This sort of solution is, in reality, just another way for us not to address the root of the problem, which is that car-centric infrastructure is orders of magnitude worse for the environment and even just global warming than whatever benefit solar roadway roofs could provide.

• Cars today mostly burn fossil fuels. EVs are better but are having slow adoption and are still quite energy-inefficient compared to e.g electrified public transit.
• The cars have to have a bunch more energy dumped into them for procuring and assembling the materials compared to public transit.
• Car-centric planning means extremely space-inefficient, sprawling design, resulting in the removal of natural ecosystems that help fight global warming through carbon capture.
• The amount of energy that goes into building such massive parking lots and extensive road networks to accommodate car-centrism has to be unfathomable.
• Car centrism physically makes things more distant from each other, meaning not only is the transit medium itself less energy-efficient over the same distance, but travel distances are much longer.
• There can still be rooftops over above-ground public transit infrastructure, and even a fraction of the space saved on sprawling design could be used for solar farms.

TL;DR: !fuckcars@lemmy.world