Miles, not hours paradigm shift. Thinks that make you go 'Hmmmm...'

[JenniferQ]

Miles, not hours paradigm shift. Things that make you go 'Hmmmm...'

I've come to realize how I now have to think of miles to get somewhere rather than the usual, "Oh, it's about 2 hours away." It's nice. Seems more 'relevant' somehow.

Just another EV shift in thinking, I suppose.

 

[AudubonB]

That's interesting. In rural Alaska, it's always been "how many miles", at least for us (and I'm not talking Tesla). That's because although we have to figure on 200 miles to Fairbanks or 300 miles to Anchorage - it's always an adventure and we never know what will occur between here and there, so to consider hours is just foolhardy. This is most absolutely the situation in winter; for the nine days we have of summer it's not so much the case....

Welcome to the club!

 

[jerry33]

I don't believe I've ever thought about hours, just miles.

 

[JenniferQ]

I don't believe I've ever thought about hours, just miles.

Interesting. I wonder then if this may be a geographical mindset, or a generational one, or maybe just my family and friends do this? Even now that I'm in CA I was told to just drive to Vegas, as it's 'only 5 hours.' I had no idea what that meant in mileage, though, until I looked it up, since it depends how fast one goes. But looks like a super easy trip in the Tesla, as long as I avoid the bottleneck times at the SCs along the way, I'm told.

 

[CHG-ON]

Great observation!

I used to always think in hours. My whole life. Never thought in miles. And I was raised in CT and then moved to CA 30+ years ago. Completely different terrains and traffic patterns. In SoCal, it is always hours, because it can take 1.5 hours to go 12 mi in LA. Not kidding!

Now I think in three terms: miles, range/charging needed and time. I only have a 10 mi commute now (yes, be jealous) in Santa Cruz...traffic-where?! So I really only go though my OCD practice when I take a trip. I actually love trying to calc it all out and then see how good my prediction was on all three parameters. Miles is a no brainer. Time is often out of my control. I'm pretty good on range/charge if I give myself a 25% buffer becuase I begin and end in the mountains, which can chew up range pretty darn fast. And my foot is freakishly heavy.

 

[cinergi]

Was hours for me. When I started driving EV, I realized I had no idea how far anything was. I'd be like .. "Hm, not sure if I'm OK to drive to Cape Cod and back" .. I'd do the math and be like "wow, OK that's only 160 miles round trip. easy peasy" That was 5 years ago.

 

[Gwgan]

It's hours around here since the roads are not direct and there may be more than one circuitous way to go. Distance is usually accompanied by some qualifier like "as the crow flies" to convey its uselessness. I look forward to the time when I'm savvy enough to consider trip time with a little attention to weather and terrain but I'm sure initially I'll be calculating out miles. Eventually I'll be comfortable that the milelage will be "enough" and that's all I'll really need to know.

 

[thecloud]

It's hours around here since the roads are not direct and there may be more than one circuitous way to go. Distance is usually accompanied by some qualifier like "as the crow flies" to convey its uselessness. I look forward to the time when I'm savvy enough to consider trip time with a little attention to weather and terrain but I'm sure initially I'll be calculating out miles. Eventually I'll be comfortable that the milelage will be "enough" and that's all I'll really need to know.

Having lived half my life in SoCal and the other half (so far) in NorCal, it was always hours for me too. Traffic (not weather) is the main variable in CA, so you'd describe going somewhere as taking "normally an hour and a half, or 2 hours with traffic."

Before driving an EV, I always thought about a trip from San Jose to L.A. in terms of time, not miles (it's 90 minutes to reach I-5, then 90 minutes to the In-N-Out at Kettleman City, then 90 minutes to the Grapevine, and 90 minutes to mom's house.) Now I definitely think about how many "rated miles" (rather than actual miles) it will take to reach the next stop, and have let go of trying to accurately predict arrival times.

