What will become of service stations?
This isn’t a concern for tomorrow, but the question’s already being asked what will become of the city’s 310 service stations once gasoline‑powered cars are phased out? Empty lots filled with contaminated soil doesn’t sound appealing, although since moving to Villeray I’ve seen several small gas stations demolished and condos constructed on their sites, so dealing with this can’t be impossible.
Latour Roger 15:00 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
You know the new park on Mont-Royal avenue, la place des Fleurs-de-Macadam, is located where there was a service station?
Kate 15:07 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
Yes, I knew that. It’s a good use of the space.
Ephraim 15:24 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
I thought that legally you can’t sell contaminated land in Quebec. In any case, they dig up all the land, ship it to Ontario and put in uncontaminated soil and rock instead. But we will still need some space for fast chargers… and Couche Tard/Circle K is already discussing this and testing it in Norway https://corpo.couche-tard.com/en/circle-k-loves-norway-were-ready/
Faiz imam 15:48 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
Fast chargers are places people want to spend 15 to 45 mins. Contemporary gas stations are not places you want to spend much time.
And since electricity supply can be built almost anywhere, I’m much more interested in agreements with fast food chains and coffee shops.
I’ve used fast chargers at the on route stations on the 401 and they are wonderful.
There is an enormous opportunity to created commercial spaces where people will spend a half hour. But I am not confident that gas station companies will pull it off.
Also, you have to mention that fast chargers are not how most people will charge their cars. In normal daily use people will use slow chargers on the street or in their private area.
Ultimately a decade from now the only places fast chargers would really get used is along major highways.
Joey 16:11 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
Dense neighbourhoods will need a lot more level two chargers before we have fast chargers that are *really* fast (like, fill your battery in 10 minutes fast – there was a piece about some nascent charging tech in the Times this week). And much better enforcement of EV-only parking.
Blork 16:20 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
Doesn’t seem like much of a problem. For one thing, the phase out will be gradual. We know they can re-purpose the land after (an expensive) cleanup. Plus, as others have pointed out, there will still be a need for fast-charging stations, which will likely evolve to be even faster. For all we know, 20 years from now a full charge will be doable in five or ten minutes.
mare 17:35 on 2022-07-21 Permalink
Montreal’s ‘soil’ consists of very fractured rock and can’t really be decontaminated other than by a very time consuming and expensive process similar to fracking where they inject water under high pressure in the cracks and catch the escaping contaminants. I haven’t seen that done when they build condos on plots that were previously gas stations. What they do is let the plot lay fallow for a few years and let it off-gas ‘naturally’ and then dig up the top 5 metres (yay, parking basement!) and pour a cube with concrete walls and floor and some sort of membrane to keep the spills out. The fumes are still there though, looming in the shadows, and eventually they will make it into that basement. However, since it’s a parking basement now, it’ll be very hard to distinguish between the old and the new contaminated air.