Traffic Congestion and Highway Construction

[Scribe]

14 hours ago, kermit said:

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/ubc-study-links-living-near-highways-to-risk-of-neurological-disorders

 

It is time to switch to 100% battery electric vehicles.

The US power grid has been getting cleaner over the past 2 decades (and will continue to get cleaner as solar and battery storage get cheaper) and BEV's don't spew out toxic waste as they go.  Lastly, batteries can be re-used for energy storage after their life in EV's and after re-use recycled. Within the last few years they've advanced in recycling of Li-ion batteries where the vast majority of material can be recovered.
 

one example: https://www.greenoptimistic.com/finland-battery-recycling-20190412/#.XLW8GzAzaHt

Edited January 27, 2020 by Scribe

[Mgelbach]

55 minutes ago, Scribe said:

It is time to switch to 100% battery electric vehicles.

The US power grid has been getting cleaner over the past 2 decades (and will continue to get cleaner as solar and battery storage get cheaper) and BEV's don't spew out toxic waste as they go.  Lastly, batteries can be re-used for energy storage after their life in EV's and after re-use recycled. Within the last few years they've advanced in recycling of Li-ion batteries where almost the vast majority of material can is recovered.
 

one example: https://www.greenoptimistic.com/finland-battery-recycling-20190412/#.XLW8GzAzaHt

That's exactly why I preordered the Tesla Cybertruck a few days after it was announced. I'm tired of having to go to the gas station and ready to own a pickup truck that does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, the not spewing toxic waste from the tailpipe is a huge plus as well.

[DMann]

1 hour ago, Mgelbach said:

That's exactly why I preordered the Tesla Cybertruck a few days after it was announced. I'm tired of having to go to the gas station and ready to own a pickup truck that does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, the not spewing toxic waste from the tailpipe is a huge plus as well.

Mgelbach, You will love it!  My wife has a Model 3 and it is hands down the best car we have ever had.  I put in an order for the Cybertruck the week it was announced!

[carolinaboy]

20 hours ago, DMann said:

Mgelbach, You will love it!  My wife has a Model 3 and it is hands down the best car we have ever had.  I put in an order for the Cybertruck the week it was announced!

Not to get too off-topic, but I've always wanted to ask someone who has an electric/battery vehicle.....

What is the cost of charging the battery vs. the cost of gas/diesel? Is it cheaper to have to charge than to buy fuel? Just curious.

[DMann]

When I go to a Tesla Supercharger station and my battery needs 250 battery/miles the charge is about $9.50. In a ICE vehicle averaging 30 miles a gallon and paying $3.00 per gallon that would equate to about $25.  All this is variable, electric charges are different depending on the time of day and the demand on the grid.  Gas prices fluctuate based on mostly political stuff.  I have paid in the past as low as $2.40 per gallon and as high as $4.25 per gallon.   Rule of thumb indicates that it costs a little more that 1/3 the cost of gas.

A marketing ploy that is being used is free electricity.  Most Whole Foods have charging stations that they comp.  The Green Parking Deck has 10 charging stations that are paid for by Wells Fargo.  On weekends the parking rate is $5.00 per day, so you can get ALMOST free electricity there.  These chargers are much slower than the Tesla Superchargers though, about 24 battery/miles per hour.

If you have a garage, you can plug in your Tesla to a 110v line and it will charge about 4 battery/miles per hour, so if you got home by 8 pm and left it plugged in until 8 am you would charge about 48 battery/miles, more distance than most people drive in a day.  You can get your average kilowatt charge from Duke if you read your bills, and mine averages $0.06 per kilowatt hour so those 48 miles would cost me about $2.88.  Also, rates at night are lower than average.

Also, no oil, no oil changes, no emissions, no emission tests.

In 18 months, the only maintenance has been to rotate the tires, we have about 28,000 miles on the car.

