The report card highlighted the urgent need for infrastructure improvement for aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, schools, solid waste, transit, and wastewater.
Dams and levees received a D grade. Dams create reservoirs for water supply and protect local communities from floods. They also provide renewable energy. Levees reduce the risk from devastating flooding events. However, nearly 17% of America’s dams are considered high hazard potential; the dams failure would likely cause a loss of life and significant economic losses.
What’s the environmental impact of these dockless e-scooters I see all over town now? —Jim M. Salisbury, CT
By now, you’ve certainly seen dockless e-scooters in your town or somewhere nearby. Some 85,000 of these electric-powered, phone-unlockable mini-vehicles crowd the streets and sidewalks of 100 different metro areas across the U.S. In 2018 they surpassed dockless e-bikes as the most common app-rentable transport option nationwide, with riders taking them on some 38.5 million trips.
A recent lifecycle analysis found that bicycling, walking and buses are all “greener” modes of transport than dockless e-scooters…but are they as fun? Credit: Brett Sayles, Pexels.
These e-scooters are often marketed as “green” or “carbon-neutral” because they run off electric batteries instead of fossil fuels, but consumers shouldn’t think they’re getting a completely guilt-free ride. A recent lifecycle analysis from North Carolina State University assessing the “cradle-to-grave” environmental impact of e-scooters found that bicycling, walking and buses are all “greener” ways to get around.
A rider hopping on an e-scooter doesn’t necessarily think about the carbon emissions and other impacts involved with manufacturing, transporting and maintaining these otherwise low-impact electric vehicles. “If you only think about the segment of the life cycle you can see, which would be standing on the e-scooter where there’s no tailpipe, it’s easy to make that assumption,” says Jeremiah Johnson, an NC State professor and study co-author. “But if you take a step back, you can see all the other things that are a bit hidden in the process.”
While relatively light and small, e-scooters must carry a battery in addition to their basic frame and electronic systems. Producing these batteries takes a heavy toll on the environment, although no worse than similar types of batteries used in e-bikes and even electric cars. Besides the batteries, the aluminum used to create the e-scooters’ frames and the rubber for their tires add to their environmental footprint.
The NC State researchers found that about half of an e-scooter’s carbon footprint is created during production, while most of the rest (43 percent) comes from collecting and recharging them every night. In general, e-scooters are charged by freelance workers known as “juicers.” At the end of each day, they take e-scooters off the street and typically charge them up at home via their own power outlets (likely not from renewable sources). Furthermore, the majority of juicers pick up e-scooters in gas-powered cars or trucks. The upshot is that the common charging process is a long way from being carbon neutral.
That said, e-scooters are currently about twice as efficient as the average car in per passenger miles per gallon (in this case CO2 units emitted per passenger carried a distance of one mile). However, a car carrying more than one passenger can reach the same or even better levels of efficiency as an e-scooter. Buses, when fully loaded, easily beat e-scooters in per passenger efficiency, while bicycles easily beat buses.
Of course, e-scooters are sure to become more efficient in the future as both the production and pick-up processes get greener. As a consumer, you can improve the situation by using e-scooters to replace car trips, but bikes or buses are still a better choice as far as the planet is concerned.
CONTACT: “Are E-Scooters Polluters? The Environmental Impacts of Shared Dockless Electric Scooters”.
I see more and more EVs out of the road. When will they start to outnumber internal combustion cars on American roads? –Jane L., New Bern, NC
Electric vehicles (EVs) have been around about as long as cars themselves. In fact, primitive EVs were the dominant form of automotive transportation at the dawn of the auto age in Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century. It wasn’t until the 1920s—when the U.S. road system was starting to be built out and cheap oil was available from newly tapped Texas oil fields—that internal combustion cars began to take over as the predominant vehicles across the United States.
It looks like we might have to wait some two decades for electric vehicles (EVs) to displace internal combustion cars as the kings of the American road. Credit: Mike, Pexels.
And we
never looked back. Until recently, that is. Nowadays, EVs (Teslas, Leafs,
Bolts, etc.) are indeed everywhere. Analysts estimate the EVs will be cheaper
to buy than internal combustion cars as soon as 2022. Beyond that, it’s
probably only a matter of two decades before EVs represent the majority of
cars, light trucks and SUVs plying American roads.
In
2018, EVs made up only about six percent of total U.S. new car sales, but that
figure represents an astonishing 70 percent growth from the year prior. Moving
forward, analysts expect around 13 percent annual compound growth in the EV
sector for the foreseeable future. Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research arm
of the New York-based media company, expects sales of passenger EVs to overtake
conventional internal combustion-based vehicles by 2038 (with EV sales topping
50 million a year as compared to conventional vehicle sales of 47 million by
then). After that, EVs, with their lower ongoing fuel and maintenance costs,
will continue taking over more and more of the market every year, calling the
very future of the internal combustion engine passenger car into question.
As
technologies mature (allowing for better battery storage and extended driving
range) and manufacturers ramp up production and prices come down accordingly,
consumers will begin to look exclusively at EVs when shopping for new cars.
Indeed, a recent survey of 2,000 adults living in either California or the
Northeast Tristate Area (NY, NJ, CT) by consulting firm West Monroe Partners
found that the majority (59 percent) of respondents think their next vehicle
will be an electric car. Not surprisingly, the survey found that Gen Zers
(those born after 1996) are especially inclined toward EVs.
That
said, only 16 percent of respondents are driving around in EVs today, and
concerns including short battery life and lack of charging stations (limiting
the vehicles’ range), as well as high up-front purchase costs, are still
holding many of us back from taking the all-electric plunge. But the writing is
on the wall for gas guzzling passenger cars as we overcome these short-term
hurdles. With about 15 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions emanating from
the tailpipes of our internal combustion cars and light trucks, and gasoline
becoming more and more expensive, the inevitable switchover to EVs—despite
efforts by the Trump administration to reduce national fuel efficiency
standards and bolster the ailing oil industry—is going to be a win-win for
consumers and the planet. 2038 can’t come too soon!
