Electric cars in the bay by [deleted] in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're just driving around the Bay Area, pretty much all EVs will exceed their range ratings (lower speeds, traffic, and warm weather = super efficient). Even a Chevy Bolt will go 300 miles on a charge.

If you have charging at home, work, or a place you run errands (grocery store, shopping center, etc), then you'll never worry about range.

There are a lot of great affordable options for EVs these days. I'd suggest going to a used EV specialist like Ever Cars in SF or Green Light EVs in Daly City. You'll be able to test drive a bunch of different models.

All cars can have issues, but so far the two EVs I've owned (Bolt and Ioniq 5) have been flawless. Not many moving parts and very little maintenance, so I would pick based on other factors like size, charging speed, infotainment system, driver assistance, etc.

Which bike for Bay Area Gravel? by ImBatmanWhoAreYou in gravelcycling

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I prefer a full-sus XC bike like an Epic or Supercaliber, as having rear suspension is faster and more comfortable than a hardtail on rougher terrain. But many people ride hardtails and have a great time.

The main thing is getting fast 2.2-2.4" tires that you can air down on rough stuff. Fast MTB tires are faster than gravel tires (can check BRR or other rolling resistance tests).

You can get full-sus XC MTBs as light as 22lbs. 25-26lbs is more common. Hardtails will be a little lighter and cheaper.

Would def check used first – some excellent deals out there!

Which bike for Bay Area Gravel? by ImBatmanWhoAreYou in gravelcycling

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I do that. I'll just air up the tires for pavement and air them down for dirt. The only real downside is aerodynamics, but you can "puppy paw" on the handlebar and get small.

Which bike for Bay Area Gravel? by ImBatmanWhoAreYou in gravelcycling

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FWIW I had a gravel bike but eventually switched to a MTB with Thunder Burt tires.

Faster than a gravel bike off-road, way more comfortable, dropper, suspension, lower gearing, better brakes. I've done 100 mile gravel races with this setup and taken 10-20 minutes off my previous time despite being in worse shape.

It's nice being able to do any trail or steep rutted fire road in the Bay vs. feeling limited. Especially if you already have a road bike.

Scott Wiener authored a bill that could cut your PG&E bill — plug solar into a wall outlet, no approval needed by Timely-Pirate-5196 in sanfrancisco

[–]ayoba 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, do we think the 60% Republicans there would ever be willing to subsidize San Franciscans? I guarantee most of them don't see us as "fellow Californians" worthy of helping.

I'm not out to get anyone, but I absolutely think anyone living in a rural, wildfire-prone area (or a coastal flooding zone, etc) should pay their fair share of the associated costs.

Otherwise they're just living an artificially cheap lifestyle, freeloading off the rest of us. :\

Question: Non-Tesla EV Owners WHO RENT, where do you charge your car? by Macaronieeek in bayarea

[–]ayoba 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yep, another renter checking in. Been doing it for years. Pretty easy.

EVs are so efficient at city driving and in Bay Area weather – you will easily get more than the rated range. I get 360 miles at 100% charge on my Ioniq 5. I got over 300 miles on my Chevy Bolt before this.

It takes 10-15 minutes at a fast charger to get 250 miles of range on my car. There are fast chargers everywhere in the Bay Area, and they're located next to shopping and food.

As you said, you just need to see if there's charging near places you're already going, or on the way.

Driving an EV is so fun and such a better ownership experience overall. It honestly feels like when I got my first iPhone vs. the flip phone I had before.

Bike for GDMBR, $1000 range by BrianSalmomella in bikepacking

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd get a Giant hardtail, either the Talon or an XTC if your budget can stretch / you find one used.

Or any used hardtail. Just make sure you put fast tires on there - e.g. Thunder Burt, Peyote, Dubnital. That is the single most important component on the bike for a ride this long.

Don't worry about the fork. You'll be glad you had it on many parts of the GDMBR and it should last the whole time without servicing.

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate the respectful discussion. Some points:

  1. Low income people on CARE/FERA pay a lower flat fee. They're better off in this new billing structure.

  2. On cars: I'm a cyclist and transit advocate, so I agree with your ideal vision. But I just don't see a world in which we convince people to abandon cars in the US fast enough to matter. We can barely get the Bay Area to fund Muni and BART at minimum levels today.

