As part of my quest to understand the electric car revolution better I have been talking to people about their thoughts on EVs and reading up on developments in this area of transport innovation. It seems that there is a great deal of concern about battery life and recharging time, which makes sense. People are used to having no limitations on where and how far they drive except the gas in the tank so having to consider another issue when planning a road trip seems like a lot of work. At the same time, developing a new system is necessary for the future of humankind. A transition to carbon zero transportation is the future so we need to figure out how to resolve the recharging issue for both new and second hand vehicles.
I saw a blurb recently in Monocle Magazine about reimagining the service station and I had a thought, why don’t we reimagine travel? What if EVs could be used to spur a rural renewal? Some service stations in the US have a small boutique with a few local products but for the most part they consist of a large convenience store and fast food chain restaurants. There is little local charm allowed in the service stations across the country and few facilities beyond food and bathrooms.
Monocle magazine suggested retail similar to what we see in airports like an Louis Vuitton shop on the route between LA and Las Vegas so people can shop while they charge. But wouldn’t it be nice to do something a little more local? I’m from what is often called a “flyover state” that has actually adopted the tourism slogan “it’s not for everyone”. Seriously. But it is also a state with some of the darkest skies/ best views of the Milky Way in the country, world-famous steaks, a baking tradition with a number of local delicacies and farm-fresh produce. It’s the state where Malcolm X was born, where Willa Cather penned most of her novels and where six Native American reservations are located. So there is actually a lot to see and do and I think that is probably true of every state. There are so many ways for travelers to enjoy their time while and, more importantly, so many ways for people to play a role in developing their local communities. This could be an important and inclusive economic development tool.
In the end, maybe this is just the impetus we need to update travel infrastructure to the way we live in the 2020s. The current system was created in the 1950s for the lifestyle we had in the 1950s. As our society changes and adapts to the fourth industrial revolution we have to reconsider how we interact with each other and our environment and how we live. The whole smart city revolution is about building and empowering communities and learning from each other in an interactive way. The pandemic has given us a greater perspective in how to balance our time and how to enjoy the smaller things. Even if they found a way to remove limits on battery life, driving morning to night and filling our stomachs on unhealthy, processed food that creates vast amount on non-compostable waste no longer has to be the norm. Maybe the new norm can be respecting our health while we respect the journey and an element of a slower, more deliberate lifestyle that our post-pandemic ways of working can make viable.
smartcityperspectives.com 