Some times its best to leave it parked on the show room floor.
Posted on 08/06/2010 12:11:22 PM PDT by Willie Green
After driving the new Scion tC in San Diego all day, I got back on the Amtrak Surfliner at 3 p.m. and headed north to Los Angeles, the laptop plugged in to a convenient 120-volt, three-pronged outlet and me typing the whole way. Again, I could look out the window and see, in addition to a one- to two-foot west swell at Trestles, traffic slowly crawling along on Interstate 5. I was glad not to be in a car. Is there anyone who loves driving in stop and go traffic for 128 miles? (One guy said that because I took the train I should not work at a car magazine. How can you argue with logic like that? Sometimes I take airplanes, too. What do the airplanes mean? Don't anyone tell him I have a couple of bicycles.) This time the train was pretty much full, meaning the Surfliner's diesel electric hybrid (not just a diesel) was being used more efficiently.
I got to Union Station a little after 4:30 p.m. and returned to the i-MiEV in the $6-a-day underground parking garage. So the whole trip cost $62.
There were four spaces in the garage for electric vehicles. Two had inductive paddle chargers just in case anyone came by with an EV1 and two had those older RAV4 EV conductive chargers, neither one of which did me any good. Why they didn't have a simple 120-volt plug is beyond me. Heck, why not a simple 240-volt 20-amp plug? With the coming influx of plug-in hybrids and electric cars, such outlets would draw more customers.
As it was I didn't need to plug in. Round trip to and from Union Station was only 33.9 miles and the whole thing used 7 kWh. I waited until 9 p.m. and started charging the i-MiEV. It'll be full at oh-dark-thirty when I head in to work, where I can once again plug in and recharge, now that building management realizes they won't go bankrupt. At least not because of the i-MiEV. If only I could recharge as easily as an electric car.
Now pay back the taxpayers...
Horse sh**. I hate trains or any type of public transportation. Give me a car any day.
“now that building management realizes they won’t go bankrupt.”
So his building should pay for his fuel?
hey, can we get a free gas station in our parking lot?
No, the whole trip did NOT cost $62. The trip cost HIM $62, because taxpayers who fund Amtrack subsidies paid the remainder of the cost he benefited from.
$62 from him and $75 from taxpayers is more likely the true cost of his trip.
How much did it cost the taxpayer?
There were four spaces in the garage for electric vehicles. Two had inductive paddle chargers just in case anyone came by with an EV1 and two had those older RAV4 EV conductive chargers, neither one of which did me any good. Why they didn't have a simple 120-volt plug is beyond me. Heck, why not a simple 240-volt 20-amp plug?
It's a taxpayer subsidized project. Does he really have to ask?
Some times its best to leave it parked on the show room floor.
Well, all is good on planet Starbucks. But for those that don’t live on the train line and type crap for a living, reality intrudes.
Apparently he's unaware there are many folks who are lucky to take home $62 a day after taxes in this country.
You're quite the thief Willie.
No kidding, I’ll even take an electric car over a train.
He drove the “Scion” in SD all day ...
for free?
Free perk to Auto writers but not you and me???
A rental car would have cost you and me $50? More?
Take the family, add $200 ???
No kidding, I’ll even take an electric car over a train.
So what kind of electric car is going to get you 128 miles from SD to LA in stop and go traffic without pulling over somewhere to recharge your batteries?
This particular route is one I take, but that’s more a function of failure to expand the highway capacity much in the last several decades. Anyone can make the train option seem more attractive by letting the otherwise-more-desirable car route fall into disrepair.
So the TAXPAYERS are subsizing electric charging at the station, and his LANDLORD is paying for it the home.
This idiot doesn’t get it, does he?
I do want to thank all you who subsidize it, though, since city busses are a lifesaver to me, no matter how bad!
Our little PT here in the Victor Valley operates on about 20% collected fares and the rest on governmental subsidies, and routes operate from 6AM to 7PM,takes two hours to get to where one could in 10 minutes in a car, and never on Sunday. ADA (dial-a-ride, not available to the general public) eats up over half the subsidy while producing less than 5% of revenue!
Greyhound, which is still a private corporation, makes the local transit look great. Amtrak makes two stops per day, before 5AM westbound, and about 11PM eastbound, and thus is nearly useless.
All that being said, after having to give up driving, my monthly expenses dropped dramatically! Altogether, for local bus, taxicab fares and other transp. cost are several hundred a month less than operating an automobile.
Of course, it helps to be retired....lean back and enjoy the two hour trips to and from the grocert store. And buy a monthly pass....
This idiot doesn’t get it, does he?
I don't know....
He kinda sounds like those geeks who use to play around with the original Apple or Commodore computers...
And the GOP sounds more and more like those lethargic old luddites who claimed that those "toys" will never capture as much business as the mainframes...
Like it or not... our transportation technology is changing...
SO, who paid for the electricity for those Apples and Commodores? You have COMPLETELY missed the point, I see.
(PS- I had my Commodare64 for years before I finally sold it to a collector in 2002. And I paid for the electricity it used.)
So from that, I would conclude that he paid for the electricity through some kind of parking meter device or something....
I don't know how you jumped to the conclusion that he didn't pay for the electricity just because he's driving electric cars.
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