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Free ride for electric cars is but a false charge

One of the electric car charging stations at the Durango Transit Center. The stations are not free; it costs $1.80 per hour to charge your electric vehicle.

Why does the city of Durango subsidize electric cars with free power plugs at the Durango Transit Center parking lot? I’m sick of the city making us taxpayers fund “progressive” projects. And electric cars are very expensive, so isn’t this a break for rich people who can afford an electric car while the rest of us struggle to pay the power bill? – Not in the Driver Seat

Action Line sees that you are really amped up about this issue, but we need to pull the plug on any notion of free power for electric cars.

The Transit Center has six parking spaces equipped with car plug-ins. They were funded by a grant that the city applied for and won, according to our good friend Amber Blake, who is the city’s multimodal administrator.

Moreover, Amber points out, the plug-ins are not free. If one wants to juice their jalopy, it’s going to cost $1.80 per hour for the privilege. The plug-ins can be activated with a prepaid card from the city, a credit or debit card or via the ChargePoint smartphone app.

So, the plugs aren’t a perk for the caviar-and-champagne crowd. In fact, there’s no crowd at all.

As of last summer, Colorado Department of Revenue records showed that there were only 16 fully electric vehicles registered in La Plata County.

Action Line didn’t bother to see if that number had changed. That would involve “work” and “investigation” to uncover “the truth.”

Instead, we’ll just throw something out there.

Say the number of electric vehicles miraculously doubled. We’d still have only 32 e-cars cruising around, performing vital chores, like going to Durango Natural Foods for sprouts, prowling around the parking lot of a yoga studio or toting a standup paddle board to the river.

Electric vehicles are certainly as progressive as they are insignificant. That’s not going to change until one can go farther on a charge.

Nissan engineers determined that the Leaf, an all-electric vehicle, has a worst-case range of 47 miles and a best-case range of 138 miles. So in stop-and-go stormy winter weather, you might not even make it to Farmington.

Who wants to be stuck in Flora Vista? They don’t even have a transit center.

Which brings us to a totally random question: Did you know that the Durango Transit Center is officially named the Durango Intermodal Transit Center?

Intermodal?

So, we have a multimodal administrator working out of an intermodal center. What’s the diff?

“Intermodal is a connection of all the modes of transportation: bikes, bus, walking and so on. On the other side, multimodal designates an emphasis that includes multiple modes of transportation,” Amber explains.

We should just call it “megamodal” just to cover all the bases.

H H H

It’s time for the Mea Culpa Mailbag.

Last week’s column was still warm from the oven when several loyal readers pointed out a half-baked mistake.

Nick Stasi summed it up best: “In today’s Action Line, you discuss Halloween supplies and wrote that Mrs. Action Line has ‘breading, manners and class.’ Does she have breading or breeding? I thought maybe she was lightly coated in bread crumbs at first. Just curious.”

Well then.

All we can say is that Action Line was loafing. The column certainly wasn’t something to toast. Any way you slice it, Action Line needs a crusty editor.

And Mrs. Action Line, being a honey bun, will never know how much she is kneaded!

Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you disable spell-checker because it shows strait a weigh when a mist ache is maid.



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