Did you know a huge part of the cost of operating an electric subway is the delays involved in getting a dollars from every person who gets on through a slow down called the fare box. Another is a stooge whose only task is to open/close doors. Another stooge starts and stop the cars. In Toronto these stooges get about $50 US per hour for salary, pension and various benefits. That is $150 an hour.
Elevators were like that years ago. They had operators, and in a fully automatic elevator, they would ask you what floor and push that button. Then they fired them. End of the earth is looming said their union. Ho-hum said thje world.
We need fully self driving subway cars, with fitted electic doors on the cars and on the track - just like the doors that stop you falling down the shaft on an elevator.
That way subway operating costs would fall by 60% or more.
WE also need fully tracked packaging. Buy a wrapped chocolate bar and they know who paid for it, and you pay a25 cent wrapper deposit. Toss away the box and they know who tossed it = fee for you. Dispose properly and the candy wrapper deposit is scanned and paid to you.
We are going to have to deal with our trash. This applies to all trash, even on the high seas.
The UN, after 20 years, needs to declare coal burning plants and act of war against mankind = cruise missile to destroy it. Cars must all be electric in 20 years. Any after that confiscated unless converted to batteries. No excuses.
It is as stark as it can be. Do this or the world dies!!!
Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
351–360 of 545 posts
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#352I think this points out the elephant in the room: why are so many people in supposedly high income cities not able to buy properties? This is an issue that needs to be solved hand in hand with pollution: less travel, less need for a car, and more living outside overcrowded cities means more living space. So how can we move more jobs to suburbs, where people can work at nearby or home locations and can afford more liv…
Living in a city is nice when you’re young. Here in SFBA you see lots of people living in the city and commuting to the suburbs to work at bigtech campuses. Weird huh? But it makes sense. Population density increases convenience. I have 2 amazing corner stores on my block. The movie theatre is 2 blocks away, there’s many good bars and restaurants within a 4 block radius. Major grocery store (TJ) is 3 blocks away. And…
Living in the city was great in my 20s. Now that I'm past 35 and have a family, having a private backyard to ourselves is a lot more appealing than dealing with loud people in commodified, crowded restaurants and movie theaters. My family is quite neurodivergent and everyone has sensory processing issues anyway. The city is simply too noisy, too active, too high pressure for us.
It's unfortunate that in the US, backyards and car dependence go together.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#353I used to run an extension cord out of my 2nd floor window, but I wasn't parking on the street. My space was off the driveway, behind a fence and a gate, but only about 12 feet from the curb. More recently, I had been parking an electric car in my apartment's lot, and running an extension cord from the exercise room, out to the car. Then the apartment decided to close off those outlets. In both cases, the car's batte…
> I used to run an extension cord out of my 2nd floor window > More recently, I had been parking an electric car in my apartment's lot, and running an extension cord from the exercise room, out to the car. Then the apartment decided to close off those outlets. Won't even get to what I am sure others have raised about safety issues. My question is why do you go to this effort? What in you makes you want to go to this…
Because the cars are literally that much better than ICE. There's no comparison in the driving and ownership experience. Plugging in is not an inconvenience. Going to a gas station actually is an inconvenience and I'm dying to dump my second vehicle for an EV
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#354This stopped me from buying a Tesla with my most recent car purchase. I live in a 100 year old apartment in Boston that has 0 parking spots for over 100 units. My wife and I share a car, mostly for weekend adventuring, so we rent a spot in a dude's backyard down the block from us. It works well for us, much more convenient than the rat race of street parking. But it was hard to imagine that life with a Tesla. I could…
Per your circumstances (living in Boston, already possess a car, drive occasionally), a new Tesla purchase might be non-ideal even besides the charging issue, from a climate standpoint. There is a breakeven point where your cumulative carbon savings from using Boston electricity (i.e. mostly natural gas) versus gasoline intersect the one-time carbon emissions from manufacturing a new automobile. For folks who already own a car they don't drive much, the breakeven may be very far away, meaning that a new Tesla purchase may actually be a net negative from a carbon standpoint.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you ever attempted to ride one of these through snow? Also, how would something like this work with little kids?
Biked in snow plenty of times. It's fine. Also cities can plow bike trails even easier than they plow streets. Plenty of bike options for little kids. Seats, trailers, box bikes, etc. etc.
How can they plow bike trails easier than streets, especially in the case where the trail is not attached to a street?
