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Relative-Ad-3217 t1_itsfn1p wrote

Reply to comment by Jeramus in Moonwalkers give users a powered boost as they walk by geoxol

The shoes solve a problem that doesn't exist.

The problem with cars and air pollution stems from car centric infrastructure and how subsidized oil. Unless those are solved people will still use cars.

Accessible and reliable Public Transport are the solution to car pollution.

This shoes just create new e-waste.

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Jeramus t1_itsfzs2 wrote

Last-mile transportation is an issue. That's why we have scooters, skateboards, foldable bikes, etc. I don't think it is a completely solved problem. These are small enough to take on a subway.

I'm not trying to argue that this particular last-mile solution is the best, but this class of transportation device is not useless.

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nastybuck t1_ittxr2c wrote

You kind of forgot that there's a whole world existing outside of the US...

I don't own a car nor use the city's public transports because biking/scooting is so much more convenient where I live.

So yeah those shoes are trying to solve the same problem bikes and escooters have already fixed.

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gurenkagurenda t1_itudbw7 wrote

> The shoes solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Huh? Do bikes solve a problem that doesn’t exist? It seems obvious to me that the shoes solve the problem of being able to walk to places that are too far away to be convenient to walk under normal circumstances, and which aren’t designed for bikeability.

I used to have about two hours of walking each day between home, train stations, and work. The choices were that, ride a bike or scooter on busy San Francisco streets, illegally ride a scooter on the sidewalk, or Uber. Some days I’d be exhausted enough to do that last one, which was terrible for the environment.

If, and this key, but if they have a mode of quick transportation that is both convenient to carry around and safe to use on sidewalks, that’s huge for areas where bikes are for people with a death wish.

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Relative-Ad-3217 t1_itur7d5 wrote

How about making those places more bike-able ?

Rentable e-bikes/scooters?

How about more reliable and frequent bus services between train stations?

Essentially it's privatizing a public problem.

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gurenkagurenda t1_ituxga4 wrote

That's a very different claim from "solving a problem that doesn't exist." And the problem with all of your "how about" whatevers is that we've seen for decades now that many cities are not solving these problems, and there's very little sign that that's going to change any time soon. And not simply because people are stubborn, but because tons of actual practical challenges are intertwined with the political gridlock.

I don't know if you've noticed, but the planet is falling apart right now. We don't have the luxury of waiting for a thousand broken city governments to get their shit together and solve their transportation problems. Even if things like this are only intermediate solutions, if they help, that's a good thing.

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Relative-Ad-3217 t1_itv545b wrote

No doubts it's much better than doing nothing.

The problem is it can easily turn into a green washing scenario.

I think many "no-brainer" tech-fixes to the current ecological challenges must always be critiqued.

Especially since they may work against attempts to create valuable structural abs policy changes.

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PaulTheMerc t1_iu09xa2 wrote

While rentable could work, the fees keep adding up. Ownership is ideal

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joeyb92 t1_ittehi4 wrote

Busses are made electric as well and thus create e-waste

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PaulTheMerc t1_iu09l71 wrote

Transit isn't going to solve the issue. It's a 20 min walk out to the main street in a lot of places. For a bus that runs every 20-30. The people want PERSONAL transport. We're better off with something like ebikes. Obviously transit where it works, but some places were built just to spite transit so

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