dgpcolorado wrote:GRA wrote:Yes. The weird thing to me was that they didn't include Montrose along with Poncha Springs from the start, as they're at opposite ends of a 125 mile mountainous leg that includes a 5,500 ft. climb (followed by a 3,800 ft. descent) when eastbound. I'm glad they're putting the one in Telluride for the reason you state.
Putting one in Gunnison eventually so people can easily make it to/from Crested Butte in winter, as well as eliminating any worries at all about the Montrose - Poncha Springs leg, seems an obvious addition. And I still want to see SCs in Durango, Cortez, Pagosa Springs and South Fork to cover all of U.S. 160, and it wouldn't hurt to have one in Ouray or Silverton, unlikely though that may be; at least there are some Tesla L2s in Ouray.
The only one on your list I was surprised not to see is Cortez. The others seem rather low priority given how many other parts of the country need better coverage. Mountain trip legs are
much easier to do than interstate legs because of lower overall speeds and reduced drag from the considerable altitude, IME. The proposed Supercharger Stations will have things well covered in western Colorado if/when they happen. The one I really want is Poncha Springs (although I'd rather have it in Salida). That would save me 40 miles on trips to Denver and that route over Monarch Pass and through South Park is more fun to drive and more scenic than I-70.
Yes, most of these are filling in the remaining gaps on smaller roads, unlike Cortez which is need to allow travel to Mesa Verde along with travel to/from Moab, Blanding and Kayenta. Pagosa Springs provides the most direct access to western Colorado from the Santa Fe/Taos area, instead of having to detour over to Alamosa. South Fork is 126 miles at the opposite end of S.R. 149 from Gunnison, and will be a low priority. Durango serves as the eastern gateway to Mesa Verde rather than Mancos, while doing double-duty as the southern end of 550.
The intent of the list from my perspective isn't to see how far apart we can safely put SCs, although that will be the initial stage, but to ultimately make them as convenient as gas stations to eliminate any remaining range worries so people can just drive the cars without planning, which requires spacing them no more than about 1/2 hour apart, and at or near all major road intersections. I would probably add one in Ridgway as well, although the Telluride one ( a 31 mile round trip detour from Placerville) will have to serve initially for travel along 145/90 west to Moab for small battery cars. As traffic is likely to be light on that route, it's not a high priority. I'd probably add one in Silverton, as it sits between two passes. Future SCs should also go in Leadville and Fairplay, and Granby or Grand Lake to cover the west end of Trail Ridge Road - I'd say that last one's a higher priority than most of the ones I've already listed, probably tied with Cortez.
