.


    • Explore further:

    • "Why Norway — the poster child for electric cars — is having second thoughts" by David Zipper (Vox)
      • Background on Eisenhower's Federal-Aid Highway Act, from KPBS in San Diego.


        • Connecting with me, Brad:

        • On Instagram
          • On TikTok
            • On LinkedIn
              • ...more
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