Are Electric Cars Useless in Missouri? Change the Law!
Sammy Hagar famously claimed he couldn't drive 55.
How does 25 sound?
Under Missouri law, a new breed of electric vehicles will be condemned to go no faster than 25 miles per hour, and must remain on streets with a speed limit of 35 or under, even though the cars are capable of driving at 45 miles per hour.
Personally, I would enjoy the opportunity to handle my 5 mile commute in a noiseless vehicle that doesn't produce emissions, but not if I am going to get pulled over for doing 30 on Gillham or Southwest Trafficway. Such a low speed would be dangerous and obnoxious to my fellow commuters. The laws made sense when electric vehicles were modified golf carts that were incapable of going over 25 anyhow, but Missouri needs to update its laws now so that its citizens are able to take early advantage of emerging automotive technologies.
Labels: environment, Missouri
posted by Dan at 4/08/2009 07:43:00 AM
5 Comments:
But the speed limit is only 35 on both Gillham and Southwest Trafficway. You would be well within the law to go 25. The Speed Limit is just that, LIMIT. Not a minimum!
For my commute an electric car wouldn't make sense right now, but with this law it won't make sense ever.
I agree, Missouri needs to take a step forward now and embrace rather than limit technologies that can be beneficial.
People also have the option of picking up any old car that doesn't run and replacing the engine with EV parts. I haven't done it personally, but have found many resources on the web and places that would do an EV conversion for $10-15k, depending on the size and weight of the vehicle being converted.
People who would go 25 MPH on Gillham or Southwest Trafficway or Ward Parkway during rush hour are begging to be run over.
I live in Midtown with four bus lines within two blocks of my house and I never go north of the City Market or south of Ward Parkway, so when my little two wheel drive, four cylinder Ranger died I didn't replace it, opting to use public transit and cabs and rental cars to go out of town and I still save about three hundred bucks a month - but I would buy a car in this class.
Another thing that I have heard of lately is a car-sharing service that they are introducing in Austin with Smart Cars. They have ben doing it in Europe for years, and it works great. I would so sign up for that if they brought something like that to Midtown!
(And Eric, just so you know, being a contrarian for no damned reason us just bloody tiresome.
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