Nyssa

To an extent, but we have the chance of transitioning into a solar and wind society and remediate that damage. Subsequent species would not have that potential.

Unfortunately, I don't know if it would be possible for another species to reach our level of technology or civilization. We built up our society off of easily accessible energy resources (surface-level coal being our first source of industrial energy). This energy excess allowed us to develop other sources of energy, solar, wind, nuclear, etc. But if you tried starting from zero again, you could never get to this point, at least along the same path, as you need a high level of technology to access any available energy resources. Thus, if any new species took our place, they could only ever rise to the level of the pre-industrial revolution.

Nobody does maintenance in authoritarian regimes, either. It's not a priority under any governance system

Highways were constructed in regions with sparse populations or in urban areas with little political power (primarily black and Latino neighborhoods). Basically, areas where democracy didn't have to function because there was no democratic power to block it. Whereas nowadays, with higher levels of democracy (unequivocally good) and local control (more of a mixed bag), massive infrastructure projects are harder to accomplish. Plus, the 50s had the benefit of a booming postwar economy and the national cohesion (at least among enfranchised Americans).

I figured there were some issues like that, I think I'm more into the general idea than this specific execution

I am really heartened by how solar continues to punch higher and higher above projections year-after-year.

Im not saying they're apples to apples, I'm saying that I was just wondering if we could design tires that were less conducive to creating microparticles

Yeah, but bikes and buses still use tires. I was just wondering how the tires we will need to use in the future can be manufactured to reduce the pollution problem

Plus China is repeating our mistakes and building out a massive amount of car-centric infrastructure. Huge disappointment given the amount of resources and wonderful transit they have in major cities

Exactly. I grew up on a farm and there's no way a regular bus route would efficiently service us. Cars are still necessary but their usage can be greatly reduced.

For instance, in Europe most suburban/rural households can get by with one car. And in urban areas no car lifestyle is very easy to pull off

Even in raindrops!

I wonder if there's any data on how much bus tires pollute in this way on a per-passenger mile basis. I'm sure it's better than cars, but if it's still a major problem, I wonder if there's another way to manufacture less problematic tires. Maybe biodegradable?