You are overestimating the danger of a punctured tire. It is easy to notice, usually gives you plenty of time (on the order of minutes) to come to a complete stop before the tire is deflated, and even after the tire is fully deflated it still allows you to stop relatively safely for a short while (until it is cut through completely). It would probably result in a few crashes (because in carbrained places many drivers don’t know how to operate a vehicle at all), but the worst outcome from this is ambulances/firetrucks being stuck in traffic jams.
I was thinking starvation, due to food deserts in the too-big suburbs. (lots of roads, so I’m not sure what cleanup time would look like. I guess with good prioritization maybe folks could get groceries along the highways?)
Ah yeah, that makes sense. However, if all roads are fully jammed, most people would be able to walk to a grocery store - it’s likely not insanely far away from you (quick search suggests average straight-line distance to a grocery shop in the US is ~4 km = 50 min, which sounds very far away from a non-US perspective but still not completely unreachable), it’s just that usually there’s a highway full of traffic between you and the store.
Scatter random tire spikes on the roads. 10k would probably get you quite a few
Wow that would kill a lot of people where I grew up. Very efficient.
You are overestimating the danger of a punctured tire. It is easy to notice, usually gives you plenty of time (on the order of minutes) to come to a complete stop before the tire is deflated, and even after the tire is fully deflated it still allows you to stop relatively safely for a short while (until it is cut through completely). It would probably result in a few crashes (because in carbrained places many drivers don’t know how to operate a vehicle at all), but the worst outcome from this is ambulances/firetrucks being stuck in traffic jams.
I was thinking starvation, due to food deserts in the too-big suburbs. (lots of roads, so I’m not sure what cleanup time would look like. I guess with good prioritization maybe folks could get groceries along the highways?)
Ah yeah, that makes sense. However, if all roads are fully jammed, most people would be able to walk to a grocery store - it’s likely not insanely far away from you (quick search suggests average straight-line distance to a grocery shop in the US is ~4 km = 50 min, which sounds very far away from a non-US perspective but still not completely unreachable), it’s just that usually there’s a highway full of traffic between you and the store.
Or like a 10-15 min bike ride, probably use the pavement or go off road until the spikes are cleared up