California to propose electric car charging stations at certain places

[bing101]

http://www.capradio.org/articles/2017/08/08/utilities-could-install-ev-charging-at-beaches,-schools-under-ca-bills/

Places included beaches, schools and apartments in the bill.

[Quillz]

Good... ? If you have an electric car, this will probably be useful.

[Max Rockatansky]

Good... ? If you have an electric car, this will probably be useful.

Really outside of the major urban areas there is almost no infrastructure available for electrical cars.  I rarely ever see electric charging stations anywhere in the Central Valley aside from major truck stops.  The technology is limited by how far the cars can go on a charge versus the range of a conventional internal combustion drive train.  If that is ever going to be fixed there needs to be enough charging stations available to support the cars and far more importantly (in my opinion) the range of a charge needs to approach 350-400 miles.

[jeffandnicole]

The bill would be much more useful if it required charging stations at every shopping center.

[sparker]

The bill would be much more useful if it required charging stations at every shopping center.

That would require a legal definition of a shopping center; right now CA is experiencing a precipitous drop in business at traditional malls -- with some either closing up or operating at reduced capacity (boarding up unused storefronts).  Now -- if one were to require charging stations at Costco (some local Wal-Marts already have charging stations in their parking lots!) -- or even Trader Joe's -- that might be useful.  A better solution may be to require a certain number per town (based on an algorithm of population and city area), with specific locations determined locally (civic centers would be obvious sites); counties would be responsible for stations within unincorporated areas.  Charging stations at truck scales and rest stops would also be helpful (ironically there's one of the former right in front of the Tesla assembly plant in Fremont on I-880!).