With apologies to Dr. Seuss, does the green chicken come first or does the green egg? More specifically, as the politically trendy go green, do we build the infrastructure and wait for the alternative fuel vehicles to come? Or does San Diego wait for the demand to arrive, and then expand the infrastructure accordingly?
As part of KPBS Citizen Voices Alma Sove and I recently attended the taping of an upcoming Envision San Diego episode on Global Warming. One of the guests was the representative of an electric car advocacy group and I was looking forward to hearing what he had to say.
Alma
April 10, 2008 at 06:41 PM
Hi Chuck,
Personally I wish developers would start to implement the changes before the trickle of electric car buyers grows. It might actually help some undecided buyers to go in that direction.
It would be an additional cost to developers though, with no clear revenue return, so my thought is mostly wishful thinking (unless gov't decided to subsidize the costs, but that might raise taxes...boy, this discussion about how to go green seems to get more and more complicated doesn't it?)
Anyway, electric cars are great in theory. Unless the price comes down, and the practical concerns of recharging for non-home garage owners works, the new technology is a little too far out of my reach for now.
Chuck
from Escondido, CA
April 11, 2008 at 03:21 PM
When I wrote this post I thought the problem of electric cars and street parking would have to be met with some form of street-side charging. I assumed the questions were when the installations would be done and who would be paying.
Leave it to Escondido to think outside the box though, and simply propose banning overnight street parking in residential neighborhoods. [The Union-Trib article on the proposal is
here
.] Not directly related to the future of electric cars, but it could have the advantage for city officials of avoiding the whole question of what to do with electric cars in the future.
Davesnot
from Oceanside
April 11, 2008 at 08:04 PM
Well.. I think that eggs come before chicken.. it's part of evolution.. the mutation that leads to a chicken would have to occurr in the egg.. thus the egg has to come first...
So.. I guess we need to get the green eggs developed so they can birth the green chickens..
But which is the egg? the cars or the recharging stations?
In the free enterprise system it will be the thing that makes most money coming first.. so.. the cars will be bought by rich greenies .. or people that understand that most of their driving is local.. next someone will see a need that can be filled.. recharge cafe's (hmm.. that's a good idea.. just give me 5%).. and thus.. the evolution will continue.
It'll be a matter of green.. meaning money.. not environment.
Jenn, aka JeSais
from Solana Beach
April 14, 2008 at 09:00 PM
green cars sound all well and good, but I'd like to see better public transportation and more mass transit options before I'd like to see plug ins for electric cars... where do these people think electricity comes from any way?
Also, correct me if I'm wrong (which is fairly often) but isn't the Prius in essence an electric car, recharging itself....
Davesnot
from Oceanside
April 15, 2008 at 07:23 AM
You're mostly right.. it's a hybrid..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius
