Yeah, sorry. I should have put an edit note to be clear, but I was hoping my edit was soon enough. Now going back to add it would just be weird.

Ok here’s a weirdness freebie so you can pay me back ……

My glasses have these little magnetic dots to hold “click on” sunglasses or driving glasses. They’re very convenient, when I can find the shades. But more recently I’ve been wondering what people think……. Sure enough, I recently got asked if they were pervert glasses. Nope, “nerd glasses”

Fixed. I don’t understand where some of autocorrect’s quirks come from. I do not know any Ned’s and have never intentionally written about one…… and it added the added apostrophe again?

A prosecutor threatening legal action needs to be taken seriously. And doing it for political reasons should be grounds for immediate termination in any sane world

… and I so hope we’re getting back to a sane world

For sure changing the party in charge is only a first step. Now we need to come together in the fight to change Democrat party leadership. The old leadership is clearly part of the problem and needs to go.

Was meant to be not entirely serious, but yes.

• the more we stoop to Chinas level on genocide, human rights violations, data privacy issues, they do look better. Relatively speaking
• global adoption of renewable energy has accelerated recently in respond to trumps actions such as disrupting international trade and bombing Iran

Yeah it’s pretty damn high, and that’s why I’ve been annoyed that Trump keeps trying to kill our offshore wind farms.

I looked into solar a few times and regret not doing so before the incentives were killed. They are still claiming seven year payback based on electricity prices and state incentives, but that upfront cost is a killer.

The solar installer industry is still full of scammers and greasy salesmen. Every negative stereotype you’ve seen about used car salesmen is so much more true of solar installer sales. Every time I’d barely get started in the process and already feel violated. It was such an unpleasant experience I was never willing to complete the process

I didnt intend to reply that it is simple or that anyone can do it. But some can. And there are clear ways to enable more. And changes like this snowball over time

You do make the decision to stay and that makes sense in your scenario. But some of the decision factors are changing over time for some people, and that may change their decisions.

For examples I’d always advocate for incentives for landlords to install EV charging. Some will. Some already are. And that will be a deciding factor for some people. It may be all too rare now but we can bring it forth

With that income there has to be very few of any cars that are actually affordable.

• it would be better if we can provide town centers where a car isn’t necessary and isn’t a sacrifice. Those don’t really exist in the us. Yet. But they could
• if there are affordable cars, EVs have not yet been around long enough to be there. But it’s a matter of time. I’m picturing 20 year old cars at that point so it may be different when EVs have been around that long.

I used to enjoy the rumble of a car with a Powerful engine, and nothing replace that vibration from a well tuned muscle car. But over time it got more artificial and farther from its roots. I will never enjoy artificial shift points. I will never enjoy noise makers. I will never enjoy the sound of a car that resembles a lawn mower or moped. Car guys have lost their way. However I do so much enjoy how my EV can out accelerate almost any gas car while making it feel effortless.

I’m serious when I compare many gas cars to steam engines. You can visit a museum or old-timey railroad and it is so incredible what they did back then. So many moving parts. So much noise. So much effort to make the parts survive all that violence. It’s really cool to see what they did back then. But it’s so primitive

I don’t think caps on house prices would be practical since there’s always supply and demand. Boston is a great example where things would be expensive anyway but we’re tens of thousands of housing units behind demand. There’s no quick answer but the MBTA communities zoning law should encourage more apartments and condos near transit over time. Overriding minimum lot size would have done similar for suburbs. At least potentially. Catching supply up to demand is part of the answer. And it won’t be fast. But it’s a start

Let’s all concede and never drive gas cars or buy houses

I completely disagree that this needs to be “conceding”. It can be a valid choice and we need to turn it into a good choice for ever more people.

• Many years ago I lived for a year in Boston without a car. It was very freeing, was a fantastic improvement in my life, many things were much more convenient, and I saved so much money. The major downside was that not everyone lived in Boston, but this is an opportunity to build on. This can be a valid, cheaper, and better choice for many people. It’s already true for millions in New York City and we can do the same. Let’s build a city where people find this a better life!
• I no longer drive a gas car and this is a good solution for at least a quarter of the us. That portion will continue to grow as we build out more charging solutions and will actually be affordable if we can end tariffs and protectionism
• MBTA needs to adjust to the reality that we no longer commute to Boston for work. Scheduling and frequency changes could make commuter rail useful for a lot more errands, and there are many proposals to build out service

Why would anyone celebrate war. A couple good changes coming out of it is better than not, but the death and destruction is far worse

I think we need to be careful about pushing this. In concept there is less maintenance, more reliability, but it comes down to quality and engineering.

