Opinion: Imagine Virginia’s icy traffic catastrophe — but with only electric vehicles
You realize a lot of people on I95 are on road trips, right? Like many are probably in the 20s (or maybe even less) battery percentage-wise as they approach their next SC?
That's one area that I'm disappointed in Tesla; using the car to deliver power. It would be really handy to be able to lend another BEV owner some juice to make it to a charger. I think it's really neat that the F150 Lightning can do V2G and it might be a selling point with some consumers. Maybe the Cybertruck will have V2G or V2V charging.
No, that's not what a lot of people on I-95 are doing during the middle of the week. I'd bet over 99% of the cars on the road there were commuters. And to be honest I have remarkably little sympathy for anyone going on a road trip when NWS and all local weather folks are predicting 10-12 inches of snow. I barely can summon sympathy for the commuters.
I heard reports of people being stuck for 10 to 20 hours...but one person mentioned being just 3 miles from an exit. If properly prepared with the right clothing and footwear (and snowshoes, if necessary), I could easily hike the 3 miles in less than an hour. I also saw some people were "stuck" but able to have Uber Eats delivered.
I mean gas heat makes a HUGE difference. Heat pumps don't work in freezing temperatures so resistive heating is used. in my house, my electric heater has a 15kW resistive heater for when the heat pump can't operate (it turns on below 40deg IIRC). My electric bill is easily 50% more when it's freezing outside.
A classic case of concern trolling. No effort to find out the real situation, just a flight of fancy about how dire it would be to be caught in an electric car in a snow storm. They attempted to head us off with a note about Norway but then said they all still drive ICE there anyway so…
A lot doesn’t have to mean a high percentage. Whatever the actual percentage is, the absolute numbers are not trivial. It can take just 3 or 4 disabled vehicles to shut down a highway.
How would the response from authorities have been different in the future reality?
Agree about heat pumps. When I lived in Virginia we had one and I hated it. I had to set to emergency (resistive) heat to get any warm air. That was in the 80s and I understand they are much better now and you can do things like underground coils. But, I will stick to gas.
And you did not create CO and poison yourself like some poor souls did running their ICE vehicles in their garage.
Bosch 2.0 inverter heat pump is efficient down to -5 degrees. The tech has come a long way. I just had one installed on a 1550 sqft home. Kept the home at 72 degrees in 10~15 degree weather. I've got a propane furnace alternate I can swap between.
That seem extremely implausible on I-95 proper. The highway was closed and if you managed to enter you couldn't exit. Perhaps the delivery was by ski.I also saw some people were "stuck" but able to have Uber Eats delivered.
That's what was reported. A small number of comercial vehicles got stuck and blocked the highway.
There are plenty of roads that pass under/over I-95. I saw video that showed cars driving on a road close to I-95 and a driver got out and walked over to I-95 to deliver food.
While simplified and slanted to support the thesis there are valid points. The most important being that gasoline or diesel powered vehicles can be trivially refueled while stuck like this. This happens on occasion in my neighborhood where people are somewhat used to unexpected storms. Of course there are a *lot* of snowmobiles in my part of New York and it's considered a civic good to provide aid to stuck motorists before the National Guard is deployed.
