http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1083764_do-electric-cars-alter-your-brain-forever-an-owner-says-yes [image] Do Electric Cars Alter Your Brain Forever? An Owner Says Yes By Marc Lausier May 3 2013
[image http://images.thecarconnection.com/med/author-marc-lausier-and-his-2011-nissan-leaf_100426072_m.jpg Author Marc Lausier and his 2011 Nissan Leaf ] Having now driven my Nissan Leaf electric car for more than a year, I've begun to ask myself whether it's permanently altered my brain. And I have to be honest: The answer, from my perspective, is a resounding YES. I 'feel better' for the following reasons: - I spend less money on fuel and maintenance - The pollution I don't emit benefits the environment - Lower operating noise from the vehicle is comforting - etc, etc. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there's one problem I frequently experience as a result of owning an electric car: I drive faster now than I did in my previous gas-powered car. It's my understanding that this is a common occurrence among electric-car drivers. It apparently started long, long ago. Even then, higher speeds were the result of the relative silence of electric cars. I sense that my first ticket in this car is simply a forgone conclusion and probably not too far down the road, as the saying goes. Of the five senses, sight is obviously the most important while driving--but hearing is more important than I realized. This was quickly brought to my attention when I lost the 'audible cue' from a noisy internal combustion engine. When you floor the accelerator of a gas-powered car, the revving sound lets you know the car will speed up quickly. But when you floor the accelerator in an electric car, from a hearing aspect, you get...relatively nothing. It's as though I've gone deaf and as a result I'm re-learning how to drive. Keep in mind that learning is always easier with positive reinforcement, which I get every time I sit behind the wheel of my electric car. On a lighter note, I'll remind you of the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov. He is famous for his "conditioned reflex" experiment whereby he trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell because he made them associate it with food. I believe that driving a 100-horsepower electric car for a year has 'conditioned' me. There's now no doubt that whenever I manage to get behind the wheel of a car powered by a 500-hp electric motor, I will immediately begin to salivate! Marc Lausier is a retired pharmacist living in the coastal town of Scarborough, Maine. He is an electric-car advocate and the owner of the first Nissan Leaf sold in his state. He first wrote for Green Car Reports about his car's carbon-dioxide footprint. [© Green Car Reports] For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date Here are today's archive-only EV posts: EVLN: 3D Hall Effect Sensor Improves EV Battery Management EVLN: Bosch Power Max, 1st EVSE under $450 EVLN: SB454 No special EVSE card, password, or secret-handshake required EVLN: 2013 Zero S Streetfighter Electric motorcycle, review + EVLN: Tesla backs "Made in California" label marketing-advantage legislation {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-My-EV-Ate-My-Brain-tp4662911.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
