The world's largest auto market has a way of dictating the issue.

[JockoT]

Here in the UK, most long distance travel is by train. If you are travelling in a hurry or on business, plane, and if the whole family is travelling you take the car. Granted, our "long distance" would be considered "local" in the US and "just popping next door" in Australia!

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by JockoT

Here in the UK, most long distance travel is by train. If you are travelling in a hurry or on business, plane, and if the whole family is travelling you take the car. Granted, our "long distance" would be considered "local" in the US and "just popping next door" in Australia!

I have heard our state, Montana, is about the same size as Germany. We are the 4th largest size wise of the 50. You can spend all day at 75-85mph trying to get from east the west of it 703 miles on the interstate. When you are done you have gone from the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowhere. Ironically we do have a great railroad that also goes the whole way east to west following what we call the High Line (which is latitude not altitude) even more crossing the middle of nowhere. It's also great if you are going nowhere. The problem is when I go nowhere I want to be the only one there. Nothing like a crowd to ruin nowhere.

[sendler]

China wants all electric cars: will it work? Reasons and reactions

[JockoT]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I want to be the only one there. Nothing like a crowd to ruin nowhere.

The only reason we use the railways here is to save money. By choice I would drive but the price of petrol makes a long journey prohibitive for me. Unless the whole family is going.

[Xist]

Honestly, I am thirty-eight years old and I am still entertained by the idea that I can get in my car and drive hundreds or thousands of miles, but sometimes I would rather take a train. I regularly wish we had better mass transit.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...-say/82613144/

Who talked about improving society through VR?

[sendler]

Originally Posted by Xist

Honestly, I am thirty-eight years old and I am still entertained by the idea that I can get in my car and drive hundreds or thousands of miles

We are living in the golden age of fossil fuel wealth.
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[freebeard]

Honestly, I am old[er] and I am still entertained by the idea that I can get in my car and bang out quarter mile trap speeds, but sometimes I would rather walk through a show 'n shine. They'll never get me on a 2400mph train.

[Xist]

I am not sure that anyone would argue that going back to muscles and firewood would be good for us. Sure, the exercise would benefit many of us, although some would have an uphill battle, but this page says the average homeowner uses almost five cords of wood a year. How many trees it takes to make a cord entirely depends on the trees, but I read that, on average, one tree that is thirty-six feet tall might possibly make one cord.

I do not know why it specified homeowners, except that people in apartments very well might have central heating, and I read there were 125,000,000 heads of household in 2016. Does that suggest we would need to chop down 675 million trees each year just for heating?

That is not a small number!

That is a large number!

[sendler]

Obviously no one said 8 Billion people could go back to firewood. Hence the question mark. One thing for sure is the end of growth.

[Hersbird]

We lost over a million ACRES of trees to wildfires, just in the last 3 months, just in Montana. That would be at least 10 million cords if not ten times that in some of the old growth that burned. A waste but also a window at what that much smoke would do. It was bad, like off the charts bad, air quality. You couldn't see more than 2 miles for months, some days you couldn't see 2 blocks away. If you were burning that much in the winter it would be even worse with temperature inversions. Still your math is an overestimate as millions in the southern see a wouldn't "need" heat at all.