Should you want to test drive one please send me a note, my advisor at the Tesla location on Independance will give you VIP treatment.  If you decide to buy one, please use this referral, https://ts.la/dianne18715, and we both will be afforded 1,000 free miles at a Tesla Supercharger.

[Scribe]

3 hours ago, carolinaboy said:

What is the cost of charging the battery vs. the cost of gas/diesel? Is it cheaper to have to charge than to buy fuel? Just curious.

You asked for it ...
Because it was nerdy and cheaper, I built my own charger from a kit @ https://www.openevse.com/

The nice thing about these is that they have all kinds of options where you can track your charging efficiency and lifetime power usage (if you're into that).

In the 4 years of full EV driving I have charged 54 MWh (54,000 KWh) with Charlotte electricity rates at $0.11 that turns out just under $6k ($5940 or $1485 per year).
I used to track my gas spending pretty closely (that is what justified the switch to EV's)
Our monthly spend would fluctuate in the mid $500's (so taking $550 for this calculation)
With $550 /month for gas we spent $6600 a year for gas (over same period of time that is $26,400) - if you want to round down to $500/month that is still $24,000 across 4 years or $6000 per year.

The second car is a Tesla (Tesla makes road trips a dream - and Model S and X get free supercharging for life, so outside of home I rarely pay for charging).

4 yr gasoline budget - $26,400
4 yr of EV charging   -  $5,940

 

Disclaimer: Your savings on fuel will vary! Because of our jobs, we drive a LOT! But we also have 2 kids that need to go to all kinds of events/programs/clubs.
Across both cars, we roughly put 53k - 55k miles per year.
All road trips fall on the Tesla so it ends up taking a bigger chunk of the mileage. Across all EV's that I've owned, we have driven just shy of 250,000 EV powered miles.

• First EV was a Leaf with a < 100 mile range per charge...
  • don't get any EV that does not give more then 250 miles of range per charge
  • the bigger the battery, the less charging cycles
  • charging cycles is what affects long term battery life  is measured in
• 2nd is Bolt with ~240 mile range (great for commuting without stress and short trips)
• 3rd is Tesla with >300 mile range (great for everything - especially for road trips)

Edited January 28, 2020 by Scribe

[11 HouseBZ]

Now if we can get an EV truck with decent range and functionality. Not the cyber truck, I'm looking at you Rivian.

[rancenc]

Are express lanes in US74's future??

https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/us-74-express-lanes/Pages/default.aspx

 

[kermit]

18 minutes ago, rancenc said:

Are express lanes in US74's future??

https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/us-74-express-lanes/Pages/default.aspx

 

Roughly $140 million per mile to add toll lanes to the easiest to widen section of Independence.

https://www.wfae.org/post/ncdot-puts-900m-price-tag-us-74-widening-toll-lanes

 

[tozmervo]

They've stepped up their video game. This was helpful to understand the scope. Still mystifying that they don't think funneling two lanes to one at Albemarle won't cause problems - seems like they should just have a single express lane for the full length.  Edit: It seems they are doing a single lane the full length now. Will need cross-sections to verify, but the video only shows a single lane.

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by tozmervo

[videtur quam contuor]

I was at the Hyundai dealer at Sardis Rd N a few months ago and their property is far too crowded. The salesman said they were suspending any improvements until final decision was made about this project. It sounded to me that the company had property farther out  (East) to expand or move from what he said. 

[rancenc]

Looks like the widening of Highway 73 between Huntersville and Concord will commence in 2023

https://www.independenttribune.com/cit/ncdot-takes-public-input-on-planned-n-c-widening-project/article_df1de075-21b5-5add-b422-266424757631.html

[Hushpuppy321]

14 hours ago, kermit said:

Roughly $140 million per mile to add toll lanes to the easiest to widen section of Independence.

https://www.wfae.org/post/ncdot-puts-900m-price-tag-us-74-widening-toll-lanes

 

Damn - any equivalent we could get for a $900 Million investment into public Transit?  Fixed Rail Commuter or Lightrail or 15 min Headway’s on all/most buses.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Hushpuppy321

[Seaboard Fellow]

On 1/29/2020 at 9:14 AM, kermit said:

Roughly $140 million per mile to add toll lanes to the easiest to widen section of Independence.

https://www.wfae.org/post/ncdot-puts-900m-price-tag-us-74-widening-toll-lanes

 

This will be one hell of a Jersey freeway.  This is a NJDOT dream highway. 

