This morning while driving the grandkids to school, I was reminded of skiing … snow skiing and the inevitable moguls, which are bumps or mounds of hard snow on a ski slope. Because I was never an exceptional skier, i would often ski around or between the moguls. Why was I reminded of skiing? … because of the potholes. I had thought when I left Chicago many years ago that I had left potholes behind. However last week while making a left turn at a reasonable speed … BOOM … a large pothole which caused my teeth to chatter! Granted we have had much more rain than usual, but is this the sole cause of these now numerous potholes? I checked back for the rainfall totals for last forty-four plus years that I have lived in San Diego, and 2023 is not in the top five as far as total rainfall. 1980, 1984, 1993, 1995, 2010, & 2016 have had more rainfall than 2023. So why all of the potholes? Potholes which now requires drivers to pay extra-close attention to the street surface ahead in order to avoid the potholes – just like avoiding the moguls while skiing.
Could it be possible that there is actually another factor that could be accounting this pothole epidemic? Because here in San Diego we typically have a lot of sunshine, we now have a lot of rooftop solar panels, which have made it much easier to own an Electric Vehicle, and merely charge it at home.
As some of us are aware, the batteries for EVs weigh substantially more than the batteries of gas-powered vehicles.
An EV battery for a sedan weighs 1,000 pounds, and if there are a lot of EVs on our local roads, to me it is likely that this multitude of EVs are wreaking havoc with our local roads.
Meanwhile, statewide there is a lot of posturing concerning the fact that the drivers of EVs are not paying any gasoline taxes. Here in California, the drivers of gas-powered vehicles in California pay 77.9 cents per gallon in tax. This gasoline tax is what is used to maintain highways, and at present those who drive EVs are basically mooching off the rest of us. Imagine what’s going to happen in the future if all trucks are forced to be electric, as a heavy-duty electric truck batteries can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, which is 16 times more than the Tesla battery.
One can only imagine how bad the damage to one’s car will be after going over a mogul, err a pothole, on a highway at 60 mph!
2/13/24