Q: I'm shocked I don’t see extra feedback on plug-in charging in your column. Within the good outdated days, there have been a ton of free fees. Now charges differ extremely. Many make my plug-in hybrid costlier than fuel. What are operators pondering?
Who provides the bottom charges? Santa Clara County, which was free, is now $0.19 a kilowatt, which continues to be nice. The Metropolis of Santa Clara is $0.25 a kilowatt. All are about half the value of fuel for me. I've used ChargePoint in Campbell they usually even have $0.25 per kilowatt.
San Jose provides an excellent fee, but when you must pay a parking charge, it isn't aggressive. Charging in Los Gatos is pricey.
Glen Buschbaum
A: This is a matter of provide and demand. As extra electrical vehicles are offered, extra locations will provide charging. The speed may go down over time, as there are extra drivers and extra choices.
The EPA has a strategy to evaluate the effectivity of gasoline and electrical automobiles (EVs). On an EV’s window sticker, you’ll see a quantity labeled kWh per 100 miles. The identical data is out there for each EVs and plug-in hybrid automobiles (PHEVs) on the EPA’s fueleconomy.gov web site.
Q: I’ve pushed on Interstate 40 from Barstow to Oklahoma Metropolis. As soon as out of California, the velocity restrict went to 75 mph for vehicles in addition to vehicles. Granted, there was much less site visitors on the whole there than on I-5, however site visitors flowed significantly better round vehicles, as there wasn’t as a lot velocity differential between vehicles and vehicles.
What do you consider doing one thing like that on I-5 and Freeway 99, the place the roads are principally straight with few steep inclines (excluding the Grapevine and round Mt. Shasta)? Possibly not the 75-mph restrict for vehicles (though most vehicles are going that quick, or sooner), however at the very least 70.
This could additionally shave transport occasions, which might assist with that subject.
Paul Umeda, San Jose
A: I like that concept, uniform velocity limits. There may be a lot extra site visitors on I-5, nonetheless, that Caltrans has no plans to lift the velocity restrict for vehicles.
Q: Outdated Time Radio exhibits assist me go the time on street journeys. There’s an episode of a present, “Sweet Matson,” that I believed you may get a kick out of, because it’s barely forward of its time. Sweet is a non-public eye primarily based in San Francisco, and the present ran from 1949-1951. In a single episode, she drives south from San Francisco and complains about all of the site visitors on 101 … over 70 years in the past.
Mark Glanville
A: I’ll search for it. Outdated Time Radio is out there on apps (seek for OTR) or at archive.org.
Search for Gary Richards at Fb.com/mr.roadshow, or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.