The long weekend is almost here, so let’s draw a deep breath and look at the lighter side of the news.
The first comes by way of Toronto, the city whose untouchable values and intrinsic right-thinking nature are seen by residents as a helpful beacon to the unwashed masses in other (less important) Canadian locales.
And in this city, people who bought an electric vehicle but don’t own a garage or driveway have their complaints aired in the Toronto Star.
The protagonist in this story, Todd Anderson, wants to help the environment, so he bought a 2016 Chevrolet Volt. Not a bad choice — decent electric range for around-town jaunts and a gas generator for out-of-town trips. Another bonus: $12,500 provided by Ontario taxpayers to help him foot the bill. The problem is, he has nowhere to charge it, and this is the city’s fault.
Anderson says he has to run an extension cord to his outdoor parking spot (kitty corner to his home) in order to juice up the Volt. He has installed a recharging station on his front lawn, but the street in front of his house is a no parking zone. If he parks there (and he does), Anderson has to run a cord across the sidewalk, potentially tripping people, while parking tickets collect under his wiper blades.
Some might say that he could have avoided the situation by not purchasing a vehicle that requires a driveway. Or, he could wait until his living accommodations allow him to easily use such a vehicle. Anderson doesn’t see it that way. The city, he says, should make it possible for residents to charge their cars on the street.
“I don’t think someone who drives a gas car would put up with not being able to use a gas station on a daily basis,” he told the Star. Thing is, there are public charging stations in Toronto, but they’re not in front of homes. Much like gas stations. (But far fewer, we realize. The city and province are working on that. Please don’t write angry letters...)
On the less irritating side of the news, a Houston bar manager’s soaking wet crotch and right leg has been immortalized in the most modern of ways thanks to a Google Street View vehicle.
According to Houstonia (via Gizmodo), Joshua Justice of the city’s Flying Saucer Draught Emporium accidentally poured half of a keg of suds on his lower extremities, so he decided to walk outside to a very public place to dry off. Who wouldn’t? (Besides the hoards of people who would anxiously hide in shame or borrow an apron from the kitchen.)
As he stood on the corner of the downtown street, with lager or IPA or God knows what soaking his brown pantleg from berries to cuff, Google’s mapping vehicle drove by and silently said say cheese.
The drive-by didn’t go unnoticed. He took to Facebook that night, posting, “Look for me on Street View soon. I’ll be the guy that looks like he pissed himself.”
Yes, it does look that way. However, Justice struck a defiant pose — arms crossed, head held high, staring down the judging camera vehicle. So what, he seems to be saying, maybe I like my pants this way.
Because of Google’s face-blurring tool, we can’t see the emotions coursing through his mind like ale through corduroy. We imagine that his expression would make this image twice as funny.
[Image: Google Street View]
He could become a spokesman for incontenance products for situations like this.
And maybe he could peddle a dictionary to you on the side.
The ” Toronto Star” must have had a shortage of “victims” to fill the “Victim of the day” requirement .
So today’s victim buys a vehicle that demands an electrical charge every so often. However the dude has nowhere to plug it in …Somehow in the world of the “Toronto Star” this is crisis ,that requires immediate government intervention.
This is Canada after all and we love having government provide us with a safety net. It sets us apart from those ruggedly individualistic Americans like Donald Trump. LOL
America loves the 45,000+ Canadians who travel to the US every year seeking better health care. It’s good for them and good for our economy.
The joke goes like this: rich Canadians can go to the US when they don’t want to wait in line.
Poor Americans, meanwhile, go the ER and/or the morgue
mtmmo – my comment was tongue in cheek.
I’ll expand.
There are pro’s and con’s to private/for profit health care or public/social health care or a blend of both systems.
A recent study I read looked at comparing the predominantly public(social) Canadian system to the predominantly private(for profit) US system. The “for profit” model excels at high “throughput” care. Examples would be orthopedics like hip/knee replacements or angioplasty. Both entail relatively short hospital stays and reasonably low complication rates.
Public (social) systems on the other hand do better with chronic longer term illness. That is because it is hard to profit from long term care. Kidney disease and renal failure is an example. Hemodialysis and associated care is costly.
One more point to look at is access. At least 33 million Americans don’t have health coverage. That is 10.4% of the population or close to the population of the whole of Canada without health coverage.
Is medical tourism good for the USA economy? It is great if you profit from that system. Do you? or if you can afford it or the premiums.
You say 45k Canadians go to USA for treatment.
In the USA in 2014 over 900,000 Americans went abroad to seek medical care. They left mostly because of cost. That is an obvious net loss for the USA economy.
A good hunk of Americans going abroad for medical procedures are elective cosmetic though. I do not think that the estimated 150000 done overseas would otherwise have been performed
@Lou_BC:
It’s inaccurate to describe the Canadian health care system as just “public”.
It’s not “public” as in “public transit”, where you have non-public alternatives to choose.
It’s “public” as in Mao’s “People’s commune”, where there is no alternative allowed. Any violation will result in government prosecution, because the system is so inefficient and corrupt that it will crumble if there is any competition.
In car terms, it’s equivalent to the American government officially forbid all foreign companies to operate or sell in the States and only allow GM to operate.
” For profit ” not allowed in Canada? Ya gotta be kiddin dude . Yes I’m a citizen of Canada . With a wife suffering from a degenerative neurological , terminal disease , I can tell you with the utmost certainty , that private ” for profit ” health care is alive and well ,and flourishing in Canada .
mtmmo,
I thought Canada had both private and public health like we do in Australia.
Why do Canadians need to go to the US for health reasons? I find this not believable.
Private health care is strictly forbidden in Canada.
@ WSN ……..Ha ! With all due respect sir , ya haven’t got a clue what your talking about
Big Al ……Trust me , well heeled , and not so well heeled , Canadians seek , and pay for , U.S medical procedures …..every day .
@wsn – there is a private surgical clinic in my home town. They do mostly Workers Compensation and insurance claims as well as private pay plastic surgery.
@BigAl – medical tourism goes on in every country.
Big Al from Oz – People go to the USA because they can get treatments or procedures done more quickly.
In some cases it is because highly specialized treatments are available in the USA that are just coming on line in Canada.
@mtmmo, More Americans purchase prescription medicine from Canada than Canadians going to the US for medical treatment.
Even Sara Palin admitted that her family had to seek treatment in Canada.
Also below are some facts regarding healthcare, from the AARP.
All Canadians can seek medical and hospital care, at anytime from any Canadian hospital or licensed medical practitioner without having to worry about going into bankruptcy or debt.
http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-03-2012/myths-canada-health-care.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/myths-about-canada-us-health-care-debunked-2012-08-09
https://www.quora.com/How-many-Americans-travel-to-Canada-for-healthcare-and-vice-versa
https://thinkprogress.org/palin-admits-to-travelling-to-canada-for-health-care-32db8d2a3107#.nbql63aoy
Same safety net that allows Canadian workers to collect unemployment after quitting their jobs.
@John-
“To be paid regular benefits you must show that quitting your job was the only reasonable alternative in your case, considering all the circumstances. In other words, you took all the necessary steps to avoid being unemployed.”
One pays Employment Insurance. If you loose your job or are off work due to medical reasons you can apply for benefits.
There are those who abuse the system but one cannot paint everyone with the same brush.
The Volt’s pathetic 3.6 kW on-board charger is the real issue. Plenty of public level 2 chargers around Toronto according to plugshare.com, but with that piece of crap obc it would take forever to charge. No excuses for not putting in at least a 6.6 kW unit or at least making it an option.
@ mcs ……No excuse , for the guy not doing some research , before he bought the car.
Mikey, you’re totally right. He should have done much more research. He would have realized that he wasn’t in an ideal charging situation. The OBC issue takes a little more digging to discover, but it was one of the issues I discovered prior to buying an EV.
When I got my EV, I think I researched it for almost a year. I even made sure there were places to charge it along my commute route and that there were backups. No problems in almost 35k miles on the clock.
If you’re plugging a Volt into a public charger, you bought the wrong car.
Huh? Many people buy Volts to sponge off their fellow man, and public charging stations exist to help such people burden their neighbors.
