Cohousing-L Mailing List: Electric cars in cohousing

[Bob Morrison (morrison]

On Thu, 2 Mar 95 09:38:51 EST, dme [at] pollux.cs.uga.edu (Dan Everett) wrote:

> Subject: Re: Coho & Makin' Dough --> Sustainability?

> This [excessive vehicle-miles] is a real concern to many of us at Kinney 
> Ridge. It seems that car-pooling
> would help a lot; beyond that we'd like to explore some kind of communally
> owned electric vehicle (or super-efficient vehicle(s) ).

  This reminds me of a suggestion I would like to make. That is to install
wiring for outlets next to some of the parking spaces so that in case some
of the residents want to buy electric cars in the future, the facilities are
in place to recharge them. Having to run an extension cord 50 feet or more
across the ground, with the risk of people tripping over it, would be a dis-
incentive for people to buy electric cars.
  Here in the frost belt, there is more incentive to install these outlets
because they can also be used for engine heaters, which many people use 
during the winter.
  I think if it isn't done during construction, it probably will never be done
because installing outdoor underground wiring after the fact is more expensive
than doing it during construction, and also highly disruptive. That is why I
think cohousers should think about this during the design phase, even if 
nobody has any immediate plans to buy an electric car.

Bob Morrison

Home: Boxboro, MA               Work: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton, MA