I work in a 40-year old building in Washington, D.C., and we are hardly "cutting edge". And yet, two new electric car charging stations have appeared in the building.
This is akin to the first gas station in town. Sure it's still surrounded by horses and carts, but the future is coming!
3 comments:
Dear Patrick,
Yes, electric cars are coming, silently, remorselessly adding hours to long road trips. It takes how long to fill your gas tank? Oh, and how to dispose of those enormous toxic batteries?
I've no doubt that electric/gasoline cars will soon outsell everything else (and may be mandated) and pure electrics make sense in our megopoli but we won't get rid of gas powered cars until they can go as far/as fast in low population areas as our very useful, polluting gas guzzlers.
I once helped trail a thousand sheep across the rockies. No wheeled vehicle could have done what my cow pony did.
There are still places where one must "Get a horse".
Donald
Akin, but VERY different. A gas pump requires a huge cost and regular gas delivery. An e charging station just requires an electrician to fit a fairly simple device at relatively low cost. We need MORE of charging stations. Please emphasize that installing one is not a big endeavor.
I have been wondering about the consequences of electric cars for our wildlife crossing streets. In the last months I had a chance to involuntarily study a bit of fox (and deer) behaviour along a piece of road I drive daily. So far the death toll for just 1 kilometer of road over open land is 8 fox in 6 months! They all died in the early hours between 5 and 6.30 AM.
All the live fox I spotted during the months all but the youngest displayed rather intelligent behaviour when cars approached. I have not seen a single one dashing out in front of a car suddenly. In at least one occasion a fox was clearly startled by an approaching fast car and it fled quickly but with a wavering in his movement that at first had me fear it might run out into the street. Thankfully it didn't. So, are the dead fox on our roads then all the victims of a scare? If that's the case, how should things go for them when the cars become silent? Don't even mention the deer who appear to be so consumed with stealth that they hardly dare to hurry across a road. I hope I'm wrong.
I'm not sure I find electrically charged cars a good thing. Power from what sources? And already our "improved" mix creates flickery or even on and off going lights. That's something that was unknown only 10 years ago -you want to cook a pot of pasta and all lights dim, someone's using the hair blower and you have to turn off the vacuum? Hm.
I'm all for innovations, but this one seems to be bridling the horse from the rear.
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