Like the way depreciation rules let the taxpayer who bought an Excursion for his wife (through the company of course) write off all the depreciation in one year, all on the backs of all the other taxpayers. The feeding out of the public trough swings both ways, but I find it most offensive when such feeding come at the expense of wasting resources, not reducing their use.
“let the taxpayer who bought an Excursion for his wife (through the company of course) write off all the depreciation in one year”
Well, taking a full Sec. 179 deduction on a personal use vehicle is tax fraud.
ajla,
If a desperate effort at moral relativism relies on a lie to fail to make a point… Next he’ll be reduced to trotting out the ‘oil company subsidies’ known as business expense tax deductions when every other enterprise in the nation uses them.
..Well, taking a full Sec. 179 deduction on a personal use vehicle is tax fraud….
ajla – it may be “tax fraud” but it was not at all uncommon – I know several contractors who did just that. The idea was to make it more attractive for businesses to purchase medium weight class vehicles and create “stimulus” but it was quickly perverted by those who could do so. You know, the kind that ToddAtlas aspires to. Ford made it easy when they built the Excursion to be intentionally heavy enough to skirt mileage regs by getting it into the mileage-exempt medium weight class. So such vehicles were often used, uh, “offline”**
Now the righty tighty mentioned above may say that is a lie, but it is most certainly not…sadly it is just another example of unintended consequences when such programs – however well the intentions are – are put in place. Funny how such types are fine with this type of government interference when it helps the wealthy stay that way, but when the regs are there to help those lower on the food chain it is not.
**my friend, now a Florida cop, started out first in the affluent neighborhood we grew up in. So in his early days of access to state license plate information, he used to run the plates of many of our neighbors. More than 50% of the plates he ran were registered to businesses – and driven by Moms. So this manipulation is quite common. I’m not innocent here; my first car was registered to my father’s company so I understand first hand how useful it is to own one’s own business. So perhaps I can be accused of being a bit hypocritical, but lying? Sorry Todd – facts are 100% true. Isn’t there a Trump event that needs you?
I don’t have any personal qualms with the EV subsidies, but I disagree with your assessment that committing tax fraud is equivalent to properly using a government subsidy or tax credit/deduction. What you are talking about is more like using Form 8936 to get a tax credit on a GS450h.
A vehicle being registered with a business and driven sometimes for daycare duty doesn’t necessarily mean someone was breaking the law though. Outside of taxation this provides a nice liability shield. On the tax side, you can still take deductions on vehicles that had some personal use, you just have to subtract your personal-use percentage. With section 179 you have to use the equipment at least 50% for business.
I might just live in an honest area, but I haven’t personally encountered many business owners attempting to take a 100% deductions on mommy-mobiles. If you are going to lie at least do 85% or something.
It isn’t needed anyway. There are plenty of ways to work within the tax code without breaking laws.
Public charging stations just mean that anyone can use them. They’re not always free and in 35k miles of driving, I think I’ve encountered just one station that might have been a government entity. The most common type of free public station I’ve charged is at food establishments trying to bring in more customers.
Government incentives pay for those charging stations no matter where they are, so the increasingly scarce taxpayer still gets violated. Completely unnecessary expenditures like the ‘sustainable’ energy scam are one of the reasons why we’re spending so much more than we can afford.
By installing a charging station, a business is able to keep a bit more of its hard-earned profits. A buyer of an EV is able to keep a bit more of their hard-earned pay. It’s an option open to any business or person.
I bought a Volt so I could get some of my tax money back, since I can’t afford a $300,000 home to “sponge up” the mortgage interest deduction that I’ve been subsidizing for 40+ years.
You also buy a Volt because you have a range extender, so there’s no need to block a public charging station that may actually be needed by a full EV – if you can’t charge it at home, then you’re not too smart (or you’re just a penoid).
“The Volt’s pathetic 3.6 kW on-board charger…”
The car has a range extender; it doesn’t need a more powerful on-board charger. If you’re driving the battery until dead, then blocking a public charger with your fully-functional range-extender Volt, you’re either a dummy, or just plain mean.
The issue is real. We recently passed up a house we were interested in buying because my wife has become an electric/plug-in convert and all of the parking was on the street with no reasonable way to set up a charger.
