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150 comments on Better Place - Bringing Electric Vehicles Powered by Renewable Energy
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150 comments on Better Place - Bringing Electric Vehicles Powered by Renewable Energy
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I've never really understood the belief that we will just abandon suburbia entirely if there is any feasible alternative open to those who have their life savings sunk into it.
Electric cars are a feasible alternative, and thus their adoption seems inevitable to me.
In my day job I'm frequently in the position of proposing options for projects that aren't able to generate a good enough business case to get funded - and often have to settle for second-best alternatives that acknowledge dismal BAU reality.
That's life unfortunately - no one has an infinitely large amount of money and our starting point is what is out there today. Better place will make suburbia a better place if it succeeds - its not an enemy of Transport Oriented Development and the like - just an alternative which will be necessary for a lot of people - at least for the next couple of decades.
As we've seen in California, real estate in the farther suburbs crashed harder than real estate in nice urban neighborhoods. Gas prices and long commutes certainly played a part, but the bigger reason is that the relative affordability of these areas attracted more first-time and subprime borrowers who took out option ARM loans.
As energy prices rise even more, you can expect the discount on suburban housing to grow even larger, maybe enough to offset the fuel costs of commuting. When cash-strapped governments can no longer afford to maintain utility lines, suburban housing may get even cheaper.