Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
I can't wait for Silicon Valley to "invent" the concept of a bus and try to market it to the public as a new technology.
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The Coming Disruption of Transport
- Thread starter kEiThZ
- Start date
Voltz
Senior Member
They just need an app for requesting a stop.
rbt
Senior Member
The main change from a flexible bus service (like TTC's WheelTrans) was inserting themselves as payment processor.
TRONto
Active Member
We've seen the likely results via ride-sharing. Autonomous vehicles will increase traffic and gridlock making rapid transit even more important.
Midtown Urbanist
Superstar
Beware of those peddling technology solutions in transportation without common sense of spatial distribution, or understanding of mobility principles such as frequency and vehicular capacity (directing my gaze at both AV's and hyperloop)
Admiral Beez
Superstar
This! Why does it matter how the car is driven if we all still want a private car to take us somewhere?
That need only count of our communal ignorance of the past and present.
Ugh, when I see this I just want to get onto my 1969 Triumph motorcycle with nothing but magnetic and mechanical electronics. I am so glad I got to live a good part of my life before everything went digital and surveillance capitalism.
MisterF
Senior Member
I was at my dad's house on the weekend and the topic of electric cars came up. He's a skeptic. He trotted out all the usual talking points: Oil is the lifeblood of the economy. EVs are worse for environment. They're no good in the cold. There's not enough power in the grid. Solar panels only last 20 years. Hydrogen is better. Every point was either overblown, easily overcome, or outright wrong. Still, a lot of the public feels the same. This is the power of the oil lobby, to get the public to fear change.
For all of Elon Musk's faults, I will give him credit for having the conviction to stick to his vision and, against all odds, make it happen. Thanks in no small part to Tesla, EVs and the battery technology behind them now have momentum that even the oil lobby can't stop. But so many don't see it. If there's one thing that my conversation with my dad has convinced me of, it's that a lot of people and companies are blind to the coming disruption and are going to lose their shirts.
For all of Elon Musk's faults, I will give him credit for having the conviction to stick to his vision and, against all odds, make it happen. Thanks in no small part to Tesla, EVs and the battery technology behind them now have momentum that even the oil lobby can't stop. But so many don't see it. If there's one thing that my conversation with my dad has convinced me of, it's that a lot of people and companies are blind to the coming disruption and are going to lose their shirts.
kEiThZ
Superstar
I've been thinking about getting an EV. And the more I look at our infrastructure, the landscape is sort of absurd.
1) We have no fast chargers at our service centres on the 400-series highways.
2) We now have several competing charging networks (Ivy by Hydro One and OPG, Electrify Canada by Volkswagen, Petro-Canada, Tesla, etc.). And yet, they don't have uniform coverage. Or are limited to usage (Tesla).
3) We don't really seem to have a real plan for retrofitting all the existing condos and apartment buildings. Sure, there's some legislation. But it all essentially relies with condo boards to be proactive and invest in charging infrastructure.
Hard to make a case for disruption, when we can't organize ourselves to build out the infrastructure needed for the disruption....
1) We have no fast chargers at our service centres on the 400-series highways.
2) We now have several competing charging networks (Ivy by Hydro One and OPG, Electrify Canada by Volkswagen, Petro-Canada, Tesla, etc.). And yet, they don't have uniform coverage. Or are limited to usage (Tesla).
3) We don't really seem to have a real plan for retrofitting all the existing condos and apartment buildings. Sure, there's some legislation. But it all essentially relies with condo boards to be proactive and invest in charging infrastructure.
Hard to make a case for disruption, when we can't organize ourselves to build out the infrastructure needed for the disruption....
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
You have a provincial government that was - until recently - dead set against EV and making policies to accommodate it.
AoD
kEiThZ
Superstar
The OnRoutes were rebuilt by the Liberals though. And for some reason, despite their generous EV rebates, it never occurred to them to require that charging stations be built (or at least provisioned for) as part of the redevelopment.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
I think the Ontario Liberals were interested in the image of EV than the actualities of truly supporting it for the long run. I think there was a beep here and there about giving money to build charging stations but it doesn't feel like a systematic thing.
AoD
kEiThZ
Superstar
I get that the scene for chargers sucked back then. There were competing charging standards. People were still talking about hydrogen. But it wouldn't have cost them much to simply mandate that some of the parking spots at the new OnRoutes be wired to have chargers installed in the future.
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AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
It would require them to have a focus on EV at that level of government decision-making - but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't even something in their minds when they set up the P3 in what, the early 2010s?
AoD
TRONto
Active Member
It'll happen gradually as the # of EVs increase on the road the market will respond. I would prefer if it was mandated that say every gas station, shopping mall and big box store have at least a couple charging station but the issue will be resolved on it's own.
syn
Senior Member
To be fair to a service like Uber - a growing percentage of it's rides are pooled, a trend that's likely to continue.