Germany is building out an EV fast-charging infrastructure. Two months ago, the European Commission decided “Germany’s scheme to roll out a network of user-friendly infrastructure for charging electric vehicles across the country is in line with EU state aid rules.” The government will invest €300 million (nearly $320M US) and two-thirds of this is designated to accelerate the development of a fast charging network. The buildout started long before any announcement of Government funding. 292 units were installed last year. The first Fastned EV Fast Charging stations will soon be under construction.
Everyone knows that B.C. Ferries is losing money. According to their press release last November, the supposedly “publicly owned company” was $1.2 billion in debt. Yet this morning Claire Trevena, the NDP critic for transportation, announced that an NDP Government would reduce some ferry fares.
Porterville, California, is about to make transportation history. The little Californian city only receives an average of 13 inches of rain a year, which makes it particularly vulnerable to atmospheric inversion, which holds in the exhausts from vehicles, agriculture, and other sources. Thanks to a determined city hall, the number of Stage 1 smog alerts declined from over 100 per year, in the 1970s, to almost zero. On December 7, the California Air Resources Board awarded $9.5-million to replace its entire bus fleet. By January, 2018, Porterville should have America’s first 100% electric municipal bus system.
Good news for those concerned with the state of our province’s aging transportation system. The Federal, provincial and municipal governments are partnering to provide a total of $900 million for BC’s aging infrastructure.
Vancouver just held its’ Eighth Annual Share the Road Challenge. There were 13 teams, each composed of someone driving a car, someone with a bike and someone using transit. They started from different locations throughout Vancouver and North Vancouver, anywhere from 2.4 to 10.4 kilometres from the finish line at the downtown London Drugs. The distance did not matter, as long as each team started from the same point, because this was a race to see which form of transportation moved through rush hour traffic faster. This was the first year in which all the bicycles triumphed over cars and transit .