With the Model S, each leg of a road trip becomes its own journey, and not always having a fixed starting time for the next leg of the trip actually makes it much more relaxing.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I always used to think in hours, because I didn't own a car until I moved to the USA, so I used public transportation. One place I lived I was 45 miles from my parents' house. It would take at least 2 hours and 20 minutes to get to my parents house. I could shave a bit of time off if I took a taxi from the railway station* in my parents' town. I cycled to my parents' house once and it took me 3 hours.** Not having a direct train route can make a _very_ big difference. If I took a train, I always had to change once, and any delay can miss a connection and add a wait.

Now I think in gallons in my Prius. But yes, I sometimes think in miles in my Volt because of "gas anxiety".

* But I didn't, except in exceptional circumstances.
** It would take me longer now, because the route included a stretch of dual carriageway that's now designated motorway, .

 

[JenniferQ]

<snip>

With the Model S, each leg of a road trip becomes its own journey, and not always having a fixed starting time for the next leg of the trip actually makes it much more relaxing.

I want this.

 

[brianman]

I don't believe I've ever thought about hours, just miles.

Hours comes into play for me when scheduling human fuel import/export and sleep. If hotels and restaurants were all open 24 hours, the time units would have an even smaller role in my consicousness.

 

[AudubonB]

This thread has illuminated the amusing variety of units used in travel. Without being pedantic about kms, minutes, liters etc., we have:

*hours
*miles
*gallons
*kilowatts
*Superchargers
and of course one can imagine measurements in diaper changes, # of McDonald's sighted, # of times "99 Bottles of Beer" sung.....

 

[Zapped]

Last two years we've been gauging our trips by TESLAs sighted.
It's increasing nicely and thank goodness the superchargers are too.

 

[ilovemycoffee]

This thread has illuminated the amusing variety of units used in travel. Without being pedantic about kms, minutes, liters etc., we have:

*hours
*miles
*gallons
*kilowatts

and of course one can imagine measurements in diaper changes, # of McDonald's sighted, # of times "99 Bottles of Beer" sung.....

when my kid were younger, it was #clean bathrooms/destination

now it's #supercharger/destination

 

[DavidB]

In spite of almost exclusively driving my S85 for over two years, I still think in terms of hours of travel. My mental map of distances is skewed because of the time it takes to get past bottlenecks--several locations are actually closer than I think because I only think of how long it takes to get there!

 

[brec]

I think in kWh.

 

[hybridbear]

Since beginning to drive a shorter range BEV I definitely began to think in miles, instead of hours. My wife still struggles with this sometimes, because she will think that destinations are much farther away than they actually are based on the time it would take to arrive. With a 80-mile BEV, the miles become increasingly important to know if a trip is possible. In a Model S, that would be less of a concern & perhaps our attitude would shift back toward time.

 

[AudubonB]

I think in kWh.

Oh, snap! Too late for me to correct my duh!:cursing: moment.....

 

[FlasherZ]

Interesting. I wonder then if this may be a geographical mindset, or a generational one, or maybe just my family and friends do this? Even now that I'm in CA I was told to just drive to Vegas, as it's 'only 5 hours.' I had no idea what that meant in mileage, though, until I looked it up, since it depends how fast one goes. But looks like a super easy trip in the Tesla, as long as I avoid the bottleneck times at the SCs along the way, I'm told.

Generational is definitely there. I've always thought miles myself, but that's because cars and roads have been so reliable. Just today I was counselled by some colleagues that I might want to think in terms of hours. For example, Chennai and Bangalore are 350 km apart in India, but if you think it's going to take you only 3 hours to drive 350 km like we do in Illinois, you're smoking some pretty good stuff.

 

[Shaggy]

It's also a *VERY* Texas thing to do, refer to how far something is in time, not miles. From Austin, south Houston (for me) is about 2 hours 30 minutes, or 3 hours to the DZ. Dallas is 3 hours or 4 hours to the DZ.

I guess once I'm needing to be more range aware*, I'll start converting to miles again.

* stamp out range anxiety, use this instead