Electric Cars vs. Electric Trains
The age of the electric car is probably upon us as I’ve noted elsewhere. Naturally many of you will ask does this mean that the electric train and mass transit are no longer necessary.
The answer is no, even with the electric car almost in your garage the electric train and trolley still have a place. If electric cars appear and make driving cheaper and easier there is still the problem of congestion. If driving gets really cheap because of electric cars there will be thousands more cars on the roads, the highways won’t be any bigger and congestion will be worse than ever. Given modern environmental concerns and property rights there will be little room to expand the highways so congestion will be worse than ever. The logical answer to congestion is rail transit which can move many more people in the same space than electric cars. My home state of Colorado faces this dilemma the main road into the mountains Interstate 70, is already jammed, the only way to expand it will be to bulldoze a couple of historic mountain towns. Naturally, those towns residents are now vocal supporters of a rail option.
Beyond space there are the limitations of the electric car, the top of the line electric car the Tesla Roadster has a range of 220 miles on a charge. This is more than enough to meet the driving needs of the average American, they can reach work, the supermarket, Wal-Mart, their church and the local airport. If they want to go farther they’ll need something else such as the train.
It’s a dirty secret that right now if an American wants to travel outside the big cities he or she needs a car. If I who live in Denver, want to visit Gillette, Wyoming, or Salida, Colorado, I have to drive. Sixty or seventy years ago, my grandfather who lived in Christiansburg, Virginia, could have walked down to his local train station and bought a ticket to both of those towns. It would have taken him a few days to reach those destinations but he could have reached them without a car. I can’t, in fact I can’t even visit some of the suburbs of Denver without a car. The economic havoc this is wrecking on rural and urban America is unimaginable and unreported. How many good hardworking people are moving away from the communities their families have lived in for generations because they lack decent transportation options?
This of course doesn’t bode well for those who can’t afford an electric car. Right now the electric car is a rich man’s vehicle, Mel Gibson and George Clooney can buy them. Average people can’t, if gas prices keep going up a lot of working class people are going to find themselves unable to reach their family members or their workplace because the bus doesn’t go there. Okay in the long run the electric car will be mass produced but it’ll take two or three decades to get into everybody’s garage, think personnel computers it took thirty years to get them practical enough for use in the home. There will be social, political and economic hell to pay when Joe Sixpack is standing at the bus stop looking at the gas guzzler rusting in his driveway and watching the local rich guy cruise past in his new Tesla.
It must be added The electric car would be the perfect vehicle for commuting to the train station. The commuter could drive to the station, plug the car in and commute to work. When they got back it would be fully charged for the trip home. With vast numbers of Americans now living forty or fifty miles from their work this will be a desirable alternative. It makes a great deal of sense only our politicians won’t see it because won’t be politically popular. Of course the hard headed businessmen known as real estate developers will see the sense and make it a reality. The politicians knowing who their real paymasters are will smile and go along.
The electric car then is a wonderful invention but it doesn’t make the electric train or electric powered transit obsolete. It merely augments them and makes them more vital than ever.
The answer is no, even with the electric car almost in your garage the electric train and trolley still have a place. If electric cars appear and make driving cheaper and easier there is still the problem of congestion. If driving gets really cheap because of electric cars there will be thousands more cars on the roads, the highways won’t be any bigger and congestion will be worse than ever. Given modern environmental concerns and property rights there will be little room to expand the highways so congestion will be worse than ever. The logical answer to congestion is rail transit which can move many more people in the same space than electric cars. My home state of Colorado faces this dilemma the main road into the mountains Interstate 70, is already jammed, the only way to expand it will be to bulldoze a couple of historic mountain towns. Naturally, those towns residents are now vocal supporters of a rail option.
Beyond space there are the limitations of the electric car, the top of the line electric car the Tesla Roadster has a range of 220 miles on a charge. This is more than enough to meet the driving needs of the average American, they can reach work, the supermarket, Wal-Mart, their church and the local airport. If they want to go farther they’ll need something else such as the train.
It’s a dirty secret that right now if an American wants to travel outside the big cities he or she needs a car. If I who live in Denver, want to visit Gillette, Wyoming, or Salida, Colorado, I have to drive. Sixty or seventy years ago, my grandfather who lived in Christiansburg, Virginia, could have walked down to his local train station and bought a ticket to both of those towns. It would have taken him a few days to reach those destinations but he could have reached them without a car. I can’t, in fact I can’t even visit some of the suburbs of Denver without a car. The economic havoc this is wrecking on rural and urban America is unimaginable and unreported. How many good hardworking people are moving away from the communities their families have lived in for generations because they lack decent transportation options?
This of course doesn’t bode well for those who can’t afford an electric car. Right now the electric car is a rich man’s vehicle, Mel Gibson and George Clooney can buy them. Average people can’t, if gas prices keep going up a lot of working class people are going to find themselves unable to reach their family members or their workplace because the bus doesn’t go there. Okay in the long run the electric car will be mass produced but it’ll take two or three decades to get into everybody’s garage, think personnel computers it took thirty years to get them practical enough for use in the home. There will be social, political and economic hell to pay when Joe Sixpack is standing at the bus stop looking at the gas guzzler rusting in his driveway and watching the local rich guy cruise past in his new Tesla.
It must be added The electric car would be the perfect vehicle for commuting to the train station. The commuter could drive to the station, plug the car in and commute to work. When they got back it would be fully charged for the trip home. With vast numbers of Americans now living forty or fifty miles from their work this will be a desirable alternative. It makes a great deal of sense only our politicians won’t see it because won’t be politically popular. Of course the hard headed businessmen known as real estate developers will see the sense and make it a reality. The politicians knowing who their real paymasters are will smile and go along.
The electric car then is a wonderful invention but it doesn’t make the electric train or electric powered transit obsolete. It merely augments them and makes them more vital than ever.
posted by great one at 8:51 PM
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