This weekend and beyond will see significant traffic delays at the busiest of all the Mass Pike interchanges, due to work on long overdue bridge replacement and repair. I’ll be using the interchange today, before this weekend’s highway chaos, to pick up a bookcase I ordered. It’s intended for the space downstairs where the piano had been.*
Last summer, it was raining heavily when I was on a Route 90-to-95 offramp, driving to one of my 28 weekday radiation treatments at the hospital. As I went around a tightly curved overpass, a sporty, late model Audi sped past me. The driver lost control on the wet pavement, he skidded, then spun around 90 degrees before stopping sideways. The car’s front end was sticking into my lane, but I had no difficulty in maneuvering to prevent an accident.
As I swerved around the Audi I saw that it had high performance tires with a very low profile — tires that typically do not do well on wet roads. My tires are the Michelin CrossClimate2, known for their exceptionally good traction in rain and snow. I credit the Michelins more than my driving skill in avoiding an accident. In my mind, that singular incident justified the CrossClimate2’s premium price.
That traction comes with an extra cost, however, and that’s mileage. The CrossClimate2 has relatively high rolling resistance, which I knew when buying them. Compared to the Bridgestone tires that came with my Camry, I’m losing about 10% in gas mileage. An acceptable tradeoff for improved traction, as since retiring I’ve been driving only about 4,000 miles/year.
I don’t know when I’ll be getting my next (and perhaps final) car, but I like that Toyota will be making all future RAV 4 models as gas-electric hybrids. I’m not ready for an all-electric car, and I doubt I ever will be. Primarily because it will be many years before America’s power grids are ready for a nation of mostly all-electric cars.
There is something else about EV’s that concerns me. Their weight adds significantly to the damage they can cause in a collision with other cars and, especially, with pedestrians. Another concern is the environmental tradeoff in how frequently their special tires need replacement, as explained here by CNBC.
* No bookcase yet. Argh. Tomorrow!
I am ready for an all electric car, and one will almost certainly be my next vehicle. Most of the time it will charge at home. Range keeps improving, as well as the charging infrastructure. A very reasonable option to consider is if 99% of your driving is around town, rent a gas powered car for the very small number of road trips where the range and charging situation would induce anxiety.
As for hybrids, I personally wouldn’t buy a “traditional” hybrid where you have all the complexity of both drivetrains, and all the complexity of switching. But a “series hybrid,” where the gasoline engine is effectively just a generator, might be intriguing.
Also, a pedestrian getting hit by a 2-ton vehicle, or a 1-ton vehicle, or a 5-ton vehicle, doesn’t stand a chance if the driver isn’t stopping, and won’t know the difference. If they are, then stopping distance would be the biggest factor (I would think). But yes, a multi-car collision where one vehicle is carrying an extra half ton of batteries, that’s worrying.