Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[IslandTractor]

The city bus seems to have pretty regularly spaced loading zones. It's a system that works. Take some major stops with separate branch lines and people do get moved. Maybe go back and look at the British Railway System that worked well at one time. Some folks say modernization and planning boards have disseminated the system?
Some folks might even have to walk a few blocks or take a little more time planning thier trips.

Again, city mass transit is fine for densely populated areas but a substantial part of the US population lives far more than a few blocks from existing bus routes. Indeed, our suburban and rural populations are sufficiently scattered to make any routine hourly or half hourly bus service uneconomical. We could certainly benefit from more mass transportation resources but it is a pipe dream to think that additional mass transit could eliminate even half of the households currently dependent on private cars. Perhaps more realistic would be a hub and spoke system where private or shared EV, hybrid or ICE powered vehicles travel between home and mass transit stations. That obviously already exists and works well in many areas and could be expanded.

 

[California]

Perhaps more realistic would be a hub and spoke system where private or shared EV, hybrid or ICE powered vehicles travel between home and mass transit stations.

That sounds like an ideal application for the short-range inexpensive EV's - a $6k used Leaf for example.

 

[houstonscott]

Again, city mass transit is fine for densely populated areas but a substantial part of the US population lives far more than a few blocks from existing bus routes. Indeed, our suburban and rural populations are sufficiently scattered to make any routine hourly or half hourly bus service uneconomical. We could certainly benefit from more mass transportation resources but it is a pipe dream to think that additional mass transit could eliminate even half of the households currently dependent on private cars. Perhaps more realistic would be a hub and spoke system where private or shared EV, hybrid or ICE powered vehicles travel between home and mass transit stations. That obviously already exists and works well in many areas and could be expanded.

No one wants to live in your well organized terrarium.

 

[Egon]

Again, city mass transit is fine for densely populated areas but a substantial part of the US population lives far more than a few blocks from existing bus routes. Indeed, our suburban and rural populations are sufficiently scattered to make any routine hourly or half hourly bus service uneconomical. We could certainly benefit from more mass transportation resources but it is a pipe dream to think that additional mass transit could eliminate even half of the households currently dependent on private cars. Perhaps more realistic would be a hub and spoke system where private or shared EV, hybrid or ICE powered vehicles travel between home and mass transit stations. That obviously already exists and works well in many areas and could be expanded.

There are ways.

 

[Egon]

No one wants to live in your well organized terrarium.

Your already there but don't realise it!

 

[IslandTractor]

No one wants to live in your well organized terrarium.

Yeah, it would be more fun to drive your overpriced SUV to the WallyWorld soccer mom convention instead. Such interesting people to meet with such a vehicle. And, so useful to have an energy wasting AWD vehicle in the middle of Texas just in case a hill gets in your way on the one day a year with detectable snowfall. Stay on your well organized asphalt highway web though. Wouldn't want you to scratch the clear coat or muddy the expensive wheels by risking an off road adventure.

 

[buickanddeere]

You mean the Grid is not designed to enable off peak loading systems to maintain the load?

Sounds like the condenser design may be deficient.


A system designed to only handle a static peak really isn't what should have been envisioned.

My truck has a throttle. It's not on the medal all the time.

The units when designed were base load on a utility grid with variable hydraulic and coal thermal plants. Today the politicians grabbed votes from the uniformed public by shutting down coal. After showing images of steam from condenser cooling towers and portraying it as smoke pollution. Or black smoke and smog form 1960's era coal plants.
The condensers were designed for intercept and relief valve operation to blow boiler steam directly into the condensers for 2-5 minutes after a turbine trip before reactor power and steam production could be ramped back. or while re-syncing the turbine after a spurious trip from lighting or grid disturbances etc.
The engineers never envisioned blowing 1200-1600Mw (gross), 300-400Mw (net) of steam for hours at a time to keep the reactors at 100% and generator output down to 400-500Mw .
Your truck is powered by a nuclear reactor ?

 

[buickanddeere]

I can see what you're saying. I was more attracted by the technology, but I was surprised by the overall driving experience. I've always driven stick shifts, and I find automatic transmissions to be mildly annoying. I found the one-speed transmission with regenerative braking was a pleasure to drive and quite intuitive.

By comparison, I was recently considering a HUGE splurge for my next vehicle, and I test drove a Chevy Corvette. That's been my dream car since I was a little kid, and it turns out that I can't stand it. The road noise at highway speed was ridiculous, and the idle speed engine rumble goes right through my head. Tesla has the performance of a sports car with the ride of a luxury car.

That is why cadillac installs the corvette engine in a refined chassis.

 

[buickanddeere]

No one wants to live in your well organized terrarium.

New York, most of Europe, south asia and east asia live all crammed together like layer hens.

 

[California]

Well some of us have to start from zero - no savings and no assets - and make a go of it, and the city is the best way to do it quickest. It's where the jobs are that pay well.

We bought on a bus line to our jobs downtown. That transit strategy avoided a need for two cars of the quality you need when you don't have mass transit for backup. This freed up tens of thousands of dollars that we put into savings over the years contrasted to wearing out new cars over those years. A $4k Wagoneer then a $14k (new) Trooper plus an old Volvo then Civic as second cars were all the fleet we needed. Commute in a $65k pickup and an equivalent SUV for the wife over your working years, extend your working years by many years just to pay for your commute to work! No thanks. I got from no assets, to savings sufficient to retire with the kids college also saved for - in 20 years. Working in the city made that possible.

EV's and public transit make sense for a lot of people. There's no one size fits all solution.