Edited January 30, 2020 by Seaboard Fellow

[#1Son]

Widening 74 into Union county is long over due but I never understood the State's reluctance to convert Independence into a fully controlled access freeway.  Traffic flow is consistently 60 mph or high even after you get to the stop lights at WT Harris. It is frustrating when driver's cross 4 lanes of traffic trying to get to Albemarle from Walmart or pull out going 35 mph.

[Nathan2]

I hate how NCDOT and the cities visions of transit don't line up. How can widening a highway along the corridor of a future light rail be beneficial at all. Would we even need this widening if a transit line existed here today? Why not reduce 74 to a boulevard like it used to be and allow for more connected communities and property tax growth. 

[tozmervo]

11 minutes ago, Nathan2 said:

I hate how NCDOT and the cities visions of transit don't line up. How can widening a highway along the corridor of a future light rail be beneficial at all. Would we even need this widening if a transit line existed here today? Why not reduce 74 to a boulevard like it used to be and allow for more connected communities and property tax growth. 

In this case, I believe "regional" priorities are overtaking the priorities of the communities along 74. That is, 74 as the link between Uptown & Union County, and 74 as the cross-state link from Asheville to Wilmington. 

ULI's report from a while back was telling. Essentially, they said "make Monroe and Central the 'fronts' of neighborhoods and 74 the 'back' of the neighborhood." In general I think that approach makes sense, because Monroe and Central are at much more appropriate scales for neighborhood development. They aren't carved up into giant highway-parcel swaths, and still function as part of their adjacent neighborhoods. 

[Nick2]

Us 74 should have been upgraded to interstate standards a decade ago. But at least this is a major improvement.

I-174 has a nice ring to it.

[DCMetroRaleigh]

1 hour ago, Nick2 said:

Us 74 should have been upgraded to interstate standards a decade ago. But at least this is a major improvement.

I-174 has a nice ring to it.

To Wadesboro,  no to the Pee Dee.

[davidclt]

On 1/29/2020 at 9:46 AM, tozmervo said:

They've stepped up their video game. This was helpful to understand the scope. Still mystifying that they don't think funneling two lanes to one at Albemarle won't cause problems - seems like they should just have a single express lane for the full length.  Edit: It seems they are doing a single lane the full length now. Will need cross-sections to verify, but the video only shows a single lane.

Nothing is better from NCDOT than this video: 

 

[thenewkage95]

Nothing is better from NCDOT than this video: 
 

Why, oh why is this a thing???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[davidclt]

6 minutes ago, thenewkage95 said:

Why, oh why is this a thing???

Because of (this is the story I tell myself) some blessedly rogue summer intern at the NCDOT. I think it's awesome and we need more of this. People take themselves too seriously sometimes.

[tozmervo]

20 minutes ago, davidclt said:

Nothing is better from NCDOT than this video: 

One of the youtube comments perfectly describes this video. 

"I'm now picturing a Parks and Rec episode where Jean-Ralphio starts doing freelance media editing work for the Indiana state government."

[cowboy_wilhelm]

I always lose it at 1:22. Thank you for re-posting this.

[KJHburg]

Not in the Charlotte but our state DOT is opening Business I-40 through downtown Winston Salem 6 months early. Of course it was a complete close for 15 months but impressive nonetheless. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2020/01/31/business-40-to-re-open-after-15-month-rebuild-6.html