But, still, if you knew you had no good place for a charger why would you pick up a Volt? Agitate for more street chargers *before* you buy the Volt.
Right. That’s the mentality of some people.
I bought this car but its your fault I can’t charge it.
Lol, so I should buy a pool and then complain I don’t have a hard to put it in. Makes just as much sense.
Some people believe that buyers/owners of electric vehicles should be treated as a specially-favored class, with perks and subsidies provided at their neighbors’ expense. Especially those who buy such vehicles. :)
I have no issue with electric cars per se. They were quite popular 100+ years ago in fact. I just believe they should compete on their own merits in the marketplace against other vehicles without the distortion of government-imposed favoritism. In the instant case, the city did not have to build gas stations. It should not have to squander taxpayer dollars on building charging stations.
Well, it’s not *quite* that simple, because of the different ways gas and electric cars work.
A gas station is best imagined as a business sited on a piece of commercial property that people drive to. Gas is hazardous from both environmental and safety perspectives, should be concentrated in one place, and cars don’t have to stay around it long.
With the longer charging times and different safety picture of electricity as fuel, the gas station model doesn’t work. A more workable model would be widely distributed access points to the electrical infrastructure that’s already in neighborhoods. Government doesn’t need to *fund* those, but it should make them legally possible; today, in most places, they’d be illegal.
In dense cities, I’d imagine a no-frills access point at a substantial portion of street parking spaces, and when a majority of city cars are electric I’d imagine that running a network of access points could be a profitable business. Let someone start it. You could start with neighborhoods where there are already electric car owners who would like to park on the street.
dal20402: Government doesn’t need to *fund* those, but it should make them legally possible; today, in most places, they’d be illegal.
— You can’t put a gas station anywhere you want either. Is there any proof that site selection of charging station is more difficult than that of gas station?
Only had my volt for about 6 months and really have had no need for public charging. I’ve done many 60-70 mile gas free days juicing up entirely on the 115VAC outlet in my garage that was put there when the house was built in the 60’s. Use it to run my shop vac and air compressor too.
Carlson Fan:
An FYI: After about 5 months, my Volt threw a CEL related to the charger seeing power input voltage spikes (OnStar gave me the codes).
I have a garage door opener (on a cheap surge suppressor) plugged into the same outlet, so I bought a 2100 joule power strip to plug the Volt charger into – the CEL went away after two charge cycles. My assumption is that the borderline condition existed, and the loosening of the chain drive of the opener caused more of a voltage spike over time. The more robust suppressor of the TrippLite power strip filtered the surges to the Volt’s OBC.
I wrote this because you mentioned the air compressor on the same circuit – if your Volt is plugged in (and you forget to unplug the compressor) you could get the same CEL.
shaker – Thanks if I have an issue with the car throwing a CEL code while charging I’ll remember that. If I run my air compressor while the Volt is plugged in the breaker trips. So I have to un-plug the car any time I use it.
CF: Got it. Enjoy your Volt!
“I just believe they should compete on their own merits in the marketplace against other vehicles without the distortion of government-imposed favoritism. ”
Interestingly enough, about 35 years ago, the government showed “favoritism” to another new-tech product – the personal computer. It offered huge tax incentives to any business that bought one, in the hopes that the sales would enable the computer makers to amortize their costs and bring out better machines. Clearly, that’s not what happened, though…correct?
But PC’s weren’t strictly necessary, were they? After all, why use a PC to do your books, control your inventory, or write letters, when there were paper ledgers, file folders and typewriters around, right?
Damn gubmint. All it did was show “favoritism” to the PC, and before you knew it, tens of thousands of them showed up, and all the sudden a whole new industry cropped up. And then a few years later, it let companies use that weird “Internet” thing it created as a defense project, and all those PC’s were connected, and another new industry was created, along with a perfect venue for folks who don’t like government involvement in the economy to express their dissatisfaction in an instant to billions of people all over the world.
Dumb old gumbmint. It just has no idea what it’s doing.
Well I knew that Apple made huge bank off MECC, but I didn’t know that the IBM PC’s success was at least partially caused by government tax breaks.
No, you should buy a boat and demand they bring the shore to your backyard.
“No, you should buy a boat and demand they bring the shore to your backyard.”
