Canada’s most populous provinces are falling behind many U.S. states when it comes to building fast charging stations for electric vehicles, a CBC News analysis shows, raising questions about whether this country’s infrastructure is ready for a transition to cleaner energy.
While I see the emotional appeal, I don’t think that EVs are the future on any significant level. Most people only use their cars for routine trips between home, work, and a few popular places for shopping and entertainment. Two of the four are completely centralized and the other two are generally focused into notable clusters. This creates nothing but choke points for cars, and commute time data shows just how bad it is.
Toronto had an average commute time of 84 minutes of 2019. One way. I use transit between bus, subway, streetcar, then walk, and still manage under an hour despite going halfway across the city to work, with 5-10 minute wait times between each transfer. That time doubles the moment I had to use a shuttle bus because that has to go through one of the massive choke points in Toronto.
What we need is greater capacity, more extensive, more reliable, and more comfortable transit solutions so we can just stop making it take 10 minutes to go 3 blocks during rush hour. So people can go even long distances quickly and comfortably when their jobs require it.
EV charging points are important, but only in strategically placed locations like on highway rest stops, as if you still insist on using an EV for commuting, you can just charge at home overnight as 99% of drivers would use less than 10% of their car’s charge a day. It’s only for vacations that fast charging stations would actually be used.
Also we need to properly promote remote work. Commutes suck especially bad when you’re doing a job you know you could be doing from home instead of wasting 20% of the day just getting to the office.
This also gives the people who actually need to drive (contractors, etc.) an easier time because of reduced traffic.
EV is for sure the way to go for short trips if you’re not a fan of people and public transportation. I live in a relatively small suburb and public transportation is terrible. I’m not going to uber or take a cab anywhere. I will drive myself. With having an EV you charge it at home and/or work, and you plan your charges on a trip. It’s only a big deal if you are lobbying against electric, have no idea how it actually works, or a troll.
If you’re that worried about a vacation (it’s literally no big deal now and with charges being added daily it will be less of an issue) rent yourself a dinosaur burning vehicle for your trip. That’s always a better option anyways, keeps miles off yours and you don’t have to give a shit if something goes wrong, they’ll give you another. Door ding? Pffft. I have nice cars and I take a rental for vacation.
Try saying that when your commute involves spending an hour in rush hour going a single kilometer that a subway does in five minutes. Your situation isn’t an argument against public transit, but for making decent public transit. Of course you’re going to chose a car if there’s no good public transit where you live. But what if there’s a bus terminal five minute walk from where you live, or a subway station in ten minutes by bike with parking, and the rest of the trip takes half as long as it does by car, at a fraction of the yearly cost (gas, insurance, maintenance, licensing), and you can even sleep on the trip because you’re not the one driving. Not to mention never having to worry about finding parking near your destination if you’re not paying for a dedicated spot.
This is the reality for those of us who are able to use transit on a regular basis, and we only pay like 15 minutes a day from our wages for this service, not a week’s worth every month to own a car. It’s even better in the EU, like in Germany or Spain, since high speed rail means that you can go pretty much anywhere you want, even on vacation, without a car. And for cheap. One guy ran the numbers, and for 10% the cost of owning a car, he was able to get a yearly pass for both high speed rail and city transit in two different cities for the cost of owning and operating a car for a year.
I get it, I agree we need better public transportation. I don’t care how good or fast it is, I’m not going to use it. I won’t live in area where I would need to though. I don’t want to sit on a bus or subway with people I don’t know. I’ll pass. People are disgusting.
You are also people :)
Yup. I do also have good hygiene so the other humans I do come in contact don’t have to deal with someone that smells like a buffalo or have breath that smells like they took and shit and shoved it in their mouth.