The Broadway business district was humming this afternoon in spite of the overcast and drizzle. Four days before Christmas and Hanukkah is "peak shopping time". I made four stops that took about an hour including two trips back to my car, so the scene below wasn't just a single instance anomaly. The gas guzzler spaces were packed. You remember how tight the Lot Y lane is between the two parking rows next to Pick of the Litter when both sides are full. Even in a mid-size sedan, backing out of a space is a two or three-cut process. Maybe it is the rain, but my meter took my coins, flashed green, but failed to display how much time I just bought. It's ticket roulette.
Many people were looking longingly at the EV spaces. I didn't have the heart to look at each charger to see if they were operational--I sort of know the answer already based on this post two weeks ago. As the "Daylighting" ordinance goes into effect with fines starting Jan 1, parking spots will get incrementally rarer. Just wait until 19 spaces go EV-only in Lot K between Safeway and Walgreen's. Perhaps Santa will bring the city a few shrouds to cover broken chargers that read "Open to all vehicles for free". It's on my list.
Your previous article alone stopped us from chancing a trip to Santa Barbara with our EV.
Took the VW gas’er: $21 dollars each for a 5 1/2 hour drive.
Best deal around.
Posted by: Peter Garrison | December 21, 2024 at 07:53 PM
Year in review pieces are starting to appear in the press. This one encapsulates a lot of the EV chicken-and-egg problem:
Bureaucratic haggling, equipment shortages and logistical challenges mean a $7.5 billion effort to install electric vehicle chargers from coast to coast has so far yielded just 47 stations in 15 states. For context, the program promised 500,000 chargers.
Posted by: Joe | December 30, 2024 at 04:21 PM