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a guy with a Tesla around the corner from me, who does this (cable out the 2nd floor window), and he does park on the street. Not sure what he does if he can't get a space close enough. (A neighborhood of row houses with little off-street parking) I think the car makers have to accelerate integrating solar charging into their cars. You probably wouldn't get 100% of your charge that way, but you could get enou…
> I think the car makers have to accelerate integrating solar charging into their cars. Nah. Solar on cars is a dead-end -- even with perfectly efficient solar panels, a clear sky, and the sun at the zenith, the most power you can possibly get is 1.3 kW/m² (cf. [1]). I don't know exactly how large of a solar panel you could put on a car, but even with a huge 5 m² panel, you'd still be looking at over 12 hours (i.e, m…
Solar panels on car is a good idea that sounds like a bad idea that sounds like a good idea.
It sounds like a good idea because if you can get your power from the sun you don't need to change.
It sounds like a bad idea because the charging rate is incredibly slow, especially compared to the rate a car can use energy. Solar power wouldn't noticeably increase the range, except for a very special-purpose non-street-legal vehicle.
However, it's actually a good idea because many people don't drive all that far in a given day. If you drive five miles to work, park in the sun, then drive back home, you might recover a pretty big chunk of that and not have to plug in quite as often or maybe not at all. The analysis is similar if you bike or take public transit to work and usually only go on medium-distance drives on the weekends.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#357I live in a high rise apartment with three shared level 2 chargers in the garage. I would say there are ~10 EVs in the building and sharing the chargers has never been an issue. It's like shared laundry; you really only need it once a week or so for a few hours. Once it's easy to make people pay for electricity, adding lots of chargers will be a no-brainer for garage owners.
Laundry. That just might be the perfect example. What a huge division of experience between the wealthy and the less wealthy. Most homeowners have laundry in their home. Starting and switching loads is a few minutes, and the rest of their time is still free. Many high-end apartments have laundry within a short walk from each residence. It's largely the same experience. But then those with less ability to afford "nice…
> Laundry. That just might be the perfect example. What a huge division of experience between the wealthy and the less wealthy.
While a bit off-topic: I never understood why a lack of washing machines in flats is such a huge issue in some countries.
In Germany, most flats come with a connector for your own washing machine, those that don't have on inside the flat often have them in the basement, where every party living in the house just adds their washing machine.
Public laundromats do exist, but from what I can gather they are quite underutilized because there's barely any demand.
Does anybody happen to know why these vast differences in "washing machine availability" exist in other countries? Is it really that much more expensive to lay the water/wastewater lines for washing machines inside the flats? Doesn't all that just plug into the same plumbing that's already there?
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I, as a business owner, can get 1-4 hours of your time and spending money - it’s probably going to be well worth it to front the cost of land and charging equipment for a park-n-charge spot
And yet business owners aren't rushing to install chargers, even in places where I'll regularly see a bunch of EVs on my way through the parking lot. So that theory doesn't seem to pan out.
> So that theory doesn't seem to pan out.
There are many reasons why my theory could still be valid but the circumstances have not yet kicked in. Awareness of the potential for profit could be missing. I assume the cost of installing EV charge stations is still coming down. EVs are definitely still largely a luxury item in north america, so usually owned by drivers with garages. and of course, the percentage of EV cars could still be too low to justify the infrastructure.
So, my theory may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's still largely untested.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#359The "businesses renting out their lots after hours" is an interesting model, though in high-density areas it's not clear that this would be enough, and might not be well co-located with residential demand.
City-owned public infrastructure (i.e. lamppost charging) makes a lot of sense too, but infrastructure changes are slow and expensive, and will certainly lag far behind demand. It might be a way for municipalities to earn revenue, though.
One could also imagine how much self-driving might help this: The car could pilot itself to a nearby charging station/lot without any inconvenience to the owner. But we are not there yet with capability, so this remains a near-term problem.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#360I think this points out the elephant in the room: why are so many people in supposedly high income cities not able to buy properties? This is an issue that needs to be solved hand in hand with pollution: less travel, less need for a car, and more living outside overcrowded cities means more living space. So how can we move more jobs to suburbs, where people can work at nearby or home locations and can afford more liv…
Another way to look at it is: why people are prioritizing buying a nice car over property?
I live in a shitty 1 bedroom apartment, and 3 of my neighbors (with identical apartments) have Mercedes.