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.

  • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      This also gives the people who actually need to drive (contractors, etc.) an easier time because of reduced traffic.

    • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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      1 year ago

      That’s a rather large-city-dweller-centric view of what people use their cars for. Public transport certainly can and should be part of the solution, but it’s often impractical in lower-density areas.

      Let’s see here, the last few times I took a car out of town . . . Well, we could have gotten the six boxes of books shipped, I suppose, but it would have cost more than just going and fetching them from 120km away. Family funeral on short notice—no option other than doing the ~400km-each-way drive. Medical emergency (mine)—400km-each-way drive again, since it wasn’t a life-threatening condition that would have caused them to find an ambulance right away, just something that could have blinded me in one eye. None of those things were recreational, and most of them weren’t really optional, either.

      Some trips out of town are important, and you don’t always have the luxury of waiting for public long-distance transit that runs only a couple of times a week, or enough notice to prepare your vehicle in advance. We need private vehicles, and the infrastructure to keep them on the road. EVs may not be the future in Toronto so much, but Toronto is only one small part of the country.

      • that_one_guy@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Nobody is arguing for banning personal vehicle outright. We should just stop attempting to plan ultra-dense urban environments around the least space efficient transportation options. Many public transportation systems already operate a ‘park and ride’ system by which more remote users are able to park their vehicle at a distant hub and then ride public transportation into more dense areas.

        Also, assuming that a future transportation system must look exactly like the one we have today - but bigger, is short sighted. If more people are needing to have a personal vehicle option in an infrequent manner, services to provide those vehicles will be required. Just because you personally can’t make it work tomorrow doesn’t mean that the goal of robust public transport in urban areas is infeasible.

      • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        The parents of the youtuber Technology Connections life on a farm, yet they own an EV, and apparently they never use charging stations as the range on a second hand one is more than good enough for regular trips despite going to an entire city over.

        Modern EVs have a range starting at 400km nowadays, and I did say that highway rest stops should have charging stations. No matter how quickly you need to get somewhere, it can’t be so desperate that you can’t afford a half hour stop every three or four hours. And if it is, it sounds like something you probably shouldn’t be driving yourself for and instead be calling for an ambulance or helicopter.

        In the end, my argument is that all this shit about not having enough fast charging stations is going about things backwards. Charging stations shouldn’t be concentrated in cities, but instead along the highway, as EV range is great enough that daily transit doesn’t require charging along the way, or even at the destination.

    • InternetUser2012@rammy.site
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • InternetUser2012@rammy.site
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          1 year ago

          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.

            • InternetUser2012@rammy.site
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              1 year ago

              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.