What are you supposed to do while your electric car is charging?
In order to make electric cars more useful, a number of cities are building charging stations at various places around town. So if you are running errands or driving to visit people and you are running low on battery, you can stop in for a quick charge.
But my understanding is that the fastest an auto battery can recharge is something like 40 minutes, and (depending on technology) they can take multiple hours or even overnight to be up to capacity.
So figure that an electric car driver has time to kill during the charging process. is there a plan to create ‘reading rooms” or wifi hubs at electric charging stations? Would these be a suitable location for sit-down restaurants (fast food not being really relevant). Is this an opportunity for quick service brothels to take advantage of the drivers who have nothing else to do?
Has there been any thought to a good plan for this otherwise wasted time?
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Well they put some just outside a downtown Museum but most are in restaurant and park areas.
Charging stations have popped up all over Boston recently (as well as bicycle rental racks – but that’s another story).
They seem to be positioned near regularly busy areas (city hall mall, Boston common, back bay, Fenway Park, etc.). There’s already lots to do in these areas. No need for dedicated entertainment spaces.
What’s interesting (annoying?) is that the charging stations and bicycle rental racks have all been placed over existing lines of parking meters – thus reducing the amount of already sparce parking meters for gas vehicles. Good news for (overpriced) parking garages, bad news for regular gas-guzzlers, and certainly a good effort on the part of the city to promote greener transportation.
Why would you go into town unless you had something to do? This is not a problem. Even if all you want to do is goof around (which is not wasting time).
call your parents ;-) they miss you
I’m with @wundayatta. If people are already running errands or downtown for dinner, they already are occupied doing something else.
Your model is similar to laundromats that have cafe’s of some sort next door, so people can snack and watch a game while washing their clothes. But, I think charging a car will be more like an extra bonus while doing other things. I don’t know if I would go into town without sufficient charge to get back home in the first place. At least not while there are so few charging stations.
Might McDonalds put in some charge stations? Sure. Why not? Sounds like a good idea.
@wundayatta – I may have a 10 minute errand to do (for example, buying my license plate tag renewal for the next year), so I have multiple hours to kill waiting for the battery to charge.
@elbanditoroso You might want to plan to charge before you leave, then, so you can get in and back on one charge. If this is not possible, then perhaps an electric vehicle doesn’t make sense for you (or your hypothetical customer). This is really not a problem. People will plan to avoid these situations, and if you can’t, you’ll do whatever you always do when waiting for something. Go to the cafe. Have a cup of coffee. Go on fluther for a while. If you really want to live it up, have a piece of pie!
If there is no cafe, take a walk. Look at things. Enjoy the view. If it’s raining, enjoy standing under your umbrella in the rain. Make a phone call. Surf on over to fluther. It’s hard to believe that any jelly could ever not want for a few minutes in which they could go online to fluther.
How much time are you wasting and is the time you waste worth the money you save?
So, the Nissan Leaf has a 100 mile range on a full charge. It charges to 80% capacity in 30 minutes.
Exactly how far are you driving for your vehicle tags that you can’t make it home? If you’re running multiple errands, how fast exactly are you getting everything done that taking 20–30 minutes at a charging station is going to cramp your style?
Are you pushing an agenda other than how to spend 30 minutes in a busy urban area? What is the actual question?
Another thing you could do is research the purchase of a bigger safer car if you are driving one of those rinky dink little ping pong ball electric cars.
Go to a restaurant, stroll through the Park, visit a Tattoo Parlour, look at landmarks, get bored by tourguidse, walk through the city, become a patron of a local harlot centre, or terrorise a kindergarten.
What do you do while you are filling your internal combustion engine car with gasoline? Well…that is what you are expected to do while recharging your car’s batteries with electricity.
The bottom line here is that there are just too many problems with electric cars that the technology of today can’t solve.
The time that it takes to recharge electric cars is unacceptable. The price of buying an electric car is also not acceptable as is the short driving distance between charges and the short battery life expectancy and the huge cost of battery replacement. The environmental impact of electric cars is also is as aspect worth considering.
@gondwanalon – it takes 4 minutes to fill my tank. I usually take those minutes to collect trash from the floor of the car and throw it into the garbage can at the pump.
@elbanditoroso 4 or 5 minutes to fully recharge the depleted batteries of an electric car would be acceptable to me.
Most people are not “driving around” but going to work (so they work while it charges) or shopping at a Mall (and they shop) or they just go to a business and do their business. Many are “quick charging” stations that work much faster than the home units and one can do it as we do quick lubes and stay in a “waiting room.” But the alternatives will be made available for those who want them. Charge up and hook up?
The elep[hant in the living room is “no taxes” on electricity. None.
That is what people will never say. But I just did.
How about take along a laptop and go on Fluther while you are waiting? There is free wifi in most places where there are charging stations.
@gary4books I don’t know where you live, but here there are indeed taxes on electricity.
# Taxes
ECT — A tax we collect for the state of California based on the electric use during a billing period. This tax is $.00029 per kilowatt hour (kwh).
Public Purpose Program Surcharge — If you are a gas customer, your bill includes a Gas Public Purpose Program (PPP) Surcharge, which is used to fund state-mandated gas assistance programs for low income customers, energy efficiency programs, and public-interest research and development.
UUT — A tax we collect for a city or county government. The tax (if any) is a percentage of your energy charges.
And now, California is considering an excise tax on all energy sources like the one currently charged on gasoline.
Do you have to pump quarters into these charging stations? They can’t possibly be free. If they are, I would buy the world’s longest extension cord and run it from one of these stations to my house. Why should you charge your car for free if you have to pay to light or heat your house?
And the seemingly always forgotten fact, most electricity is produced by coal (at least in Australia) so what is the big saving in using electric cars?
I like the way you think, save the environment, read, eat, and screw. It sounds like a perfect day.
Use the gas station toilet, like that one TV commercial.
OK. Electricity has its taxes, I was thinking of highway taxes to pay for roads and all that the gasoline fuel taxes have. Right now, those with batery cars do not pay these taxes and they are significant. If they tax miles driven, that advantage will go away. I had rather tax vehicle weight. That is what wears out the roads. Weight.
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