Legacy technology has very mature engineering where they’ve done really well with cars that keep running despite everything. EV technology is less mature and legacy companies are still struggling to transition to new concepts and practices. It hasn’t always been smooth and any race to cheaper prices will not help

And yet even you

• probably decide every year whether to continue living there
• may have some influence with your landlord or your employer or where you run errands.

Charging at home is certainly the cheapest most convenient option. A few landlords will support that (we used to have incentives). When your lease ends, looking for a charging option may modify your decision.

But more and more places have destination charging. Some restaurants. Some parking garages. Some shopping centers. If I regularly went to the mall, it would be trivial to keep my vehicle charged. I also have free charging at work! But the point is to look around. There are options, more all the time, and at done point it may work for you

Most landlords have no incentives to install chargers until people ask for it and make decisions on it.

There would be pain, especially among those who can least afford it, but pain drives change. Pain drives improvement. Why are we trying to prop up harmful industries when we know there’s something better do close we can practically taste it. How is it helping anyone to prolong the agony ?

It’s time to rip that bandage off. Force politicians and manufacturers to listen to the yelps. Heal those injuries, by moving more quickly to something that’s actually better

I wish we could make the entire US watch that Technology Connections video. He does a very good job of explaining how cheap charging solutions are enough for most of us

I did install a level 2 charger

• it was similar cost to installing a stove circuit, plus $500 for the charger. Really not that bad
• there are several cheaper options that would have been sufficient
• after three years it’s probably paid for itself

Don’t get me wrong, a full 48a level 2 charger is a great convenience, but minimally different from, say, repurposing an electric dryer circuit

Damn, jelly. I Also calculate my EV as cutting my gas cost in half but it would be harder to beat a Prius when my electric rate is $0.36 per kWh

It would blow that person’s mind that, …. they could drive an EV for that much FOR THE ENTIRE MONTH.

Surprisingly this doesn’t seem to work. Maybe it’s too abstract for many? I still get responses like “but damn that would really hit your electric bill”. I mean sure but it’s only half.

And personal solar really isn’t the entire goal anyway. Symbiotic goals are appliance electrification and the most cost effective approach is when you need to anyway.

I installed a heat pump in my family room …… because the air conditioner died, and a heat pump was the same price as a new air conditioner. I still heat with gas when it gets cold but now I also have a cheaper, cleaner option in the “shoulder” seasons.

I don’t have solar, but if I could afford it, I would now also benefit even more from it

Not everything is an immediate decision. At some point renters need to renew, nomads need to relocate, people have to find a different personal vehicle: there are larger decision points. We can’t be afraid of driving those larger decisions over time

You can’t claim something is useless if people cant change their habits immediately, but they probably have a yearly apartment lease and there may be opportunities every year.

There’s still a choice. They can decide whether to drive a 15 year old pickup or a 15 year old Toyota. They have choices in how often and how far they drive. They have choices in shared transportation. Some of those choices are immediate and some build up until a bigger decision.

I’m old enough to remember car pools over commuting alone, shared shopping trips, people managing even when not everyone had a car. I remember a before time where not every adult had a car and not every car was a full sized pickup

There’s always disagreement between the carrot and the stick. It’s high time for both: the carrot or renewable energy and EVs and the stick of higher gas prices. We’ve wasted hundreds of billions of dollars over the last few decades trying everything except renewables: it’s time to focus on building out the obvious answer rather than finding yet another way to avoid reality while making fossil fuel executives even wealthier

But we had those incentives

• we had incentives to build out a solar industry, but no one had the patience when it’s more profitable to just let Chinese companies do it
• we had incentives for wind, and we do have huge generating capacity in a few areas but we were finally getting to building our wind for less resource rich areas (offshore wind in the northeast).
• we had incentives for companies to invest in wind and solar and retooling for new technology. Spent and thrown out before any results: it’s just more profitable to buy from China
• we had incentives for consumers to adopt solar - they were claiming a payback period of only like 5 years even here where there’s no sun
• we had incentives to make EVs cost comparable to gas cars, to guarantee a market to manufacturers and to help Manufacturers transition. It was incentive driven for all sides

I hate to be cynical of incentives but our entire economy of the last 12 years is the “face eating leopard” economy. Continuing to step on our own feet as we stumble drunkenly down the stairs is an underrated cause of Chinas success

We can’t make striving more expensive because it would harm more vulnerable people, but we can’t build alternatives because everyone drives.

I don’t know how to break that cycle of self-harm but maybe it starts by making driving more expensive. This is the least impactful direction because it costs only a little at a time and your own choices of vehicle and habits can make a difference.