buckguy wrote: ↑March 21st, 2022, 6:31 am
Having had to do work on road trips and having done it at Eastern turnpike plazas, you'd be surprised how long people can spend on a stop and what people do. There is dog walking, making onward plans, catching up with loved ones by phone, etc. Having wifi and clean restrooms alone would make Starbucks locations attractive and real estate in the middle of nowhere is probably much cheaper than in urban neighborhoods or popular suburban strips where they usually have locations.
Most people traveling on interstates are singles or couples, even during the peak summer season. Those are the kind of people for whom an electric car is likely to be their only vehicle and therefore would be the primary users of this infrastructure. Many people work on long trips partricularly those whose job requires that they spend long periods of time on the road and need stops for paperwork, prepping for calls, etc.
If the service plaza concept was viable in much of the US, I can guarantee you, others would have already built those service plazas. They work on the east coast and a little more in the midwest (have seen them in Chicago and somewhere else that I forget now) for a variety of reasons including keeping you on the toll road to get services (vs. having to exit the toll road which years ago would have meant two separate toll payments to get off then get back on, now with the auto toll systems that isn't such a big deal), as a place for people to stop due to traffic, stop due to weather, and a variety of other reasons. I like the service plaza concept and enjoy stopping in them but that is mainly because I am interested in quick service restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, etc. and making a single stop and getting to observe 8 different operations at once is great for me. But for the average consumer it is a cumbersome situation and in my observation few people spend more than 10-20 minutes at a service plaza. I am also not convinced those service plazas are even overly profitable or if they are being subsidized by the transit authorities/toll road money. But these service plazas would be the absolute best place for a 40-60 minute EV charging stop based on their offering, setting, and safety.
You have to understand that the person who lives in a rural town who drives 2.5 hours into a larger town and back to shop, see family, go to a medical appointment, or whatever, does not want to stop somewhere for 40-60 minutes en route. They have tasks to do "in town" and they want to finish them and get home before they are so tired it is no longer safe to drive. And no I don't think they want to nap for 40-60 minutes at an EV charger (is it even safe to sit in the car with those charging? what about radiation etc.?). They do not want to deal with worrying about a 40-60 minute EV charge. You have to understand the person who drives a family member 3 hours away one way to drop them off at an airport for an international trip to a busy metro area with lots of traffic (so the 3 hour drive back just turned into a 5 hour drive back thanks to traffic) and is trying to avoid an unnecessary overnight stop does not have time for a 40-60 minute EV charge en route either.
And to that point where it is viable, the truck stops are basically functioning like a service plaza throughout much of the middle of the US...
This article, while dated, shows some states are finding those service plazas to be profitable. Note these are densely populated east coast states with lots and lots of car traffic. I do not see this as being viable in the less populated states that are more spread out. Are there service plazas in larger east coast states like Maine or PA?
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-a ... de-revenue
And based on the above article it sounds like the concept of doing service plazas in other states may not even be legal... it is nice a large corporation like HMS Host can run these service plazas back east. How many dozens of small businesses that would have otherwise located at offramps in the area, do not open up since the big corporation has a deal with the big government to monopolize the sale of food along that specific road? Sort of like when you go to an airport where all of the food service is run by HMS Host (becoming more and more rare since travelers have gotten progressively more pissed off with this outfit over the years)- how satisfied are you with the selection and service? Yeah, I thought so...