electric cars
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-eight years and a million words
I have this growing conviction that electric cars are not the solution to our car problem. They strike me as being the sort of transitory "solution" to our car problem that CFL light bulbs were to incandescent. A dated "more of the same" idea that caused a splash and then was quietly dominated in every way by a more effective solution.
We're making do without a car at all. We use bikes transit, and the local car share - which in suburban Tokyo is so good an evening's rental costs about $10. We might use that once every week or two. The cars are gas powered but this being Japan the largest gets 4.4L/100km. I know there are people in circumstances less fortunate than us, who live in places like North America and don't know any better. But honestly, I just think that the car is a dinosaur and that we're kidding ourselves with these unsustainable "advances".
Three good things that happened today:
- Got my haircut before the sweaty weather kicks in (even if I'm unhappy with the result)
- Got some things done in Canada - addresses we forgot to change, that sort of thing
- I got myself through a doctor's appointment on my own; first the doctor then the drug store. All in, about ¥1,400 and I was home in forty minutes.