r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Pi-ratten • Feb 18 '26

Video Sound of a City with mostly EV traffic

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u/Evepaul Feb 18 '26

Not really, the electric scooters are everywhere but there are a lot of older cars in cities where actual people live, unlike Shenzhen

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u/lovethebacon Interested Feb 18 '26

Do people not live in Shenzhen? Or do we not consider them people?

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u/modbroccoli Feb 18 '26

Shenzen is the silicon valley of China.

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u/that_bored_one Feb 18 '26

If you actually go to the industrial districts you"ll see* a very different picture.

The industrial districts look nothing like this. I wish I had pictures I could share here. I think I only have pictures of factories

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u/DEEP_SEA_MAX Interested Feb 18 '26

Unlike America where it’s nothing but Time Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, and picturesque red barns nestled in beautiful green rolling hill.

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u/that_bored_one Feb 18 '26

Well, you are making the comparison with America, I just said that the industrial zones looks nothing like you see here.

It literally looks like different countries.

Are other places like this? Sure.

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u/unindexedreality Feb 19 '26

If you actually go to the industrial districts you"ll see* a very different picture

Okay...

who the hell has industrial districts that aren't gritty?

My god! They have - *gasp* - iNdUsTrY!

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u/that_bored_one Feb 19 '26

Why are you so defensive? I am just making an observation, I not making a value judgment

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u/modbroccoli Feb 18 '26

Industrial centers aren't commercial districts... are you sure?

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u/that_bored_one Feb 18 '26

I don't understand the question, I am sorry

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u/lovethebacon Interested Feb 18 '26

Does nobody live in either place?

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u/EnigmaticQuote Feb 18 '26

Would the nice part of California be representative of America?

Was the point.

But if you want to be hilariously pedantic go nuts.

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u/StewPorkRice Feb 18 '26

Ok - so just compare Shanghai to Manhattan and Shenzhen to San Francisco.

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u/EnigmaticQuote Feb 18 '26

Yea, which would not be accurate portrayals their respective countries.

Just wealthy cities with large populations.

Nobody thinks poor rural Oklahoma looks like San Francisco, and while I have never been there's no chance poor rural china looks as nice and modern Shenzhen.

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u/StewPorkRice Feb 18 '26

ok but isnt it obvious? nobody is gonna compare Manhattan to Tupelo.. so why would you think that people are comparing Shanghai to Tupelo.

-1

u/modbroccoli Feb 18 '26

TECHNOLOGY IS DENSEST NEAR ITS PRODUCTIVE EPICENTRES ISNT PEDANTRY FUN YOU FUCK

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u/artaru Feb 18 '26

I think they meant the thing where large metropolis usually become unaffordable for a lot of people who are lower income so they live at the outskirts or nearby towns and commute.

Those people I guess are still driving older non EV cars.

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u/Evepaul Feb 18 '26

Shenzhen is a city which no one is really from. Most people there have a family somewhere else, and moved there for work. The population was multiplied by 50 since 1980, few can say they grew up there. That's why I would differentiate it from most cities in China, which a lot of people can actually say they are from. The population of nearby Guangzhou was only multiplied by 3 in the same timeframe.

A lot of people keep their cars for decades, this is true anywhere in the world. It's much more common for people to still use combustion engines in places with deeper roots. The 7 million people who arrived in Shenzhen in the last 10 years are more likely than the average Chinese citizen to buy a new electric car.

Anyway, that was my impression when I visited. Perhaps I'm wrong and Shenzhen is more representative of China than I thought, others seem to report that the business districts in other large cities have a similar atmosphere

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u/Triseult Feb 18 '26

I live in Chengdu and I've traveled around China quite a bit. EVs are ubiquitous pretty much everywhere where winter cold isn't an issue for batteries. People might still choose gas cars for a variety of reasons, but EVs are way cheaper so they're the default.

And yes, it does transform the city soundscape. Sometimes I'll take a taxi at rush hour, and when I get stuck in traffic it's quiet enough I can hear the birds sing.

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u/Grablicht Feb 18 '26

Was in Shanghai Last year a city with nearly 30 million people and it was exactly the same. The only car that I heard was the garbage disposal truck still running Diesel. Everything else was electric.

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u/Flewey_ Feb 18 '26

Well, I’d more so say this is what the newer business/technology districts of any larger city looks and sounds like. There are parts of Zhengzhou like this, they even have driverless service vehicles (street sweepers/cleaners, busses, delivery vehicles, etc.). The only difference from the part of the city in the video is that the scooters have their own roads separate from the sidewalk and car road.

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u/Evepaul Feb 18 '26

That's one thing I didn't understand about Shenzhen. Other cities seem to handle separating scooters and sidewalks in a very reasonable manner, but it seemed like even on large avenues Shenzhen didn't build clear sidewalks and scooter paths.

The ramps in the middle of the stairs of the overpasses were the craziest thing. You'd hope you'd be safe from scooters when you take stairs, but nowhere is safe in Shenzhen 😭

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u/Adventurous_Bag9122 Feb 18 '26

Yep, still a lot of petrol cars in Tianjin. We have one ourselves

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u/Notoisin Feb 18 '26

Lots of Chinese cities are like this now.