No worries. Global warming has that covered. ;)
Finally, ManBearPig starts contributing.
@28-Cars-Later – never was a South Park fan but since we were talking about EV’s, eventually someone would bring up global warming aka climate change.
The majority of the scientific community supports the theory and so does several thousand research papers on the subject. There does exist a huge disconnect (no pun intended considering the EV story) between what scientists think and what the public thinks. IIRC around 65% of the public agrees.
We believe what we want which explains why there around 40k different Christian denominations (some sources say close to 100k).
Like you say, Lou, people believe what they want, but there’s no belief involved in the idea that eventually, mankind has to develop something else. Even leaving the whole climate debate aside, fossil fuels are toxic in obvious and provable ways, and as countries like India and China continue to develop, the amount of garbage dumped into the world’s ecosystems will just go up.
And I don’t think it’s a matter of opinion to say that whoever develops truly workable alternatives is going to have a license to print money.
@FreedMike – well said. Irregardless of one’s belief or disbelief in climate change, alternatives to hydrocarbon fuels are a necessity.
Agreed. This guy is like the guy who buys near the airport, then bitches about the noise.
@fincar1 – the irony of that statement is this: In my town there is an area along the river with several cement and paving plants. They have been there since I was a little kid i.e. over 45 years. We now have houses built a few hundred yards from them and those owners want the plants shut down. I’m surprised that they don’t ask for the rail line to be relocated.
Around here we saw a lot of developments where they went out in farm land or the woods and yeah then many of those people tried to sue when the found out that farms smell and make noise early in the morn or throw a fit when they clear cut that forest.
So now in most areas part of any sales contract is a “right to farm or practice forestry” addendum. In a number of cases the gov’t won’t record the deed w/o that signed addendum.
It goes into detail that farms can smell, noises may be made early in the morning or late into the night ect.
So this super-genius buys a car that needs to be plugged in, knowing that he doesn’t have a place to plug it in. He forcibly picked his neighbors’ pockets for five figures to help buy it (according to the article), and now feels victimized because due to his ill-considered purchase he needs to run an extension cord to charge the car up.
Now he further believes that due to his bad decision, his neighbors should be forced into paying to provide him with a convenient charging station. You gotta love the “logic” of the moocher class.
Here’s a solution: He can just move to a different house!
(How hard was that?!)
@click He is probably holding out for the city to pay his moving expenses and realtor fees.
Well, if he can afford a Volt, he’s no “moocher”…a fool, for sure, but not a mooch.
2manycars: He forcibly picked his neighbors’ pockets for five figures to help buy it (according to the article)
— Most, if not all, of the neighbours were willing to pay for it. They voted for the government that made the rule.
“He forcibly picked his neighbors’ pockets”
??????????????????
I didn’t know EV owners rob their neighbours at gun point!
@Lou BC Actually, we prefer tasers.
mcs – or knives.
It seems like only yesterday Todd was skulking along the high school halls, playing Tempest at local malls, remaining uncool and cast out…
Todd + Volt = An unattractive truth.
Its clear what the local city need to do (since its all their fault, they made him do it) is trench from his charging station across to his parking spot. It shouldn’t cost too much at $500/ft. A small price to pay to help a needy resident in distress.
Or maybe they could just pay his laundry bill for his pants and call it quits.
Maybe Mr. Volt should use some of that $12,500 to figure out a solution on his own instead of whining that his fellow citizens should pony up some more cash so he can plug in his car every night.
The Toronto Star….the same rag that published this garbage.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/08/25/air-show-too-traumatic-for-newcomers-who-escaped-war.html
It’s not garbage at all. Lots of veterans have a problem with this sort of thing – it even triggers PTSD. Presumably these are not limp wristed weenies.
http://www.militarywithptsd.org/fireworks-triggers-ptsd-and-veterans/
iMatt – PTSD is not confined to the military. There are a lot of people from countries that have been under fire from aircraft both manned and unmanned.
I will know that electric cars have truly become mass acceptance when the power outlets which are outside buildings all over North America suddenly have locks on the cases.