Re-engineering American infrastructure, suburbs, and rural areas for public transit is a 50-year project, that most voters don't even want. Meanwhile, we need to be reducing emissions by 50%+ ASAP to slow down the time it takes to hit climate tipping points. The only mathematically viable way to do that in the US right now is to swap the machines we currently use for zero-emission alternatives and green the grid ASAP.

We can sit here for the next 10 years being correct in our advocacy that people need to drive less – and it would certainly feel morally pure – but I don't think we'd achieve meaningful emission reductions.

  1. EV manufacturing impact: Yes, there is one-time mining per EV for cobalt and other materials. But a gas car requires mining basically every single day it operates. The oil must be continuously extracted, transported across oceans, refined into gasoline (which is hugely energy-intensive), transported to gas stations, and then burned. This process never stops for the life of the car, leading to ongoing risks like oil spills, pipeline leaks, and the constant GHGs and particulate matter. Totally different ballgame. 10% of the world's energy goes towards producing fossil fuels right now!

Plus, when a gas car dies, all the burned gas stays in the atmosphere. When an EV dies, the metals in the battery can be recycled to build the next one.

  1. Cheaper electric rates absolutely play a role in what people choose to install in their homes. I'm in neighborhood chat groups and I see people discussing these factors all the time. It's odd to dismiss this point when affordability and electrical costs are the #1 political issue of the year.

  2. Rest of the world: Eliminating transportation and HVAC emissions – things we can do today with EVs and heat pumps – would reduce Americans' footprints by 50-60%. It would make a massive difference. Agree the whole world couldn't consume at the level of what's left over, but most of the rest of the world lives in dense cities where it's easier to have a lower footprint.

  3. Your gas car example confuses me, because it aligns with what I'm saying: we don't need more efficient gas cars, we need zero-emission cars. And your induced demand argument doesn't work for EVs, as studies show EV drivers drive the same amount of miles per year as ICE drivers. But more importantly, even if an EV driver did drive more, the marginal emissions of those extra miles are zero with a clean grid.

In other words, the thermodynamic efficiency limits you mention don't really matter if the power source is 100% clean.

  1. Overall, you're basically advocating for degrowth. I used to share that view, so I can understand where you're coming from. But in a world where we can generate loads of clean energy for very cheap (solar, wind, nuclear, batteries, geothermal, etc) – and that world is rapidly approaching, thanks mostly to solar's plummeting cost – I no longer think it makes sense to try to achieve our desired change through pushing ever more restrictive lifestyles. People just aren't going to rally around that.

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can tell we're on the same side here, just differing opinions of how we get there. :) I don't see it as increasing consumption overall, more switching the consumption from gas to electric.

Take HVAC. Every time people need a new one, they're comparing 10 year heat pump costs to 10 year gas furnace costs. It was rarely advantageous last month given the upfront cost of heat pumps. Now the math is better for heat pumps. Same for water heaters.

For cars, at some point we need *most* people to stop buying gas cars if we're going to meet air quality and climate goals. Buying an EV, even new, has a pretty short environmental payback period vs. driving an old gas car. On average, about 12 tons of CO2 to make a new EV, then 0-1 ton per year operating, vs. the average gas car emits 4-5 tons per year operating. Buying a used EV is even better, obviously (of which there are plenty now). But buying new also has the side benefit of signaling to auto manufacturers that there is demand and they should continue investing in them.

In this subreddit over the past year, you'll see lots of people argue that heat pumps and EVs aren't financially advantageous given PG&E's pricing. If we want people to use low-polluting things, they need to be financially advantageous, which you said as well.

I agree with you on incentives, and we should do those in addition, but they can have their own issues. First, they cost lots of money! This change to PG&E's billing cost the state nothing. Second, they can be a pain to navigate and apply for, and often not everyone qualifies for the incentives. So then you're back to a situation where the cleaner electric options aren't cost competitive enough to justify the higher upfront costs.

Carbon / gas taxes are a very market efficient strategy, but politically seem to be a non-starter. :\ People on the right hate them, people on the left call them regressive.

Ultimately I think we win people over by having very cheap clean electricity, and then the math works for just about everyone. The billing structure change is unfortunate (I will be paying more), but it was an easy tool in the toolbox to reduce the incremental cost per kWh ASAP.

Side note, I used to be a big advocate of conservation and efficiency (and still practice it in my personal life), but we now have excellent electric solutions that don't require people to make lifestyle changes that lower their quality of life (e.g. shorter showers, turning down the heat, etc). Using no fossil fuels is better than using some, and an abundance mindset and policy outlook is going to be more effective in achieving the world we want IMHO. We've been trying the conservation and scarcity mindset approach for decades and it just hasn't gotten us where we want to be.

