Public transit and electric vehicles.

By the straightest line on roads, I live about 9.5 miles from my workplace. Google Maps says that will take about 30 minutes, implying an average speed of about 20 mph. There are no roads marked for less than 30 mph along the route, but there is traffic and signals and turns.

Clearly I am the prime demographic for an electric commuter vehicle. A range of 30 miles on a charge would do. A top speed of 35 mph would be fine. I generally want to carry me and my lunch; a couple of bags of groceries or the equivalent would be acceptable cargo space.

Such a vehicle would have to be competitive with my public transit route, which generally takes me about an hour, and costs me under a thousand dollars per year. It would win on flexible scheduling, of course.

What it couldn't win at:

- parking costs. Parking anywhere close to work runs $250 or more a month. Even if we assume special half-size, half-cost slots, $1500/year for parking blows the comparison immediately.

- time costs. Even if I get back 30 minutes of my commute, that's an hour I was mostly going to spend reading and listening to music. Instead I would have to pay attention to traffic and drive.

This post brought to you after spending two hours on my commute home today because of a broken bus and poor timing.

Public transit and electric vehicles.

By the straightest line on roads, I live about 9.5 miles from my workplace. Google Maps says that will take about 30 minutes, implying an average speed of about 20 mph. There are no roads marked for less than 30 mph along the route, but there is traffic and signals and turns.

Clearly I am the prime demographic for an electric commuter vehicle. A range of 30 miles on a charge would do. A top speed of 35 mph would be fine. I generally want to carry me and my lunch; a couple of bags of groceries or the equivalent would be acceptable cargo space.

Such a vehicle would have to be competitive with my public transit route, which generally takes me about an hour, and costs me under a thousand dollars per year. It would win on flexible scheduling, of course.

What it couldn't win at:

- parking costs. Parking anywhere close to work runs $250 or more a month. Even if we assume special half-size, half-cost slots, $1500/year for parking blows the comparison immediately.

- time costs. Even if I get back 30 minutes of my commute, that's an hour I was mostly going to spend reading and listening to music. Instead I would have to pay attention to traffic and drive.

This post brought to you after spending two hours on my commute home today because of a broken bus and poor timing.

Currently reading (Psychiatry)

From _Opening Skinner's Box_, Lauren Slater:

He [Rosenhan] said in the next three months he would send an undisclosed number of pseudopatients to this particular hospital, and the staff were to judge, in a sort of experimental reversal, not who was insane, but who was sane. One month passed. Two months passed. At the end of the three months the hospital staff reported to Rosenhan that they had detected with a high degree of confidence forty-one of of Rosenhan's pseudopatients. Rosenhan had, in fact, sent none."

Timeframe: circa 1975.

Currently reading (Psychiatry)

From _Opening Skinner's Box_, Lauren Slater:

He [Rosenhan] said in the next three months he would send an undisclosed number of pseudopatients to this particular hospital, and the staff were to judge, in a sort of experimental reversal, not who was insane, but who was sane. One month passed. Two months passed. At the end of the three months the hospital staff reported to Rosenhan that they had detected with a high degree of confidence forty-one of of Rosenhan's pseudopatients. Rosenhan had, in fact, sent none."

Timeframe: circa 1975.