sprawl is missing the point
you have to ask why is sprawl happening? I believe some of the reasons for sprawl is because cities are not built for humans. It's well documented that for millennia, cities have higher real estate prices for less Square footage, greater pollution, lower quality of life, higher prices, lower quality food and lower access to good food. if you look at police crime statistics, you'll see that urban spaces have significantly higher crime rates, violent and nonviolent. fix the cities and people will move back in willingly. And that's another important bit. You can't force anybody to do anything. Make attractive, make it cheaper and then people do green things which is why I find electric cars so interesting.
The city repair I described will take hundreds of years. In the meantime, I would rather see us taking advantage of existing infrastructure(no additional cost) using electric cars. we would significantly drop energy usage, we will preserve mobility, preserve competition in food supplies, and other goods and services instead of being bound to the near-monopoly of local merchants.
I also look forward to the possibility hinted at by other real-world experiences that electric cars may destroy existing public transportation. one of these hints can be found in the archives for Green car Congress. Search for electric bicycles in China, to find an article talking about how in China, a family can purchase electric bicycle and in the first year, cover the cost of the bicycle by its replacing public transit as a means of transport. if the same relationship plays out with electric cars and public transit, there'll be no need or reason to spend any money on public transit systems.
I really think electric cars are a huge win for us as a society. The energy savings, the CO2 reduction, reuse of existing infrastructure are all major pluses. environmentalists who want people to live in cities should feel free to invest their own money in redevelopment projects replacing low density urban housing with high density housing. If they do it right, some people may be willing to move in but good suburban space with nearby access to wild lands is wonderful and has no urban experience that can compare. I wish them luck trying to convince people to move in but in the meantime, electric cars are the way to go to put a big dent in the CO2 problem.
