Zakharra wrote:Pretty much, yes. It's going to take time to change the mentality of the population so they can accept the more modern stuff. That's why I think they will have to go through the intervening steps from steam to the IC engine even with its problems (although with the technological database they have they can reduce that damage by a lot).
Why go through the hassle of changing popular opinion on two technologies? As soon as the Proscriptions are lifted, people are going to go for all sorts of electric motor driven labor saving devices; selling, "an electric car as just another electric motor driven labor saving device," instead of selling, "electric motors are fine for little stuff but you need a smelly, poisonous, IC engine to get anywhere."
Zakharra wrote: That's my thought too. In time, people will want to have their own private transportation. Unless you want cities that are -huge- and restrict all transportation to the public type, I fail to see the benefit of that.
Electric cars can provide personal transport, but a good many cities do restrict personal transportation within city limits to muscle-power or public transit.
Some, like London, have a quota for private vehicles with a hefty charge for entry passes just to get on the waiting list for entry -- London has efficient subway and omnibus mass transit, plus a plethora of taxicabs for the rich and impatient.
Zakharra wrote:A growing economy will demand that the common person have access to their own vehicles.
"Access" doesn't require ownership nor internal combustion engines. For example, National Car rental has hassle-free rental stations in some big cities that allow rentals for just a few minutes to long-term with just a tap of a credit card.
Zakharra wrote:it lets people spread out so you don't need to have everyone packed into factory town apartments 10 to a room and sleeping in shifts. A growing economy will demand that the common person have access to their own vehicles.
You either have a very distorted view of cities, or you're just indulging in hyperbole. A city with with decent mass transit won't have that kind of crowding, even if the book of Pasquale hadn't acculturated Safeholdians to better public hygiene practices.
Most importantly, every argument for IC-powered personal transport inside a city can be met with a combination of efficient mass-transit and electric vehicles. Every argument for personal transport outside of cities is amenable to similar solutions; park-and-ride centers, "piggy-back" commuter trains, etc, that eliminate or at least discourage long-distance personal transport. There's no reason anyone should need to take their private vehicle any further than the nearest mass-transit stop.