1 Million Electric Vehicles By 2015?
President Obama recently reaffirmed his desire to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015, but is that really realistic? A lot of auto makers are saying no, but there is work on the government's end to encourage the production and sale of electric cars.
Here's what's happening behind the scenes from the Federal Transportation Issues blog.Do you think you will be one of the million to be driving an electric vehicle by 2015?
About SRTC
SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.
SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.
7 comments:
Sure it is possible, electric vehicles are working now, but will the utilities have enough electricity to charge all those cars.
Will they burn more oil to charge the cars than is used to run the gas powered cars?
Yeah, there are a lot of factors to consider. One thing I've been thinking about: sure you'll save on gas, but the way electricity prices are increasing, will you eventually be paying the same anyway? And sure, Washington is working to build a 'West Coast Green Highway' but what if you get to a state, or an area of a state, that doesn't have charging facilities conveniently located? 2015 isn't that far away. It takes a long time to build facilities, so I don't see an entire network of charging stations being built and completed across the nation in just four years.
If you've ever seen the film 'Who killed the electric car' you will know that we have had the technology for awhile now. Of course the auto makers say it's impossible. The combustible engine provides a lot of jobs.
Not just jobs but some pretty big executive salaries as well.
Electric cars are out of my price range. Of course, so is gasoline.
One of the many reasons I just ride my bike instead.
I spend $30 a month on gas (that's one tank), and my body is much more efficient with fueling my bike than gasoline in a car is. Plus no emissions, minimal road wear, easy exercise, and fewer "hidden" fuel costs.
What I'd like to see by 2015 is more bike infrastructure in Spokane and more people out on their bikes. (The latter which would be encouraged by the former.)
And more people walking or using public transit. Of course, we just cut STA's funding, so it's sucking even more than it used to.
Unfortunately, the American culture is so addicted to its cars that I don't see this happening that quickly. :-(
BUT, it's slowly happening all over the country, and that's making me happy at least. Maybe by 2015 we'll have another 4 miles of bike lanes, some more sidewalks, and maybe we'll decide it's worth it to invest a little in public transit.
Or maybe you're right and people will just switch to electric because they don't want to pay for gas but still refuse to hop on the alternative transportation boat.
I hope you're right Rachel and more people find other ways to get where they're going besides electric vehicles. I'm in the same boat- can't afford an electric vehicle. I do think we'll have a lot more non-motorized infrastructure in the coming decade. Due to an executive order by Governor Gregoire, we're required to reduce vehicle miles travelled by 50% percent(!) in the state by the year 2050. That's going to be a tall order no matter how we go about it. That's a lot of people to integrate into our transit system's already limited resources so I see a lot of people turning to bicycling and walking instead. Hopefully anyway, but as you pointed out, Americans love their cars.
yea now it will come a new generation called as a electric vehicles generation..
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