Tag: road trips

Posted on

Can EVs compete with gas cars for road tripping? This American study takes a look

Having just bought my first electric vehicle and being a big fan of road trips, I was interested by a recent study in the United States that pitted gas cars against EVs to see which vehicle is truly the most economical on five American road trips.

Examining the time and fuel costs along iconic trails like Route 66 and California 1, the study underwritten by Upgraded Points offered a variety of insights while investigating the central question: Is saving money on gas really worth the tradeoff in travel time?

The study determined that for every 100 miles driven along these popular routes, an EV owner will save $11 but will add 25 minutes, on average. An EV trip increased travel time by over 13 hours on one route, but less than 2 hours on another.

Road Trip Study: Methodology

The study focused on five recognizable U.S. road trips of varying lengths. The routes were mapped out using Google Maps to provide exact mileage counts and travel times. To avoid traffic issues, road closures, and last-minute delays, the travel date was set for a specific weekend in April.

The costs of fuel for both gas and EVs were based on average gas/electric prices from states along each route. Estimates of fueling and charging times were sourced from the Department of Transportation and the American Petroleum Institute. Finally, the study evaluated the best states for EV charging access, using data sourced from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data and Electrek.

Five U.S. Road Trip Routes Travelled In an EV vs Gas Car:

Pacific Coast Highway: Following the California coastline starting from Dana Point and ending in San Francisco, this 523-mile journey takes 11 hours and 37 minutes in a gas car. In an EV, you would save about $65.79 but the trip would take you 2 hours and 8 minutes longer.

The Longest American Road Trip: Beginning in Boston and ending in Newport, Oregon, Route 20 spans over 3,000 miles and multiple states. EV trips will save travellers over $350 in gas, but that is easily surpassed by the time lost—an EV trip would take a whopping 13 hours and 28 minutes longer. On this trip, fuel/charging times were also substantial, with EVs taking nearly 14 hours to charge, compared to less than 20 minutes filling up gas.

Route 66, The Mother Road: Following Highway 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, the Route 66 trip would take just over 51 hours by EV, but saves drivers over $250. Gas vehicles need 7 pitstops for this journey, while EVs are looking at more than 10. Driving an electric vehicle would save about $258, but the trip would take you 10 hours longer.

The Blue Ridge Parkway: From Cherokee, North Carolina to Afton, Virginia, this journey is 470 miles of scenic beauty. Driving an EV down this route would save you about $50, but would add nearly 2 additional hours to your journey.

The Florida Coast: Following the Florida coast from Jacksonville to Key West, Route 1 visits all the major beach towns including Daytona, West Palm Beach, Miami, and more. The EV trip saves drivers over $50 in gas but adds over 2 hours to the drive.

The Longest US Road Trip, Travelled by an EV vs Gas Car

EV Usage and Charging Density, State by State

Access to charging stations is the key to a smooth and successful EV road trip. Located at grocery stores, gas stations, hotels, and other convenient locations, EVSE Ports provide power and charge with several ports per EV charging station. Access to these charging stations varies by state, with Washington D.C. coming out on top with 4 road miles per EV charging port. California offers 1 EVSE port per 10 road miles, followed by Hawaii and Massachusetts.

I’d love to see someone do something similar in Canada. One of these days, I’ll be brave enough to try a road trip with my EV, but for now, I suspect I’ll stick to using my other car which is a traditional gas-powered model.

Posted on

TV Food Maps lets you find all of those restaurants you see on television

TV Food Maps screenshot

I’m more of a You Gotta Eat Here guy, but I have probably watched more Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episodes than I care to admit. That’s why I’ve got lists of restaurants featured on both shows programmed into my GPS for when I’m on road trips in Canada and the United States.

Both shows are Food Network staples and feature amiable  hosts discovering local eateries across the continent. On their recommendation, I’ve eaten at some holes in the wall that I never would have known about and they are among some of my most memorable dining experiences.

TV Food Maps is a website that helps you pinpoint restaurants spotlighted not in those two shows, but in dozens of others. It has an extensive searchable database that helps you locate some amazing dining establishments. There’s even a road trip tool to help you plot places to visit while enroute from Point A to Point B. There are also some pre-populated itineraries such as a map of the best restos along Interstate 95, for example.

If you like food, travel and road tripping, then TV Food Maps is worth a stop.

https://www.tvfoodmaps.com/

 

Posted on

10 road-trip car games with kids that don’t need electronics

Hours locked up with children in a car on a long road trip may sound like one of the seven levels of hell, but there are ways to help the miles fly by that don’t involve electronics.

Sure, you could tranquilize your kids with video games and movies, and there are times you need to, but there are good, old-fashioned car games that have stood the test of time and are still fun to play even in our always-plugged-in society. Here are 10 of them that have been play-tested in my car on many a road trip:

1. License plate phrases
Most state and province license plates on North American roads are a combination of letters and numbers. When a car drives by, each person in the car has to create a funny phrase using the letters on the license plate. For example, if it’s AJG 224, you yell out Archie Juggles Girls. Things can get goofy very quickly.

2. Last letter, first letter
This is a word game where one person starts with a word then the next person has to call out a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. The first person to break the chain, loses. The words should be part of a theme. In our car, we use place names like cities, countries and states.

3. 20 Questions
This venerable guessing game is always a hit. One person thinks up a person, place or thing and everyone else has to guess what it is in fewer than 20 questions, which can only be of the yes-no variety. My oldest son memorized a long list of the names of the solar system’s minor planets like Make Make and Sedna to make sure we’d never guess.

4. Alphabet game
Find something in the car or in the passing scenery that starts with each letter of the alphabet. The first person starts with A, the next with B and so on until you can’t continue. Unless you’re driving in Quebec, have an X-ray in your pocket or are passing a zoo, letters like Q, X and Z can be a challenge so you may add a rule to skip them.

5. I Spy
I spy with my little eye, something that is orange. What is it? Everyone has to guess quickly, because things disappear in the blink of a little eye when you’re in a car.

6. Collect license plates
Travelling on interstate highways means you see license plates from many states and provinces. Keep a running list to see how many you can spot during your trip. Alaska or the Northwest Territories can be a difficult find and Hawaii is pretty much impossible.

7. Car bingo
This takes a bit of advance preparation. Create bingo sheets with a grid of commonly seen items along the road like a gas station, police car or billboard. The first person to get five down, across or diagonally is the winner. You can create your own grids or find printable templates online.

8. Restaurant race
Each person selects a restaurant chain like McDonald’s or Subways. Every time you see the restaurant by the side of the road, on a billboard or on an exit sign, you collect a point. The person who gets the most points after a set time is the winner. Play it before lunch time and the winner can choose where to stop to eat.

9. Counting Cows
In rural areas, cows are a common sight in passing fields. Kids in the back seat look out their side of the car and count cows that they pass. The goal is to count the most, but if you pass a cemetery, your cows die and you have to start over.

10. Find 100
Pick an object and be the first person to spot 100 of them. Can Dad spot 100 flags before Mom finds 100 billboards? It’s cheating if you pick something too plentiful like blades of grass or car tires.

What games do you play in your car? Let us know in the comments.

Posted on

Take a virtual road trip with Call of Road

Armchair travel has taken on a whole, new meaning in the age of first-person video. This website offers POV videos of all sorts of places taken from cars, planes, trains and many other modes of transportation. It’s the next best thing to being there.

http://callofroad.com/