Monday, October 28, 2019

Thoughts about Transportation

A friend sent me a link to this nifty website San Diego's transit system is using to collect public feedback about how it should spend money allocated for transit improvements. You get 1000 "coin" and you allocate them to different projects, which all cost different amounts. I spent a little time reading about the options and the pros and cons for each and made an allocation - but I didn't submit it yet. I want to think about it a little more and maybe read up on some of the options. Any transit nerds out there who want to tell me what they think about any of the options are welcome to do so in the comments!

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I am still enjoying driving the Tesla. We're planning to drive it over to Arizona for a visit soon. I'll report back in about how we find that experience. The drive over will be no problem: there are superchargers at all three spots we've been known to stop to break up the drive. I'll be interested to see how we find the experience of keeping it charged up for city driving (and a side trip we have planned) without our home charging set up.

I can definitely say that if you're considering an electric car as a commuting car - GO FOR IT. You won't miss stopping for gas! And even with a car with a relatively short range (e.g., ~120-150 miles), I think you'll get past range anxiety pretty quickly. Once you get in the habit of plugging in your car at night, you realize that 100+ miles range is actually pretty huge. I only plug in the Tesla every third night or so, and even that is only because we want to keep the charging in the "super off peak" hours. Our Tesla has a 300 mile range, but for daily use we only charge to about 260 miles. When I charge after three days I am almost never below 100 miles, and am usually at about 120-150 miles.

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Speaking of the Tesla, a funny/annoying thing happened on my way back from my beach walk on Friday. I was driving out of Pacific Beach at about 4 p.m., so there was a fair amount of traffic. The main road out of PB does not have a high speed limit, and there were enough other cars around that no one was going much over the speed limit. At one point, I notice a big black truck riding my tail. It had raised tires and sometimes those higher vehicles tailgate almost by accident - they can easily see over a little car like mine, so there's a tendency to creep up. But this guy was driving somewhat aggressively and was clearly antsy. I couldn't really have gone faster even if I'd wanted to, so I assumed he just hated traffic and ignored him.

But then, when we got to the freeway on ramp, he aggressively pulled around me to get into the carpool lane ahead of me (I've got my clean air stickers, and leaving PB on a Friday afternoon is just about the only time I use them).

As he passed me, I saw the sticker in his window. It said "F*** your hybrid."

So I guess he was extra-pissed to be stuck in traffic behind an electric car.

I have never wanted to use the Tesla's rocket car acceleration as much as I did right then. It would have been delicious to zoom past him... but it wouldn't have been safe in so much traffic, so I didn't try.

I really, really don't get the mindset of guys like that. Fine, drive your big, gas-guzzling, jacked up truck. I don't know - maybe you have a reason you need it. I don't drive around judging other people's car choices. But why put a sticker on your car like that? That's telling me that you are an asshole, and also makes me suspect that your asseholeishness is the only reason you "need" that jacked up truck. People like that make me wish there really was some giant cosmic counter tallying up points to determine where we'll spend eternity.



2 comments:

  1. Out here they just have Trump stickers. (Though I've been seeing less of them since Impeachment hearings started...)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:53 AM

    Wednesday Oct 30. Thinking of you and projected expected winds. Am N. Ca myself and know evacuees from our situation. Sounds like S>CA today will be extreme potential. Please leave early if that is needed. Trusting your gas tanks/electrical charges are at full capacity in your transportation. I maintain mine that way and have since June when PG7E started talking about their outaging plans.
    For you and your readers in impacted areas..... be safe & smart.
    Thank you for reporting back in afterwards.
    rose

    ReplyDelete

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