I, like many Americans, are shocked at how high the gas prices are getting.... It's close to, if not over, $4.00 a gallon. A friend of mine asked me recently "Don't you feel like getting a (new) car now that Spring is here??" No, to tell you the truth, not at all....though what about an electric car? But I went online to check those out, and there's a number of drawbacks. The average price of the Nissan Leaf electric car is $32,780-$33,720! Wow! That's like 3 times the amount I have paid for a used (gas) car! In addition, the Leaf only has a 100-mile driving range...that's not very far before you'd have to recharge it. And, in looking online, there is only ONE public recharging station in this area, located in D.C. - and using that, you only get 80% of the car charged in 30 min. I wonder how many people would stand there for the 30 minutes to recharge? Otherwise, it takes 8 hours to charge it at home....but if you live in apartment complex? Where would you park it to plug it in?? You'd need to live in a house. Looks like the electric bill for charging an electric car is about $560 a year.I think a bicycle and public transportation still is a better idea. Speaking of public transportation, I was taking the subway home last night, and I ran into the "no train" situation again! I was at the Gallery Place station in D.C., to transfer to a Yellow line train. I waited maybe 10-15 minutes, watching the indicator sign, looking to see when a Yellow train would be coming. In that time, NO Yellow trains were shown! Only Green trains. After waiting and thinking, and seeing a couple Green trains coming and going...then the sign indicated another 20 min., for yet ANOTHER Green train - I decided to just get on my bike and ride home. It was a nice night out and I didn't mind the ride. If it had been raining, I would have caught a cab - I had my folding Brompton bike with me, so that would be an option...though I don't like to spend the money for a cab, but WILL if need be.
It's nice to have my bike there by my side to get me where I need to go - I don't need to wait. It's ready to go when I am.
1 comment:
When you are bike commuter who owns a car, it is totally shocking to buy gas these days. Every time I fill the car up it costs an extra $5 or $10. I predict that bike commuting will be VERY popular this summer.
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