i mean, EV’s are just heavier, which means they’re going to put more wear on the road. Regardless a smaller EV should still be relatively comparable to a moderately larger ICE vehicle. And we also expect EV batteries to get lighter over time, especially if you include solidstate battery tech.

Agreed.

Although maybe EVs should get a tax credit in this regard, since they’re yknow, EVs.

Personally, I’m against tax credits on a conceptual basis. They complicate the tax code. Taxes should be simple, quick, and easy. Tacking on extra tax credits just makes an already horrendous system worse. Either give a citizen a check automatically, directly subsidize individual sales.

It isn’t. Regularly drinking distilled water will cause you problems. Because the water has no mineral content, it collects minerals from you, which over time will leave you mineral deficient.

It isn’t healthy.

That, and as long as it’s made publicly and widely known that there is an issue, it’s not that big of a deal.

We have water boiling alerts for a reason, this is no different. Water distribution will always be a risk no matter what. Public health will always be a risk no matter what. But the benefits outweigh the risk.

Is your computer networked? If so, that’s a bad idea

a lot of that infrastructure is simply going to take time to mature.

Absolutely. But it will definitely help, and long term solutions are important solutions.

a tax on vehicle weight would be a good one though.

Also absolutely, though a straight weigh based tax may not be a great idea, as EVs are significantly heavier. So without taking that into account, it would largely be a tax on EVs. Given the current climate situation, that’s the wrong move.

From what I’ve seen in practice, it seems like most vehicle weight taxes do take this into account.

Different user, but ending the loopholes on vehicle emissions/MPG would be a good start. Here is a good summary of the situation:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-wants-to-close-the-suv-loophole-that-supersized-cars/

Though IIRC the Biden admin came out with new, better rules to help with this.

Another way to deal with it is to build comprehensive public transportation, relax residential zoning regulations, eliminate parking minimums, build biking/pedestrian infrastructure, etc. Doing so will reduce car dependence and therefore the number of people who unnecessarily choose a huge vehicle.

Yet another way to deal with this, is to tax auto sales based on vehicle size. As of right now, there is little financial pressure to keep cars small, so manufactures play an arms race with each other to make bigger vehicles, because they’re safer the occupants, all at the cost of everybody else’s safety. Bigger cars also impart more wear and tear on public roads, so between these things they should financially contribute more taxes to compensate.

you’re able to keep each other accountable in simple small ways.

Not only that, but also to have a sense of humor and understanding about it.

There will be quasi-stable points in a halo orbits around the sun-facing side of L1 which could sustain a whole lot of these buggers.

I’ll take your word for it then.

KSP is great, but it only does two body physics (unless you’re using the Principia mod – never tried it). So you cannot simulate things like lagrange points there.

Would have been a nice addition to KSP 2 if they hadn’t fucked it up. I’ll check out that mod at some point though.

Clever stuff. It’s basically a steerable continuous thrust system that tacks against sunlight.

Very clever, and very useful. Though probably not useful for this case. The solar pressure/wind will enact a constant normal force on the orbit of any craft at L1. So to maintain stable orbit (from my understanding) you will need to counteract that with a constant antinormal force, or else you’ll get pushed out of L1 and then go flying off.

I know on Earth you can sail more or less directly into the wind with a sail boat using clever geometry, but I’m not so sure that is possible when orbits are involved. That’s the limit of my KSP based knowledge of orbital mechanics lol.

There’s also some untested methods that could potentially work here,

I have to disagree with the first two you listed. The electrodynamic tether would slow down the craft and knock it out of L1 orbit. If I’m understanding, it’s the space equivalent of regenerative breaking. The magnetic sail would esentially have the same problem as the solar sail.

The bussard engine would definitely work, assuming the basic principle of the engine itself works. Though, I’m not sure if it would collect enough hydrogen when placed at L1. A very neat concept though, one I’d like to see happen!

Long short: RCS thrusters are probably still useful, but may not necessarily need to be the primary means of station keeping.

If we’re using today’s technology, they’d almost certainly be the primary means. But in this hypothetical future you may be right.

A nicer version of Steven King’s langoliers.