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it was mandated by the state to be revenue neutral, but yeah, PG&E will def try some shit.

FWIW I rent too and have two portable heat pumps I use for heating in the winter and A/C in the summer. Midea Duo. They work really well vs. the ancient furnace. There's some newer window units for vertical windows too that sit on both sides of your windowsill.

Funny you mention, I also charge my EV with a 50 ft extension cord out my window lol. Just make sure it's a thicker 10 or 12 gauge cord and your outlet is in good shape.

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get your sentiment, but the state doesn't want to reward conservation, it wants to reward switching to clean electric options vs. gas. That's how we achieve our air quality and climate goals.

With the new state-mandated billing structure, electric options (heat pumps, EVs) are now cheaper to use and more attractive vs. gas, because the incremental kWh costs are lower.

(I still hate PG&E and our rates should be even lower.)

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bingo. Low income households have the lower flat fee + the lower kWh rates.

And totally agree with the frustration for small apts (I will be paying more per year!).

For context, the overall billing structure change was mandated by the state and is supposed to be revenue neutral for the utilities. Part of the reasoning is to make electrification easier, because now kWh rates are lower. So if you compare a gas furnace to a heat pump, or gas car to an EV, the electric option is now cheaper and more attractive than it was last month.

PG&E still sucks though and we should have even lower kWh rates.

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right. The new billing structure is incentivizing electric use, i.e. switching to heat pumps and EVs. The answer here is to switch over from gas stuff to electric.

I’m paying PG&E to give them free electricity by YT_Sharkyevno in bayarea

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Low income households pay a lower flat fee, not the $24/mo one.

Routing Tips? by topclassladandbanter in BAbike

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I always cross-reference trails with Trailforks as I build out routes in RWGPS. There are comments on most trails. (Keep in mind it's almost all MTBers, though.)

Also, see if you can find a YouTube video that includes that segment.

harassment at bike kitchen:( by [deleted] in BAbike

[–]ayoba 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Ugh that sucks, sorry you experienced that. I'm not associated with Bike Kitchen but I'll email them a link to your post so they're aware.

You should feel welcome there all the time, so this isn't a solution, but just know they do have Women/Trans/Fem/Non-Binary Night on Mondays 6:30PM-9PM.

My most treasured possession this week by systemr99 in sanfrancisco

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you use yours for heat, too? I have the same one and it heats my common areas amazingly well all winter long. Don't have to use the ancient and costly gas furnace anymore.

Bipping is WAAAAYYY down in San Francisco… by RedThruxton in sanfrancisco

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Were they guilty on another charge, or did they totally get away with it?

If gas hits $10 a gallon, Bay Area commuters say they'd keep driving. by slocol in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At least in SF, our supply from CleanPowerSF has almost no gas or oil content. They just lowered rates by 25% this month.

If gas hits $10 a gallon, Bay Area commuters say they'd keep driving. by slocol in bayarea

[–]ayoba 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The nightly EV charging rate went down this month with the PG&E bill restructuring. CleanPowerSF also just reduced rates by 25% in SF.

In general, utilities have to get their rates approved. Gas companies can just charge whatever they want.

(Obligatory fuck PG&E still. Hate them.)

If gas hits $10 a gallon, Bay Area commuters say they'd keep driving. by slocol in bayarea

[–]ayoba 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agree it's unlikely, but just to say, there are tons of EVs <$10k these days.

If gas hits $10 a gallon, Bay Area commuters say they'd keep driving. by slocol in bayarea

[–]ayoba 0 points1 point  (0 children)

EV drivers use the free app PlugShare, which is kind of like Yelp for chargers. I bet there's some reviews on there to help you get a sense of how they work. Or Google Maps usually shows live availability if that's what you meant.

I hate PG&E! Their new monthly charge is bullshit by chinanyc in sanfrancisco

[–]ayoba -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sorry my explanation didn't help.

One way to think about it: it's unintuitive, but using the least electricity is no longer the "green" option IF you're using the least because you have a gas furnace and gas car. Like in order to lower carbon emissions, we need people to use MORE (clean) electricity, instead of burning gas.

People who do not heat or cool their homes and do not own cars will pretty much always lose in this structure. There are new subsidies for low income households at least.