Citation

Hamilton W. Transp. Res. Rec. 1976; 605: 1-6.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The applicability of electric cars to urban driving depends upon the adequacy of their limited daily range for typical daily driving patterns and on the availability of electric power for recharging at their overnight parking places. On the basis of the Los Angeles origin-destination survey of 1967, distributions of daily urban driving distance were compiled for individual drivers and cars and then were combined with information on parking spaces to show the applicability of electric cars in future years. By 1980, lead-acid-battery cars with a daily range of 87 km (54 miles) between recharges could take over the urban travel of about a million second cars in Los Angeles households, or 17 percent of all area cars, with little loss of mobility. Advanced-battery cars with a range of 230 km (140 miles) could also serve as primary cars in households. However, limited availability of overnight recharging facilities may limit applicability to 46 percent of area cars in 1990 and 74 percent in 2000.