Climate notes for March 1st 2024
My first tab open below is for a car. Which is weird for a little blog based entirely on the mess that is climate change and how we're handling it.
But it reminds me of when I was in Amsterdam a few months ago. We stayed on the north end of the city, which is separated by a body of water. You commute across to, in my case, Centraal Station on a free boat that runs every few minutes. It's an incredible, and necessary, service. Most passengers are either on foot or on bikes. But tiny little cars, even ones running engines, are allowed to go on. These cars are tiny, almost comical.
I was confused by them when they had engines, though drivers seem to shut them off when they're on the boat surrounded by other people. But then I spotted a few Citroen Ami's on them, and I realised that this mix is the mix of proper, future urban mobility. We are all on a boat, primarily pedestrians, significantly on bicycles and then there's one or two little electric cars.
SUVs have a place, I'm sure, but it's not an urban place.