I’ll be the devil’s advocate here and say that gas car drivers complain about this as well, just slightly different tone. We expect the city to pave one extra lane on each side of the road so that if we feel like stopping there, we won’t have to walk much.
http://newcanaanite.com/my-sister-was-with-me-from-boston-parking-ticket-appeals-41866
And then when gas goes above $3 a gallon, we demand that the government release the strategic reserve or takeover a middle eastern country or drill baby drill. Or we subsidize gas, as if we already don’t.
Oh, Steph! You missed the pun. The Brits say turnups for cuffs. The line should have been “…from berries to turnups”! Get it?!
I’ll see myself out.
I’m trying to make “fruit to nuts” work here – ah, not quite.
Flying Saucer is a pretty great place for those who enjoy something besides Bud.
He was trying to get his plate quickly.
Another simple problem to solve for people like this idiot who invested money into something with little forethought.
Tax all EVs and Hybrids to cover the cost of installing charge points around Canada. So, if it cost X billions of dollars for this infrastrructure and they figure 1/2 a million EVs will be sold, tax an additional $20k per vehicle so these people can have charging stations.
The like a parking meter you use your credit card or cash per kilowatt hour. And remove the socialist handout when buying one of these money wasting pieces of sh!t.
This will give a good indication on the real costs of this waste of tax dollars on EVs.
I have nothing against any EV or Hybrid, except for the attitude most of these “feel good” socialists expect everyone else to support and pay for their dream.
Big Al from Oz – “I have nothing against any EV or Hybrid,”
Ever proof read your posts?
Lou,
Quite simply, yes I do.
Where have I made any comment against an EV or for that matter aluminium F-150 (any full size pickup) or anti American?
It appears people like yourself have at most a 4th grade level of comprehension.
What I have been against concerning EVs is the (read this slowly) …… the handouts …… the mainly “feel good” crowd who support more the handouts rather than the EV.
You would see the massive drop in EVs when the socialist handouts are stopped. So, are they really a viable product? Then why are we promoting them?
The guy in this article typifies the averge EV owner.
Oh, I do believe in climate change, but I don’t agree with the way in which government is managing the necessary changes. It can be done better and cheaper and create more jobs than is currently had.
The same goes or these Ford Vunder Trux, the aluminium F-150. They are not necessary. They have been forced to be as they are. Why? Through the support and promotion of cheap energy, protection of large vehicles in the US via barriers, ie Poulet Impot, etc. And the big one CAFE.
The same goes for a very few of the Americans who comment on this site. By reading their comments it appears they live in some one horse town and have never left home and believe all they hear and not have a serious look. These guys stick their heads in the sand. Donald Trump is a classic example of how the US is going in the wrong direction. Oddly enough there are people who are buying his bullsh!t.
I do believe my comments are accurate as I do and have traveled extensively and actually the US is more or less my second home.
It seems to me you are incapable of “handling the truth”. You make out as if you are some shrink. Correct, eh, Dr Phil;)
Battery power should be left to Smart phone, laptops, golf buggies, cordless tools, forklifts and inner city vehicles. If anyone wants to have the luxury of a EV for suburban life or whatever they should pay the full cost of owning one.
People with IC vehicles pay more than their share for owning their vehicles.
If governments want to reduce fuel usage then put up the fuel tax. So people can buy $9 000 Mitsubishi Mirages instead of subsidising $9 000 or whatever for one EV purchase.
Wait, isn’t “Todd Anderson” the nom de guerre for Neo?
Therefore, the solution is clear: reprogram the Matrix so a plug appears in front of his home. Just don’t take the red pill.
“hoards of people”? Really, Steph, the big story might be to discover where all these people are being hoarded!
From the article in The Star, here is the real reason he did this:
“I wanted to do something about climate change,” said Anderson, who’s been in the renewable energy business for more than a decade.
Self-promotion much?
He can’t afford a house with a driveway, so maybe renewable energy hasn’t been too kind to him.
Yes, people with gas powered cars wouldn’t stand for no gas station access. But that’s not -quite- the same as “I want a gas station built in front of my house, at taxpayer expense.”
You bought the bacon factory before deciding you were kosher. It’s your own fault, guy.
Id’ say that he bought the bacon factory despite the fact he knew he was kosher.
Yeah, that sounds better.